Open Source Intelligence 101

Instagram is a great social media network if you love sharing pictures with your friends and family as well as the rest of the world, however, Instagram, just like all the other social media platforms out there can open you up to privacy and security risks. It is important that you know how to protect yourself, here are three ways to stay safe and secure on Instagram… Switch your account to private. Take an easy step to ensure your own privacy by changing your account to private and only your followers will be able to see your posts, here’s how: - Go to your profile and tap on the person icon on the bottom right corner of your screen. - Tap on the Settings gear icon. - Select Privacy and Security and then Account Privacy. - Switch on Private Account. Block specific followers. If you have some annoying followers, don’t worry you can block specific people from seeing your posts and they won’t even be notified that they’ve been blocked. Here’s how: - Tap Fol...

Imagine you’re working on something important and all of a sudden you start seeing multiple pop-up ads, plus your files or apps are taking ages to load. You start to ask yourself, is my computer infected with malware? It can happen to anyone of us, so always be extra careful! If your computer starts acting up, it could be compromised with a virus or malware; however, this is just one of the many warning signs that could mean that your computer is infected. This is why it is vital to take action as quick as possible. Here are the 13 most common warning signs of a malware infection on your computer. 1. Your computer is running slowly and your apps and files take longer to load than usual. 2. You keep getting blasted with pop-up ads or strange messages on your computer. 3. Your computer keeps crashing and/or it freezes and the blue screen of death appears. 4. You start getting this message on a regular basis, “you’re running out of disk space on Windows.” 5...

Thanks to the internet, these days it is so easy to just about anything, such as booking travel reservations! However, every year the amount of fake travel booking websites grows because it is so easy for cybercriminals to scam consumers. According to recent surveys, about 15 million online reservations are made every year on fake travel websites! That means that these websites trick people into thinking they are booking their reservation, but instead they are allowing cybercriminals to steal their private data such as their money and credit card information. Here’s how to avoid online travel scams… 1. When making a booking always go directly to the company’s official website, whether it is for a hotel, airline, airport shuttle service ( www.asct.co.za ) , etc. if you’re not sure if it’s the real website or not, give them a call to verify their website. 2. If you do need to use a third=party website, make sure it is a trusted and well-known brand. 3. Always try ...

If you have any sort of common sense you would know that there isn’t a prince or member of a royal African family that wants to send you their millions with no strings attached! However, even though this sort of scam has been ongoing for many years, the overall principals of a spam scam are still going strong and continue to grow and become more malicious each and every day. These are 4 of the most popular spam scams that like to pretend to come from an actual legitimate source, often tricking unknowing people into clicking on links and opening dangerous attachments. Fake password changes One of the most common scams is the password change alert or confirmation email that users will receive either from their bank, social media network or another trusted source. The scammers will trick the users into thinking their accounts have been hacked and urge them to click on a link or open a malicious attachment to reset their password. False bookings These scams ap...

Hackers, scammers and cybercriminals love the holiday season because it gives them the chance to take advantage of the crazy holiday shopping and make a nice profit out of unknowing shoppers. By using phishing scams, online scammers take advantage of the fact that your email inbox is so full of holiday specials and offers that you won’t think twice before clicking on a malicious link. Here are 5 scams to keep an eye out for this holiday season… Receipts and invoices. A lot of people do their shopping online these days and during the holiday season, there is a huge increase in online receipts and invoices that shoppers will receive via email. Scammers will hide malicious code in an attachment or link and shoppers won’t think twice when clicking on an attachment that’s apparently from Amazon! Shipping status. Just like the fake receipts and invoices, fake shipping status alerts are a great way for scammers to trick shoppers into thinking there is a problem with their...

Do not get suckered by an online scam this holiday season! We all love a good online deal, but do you know who else loves and online deal? Cybercriminals and scammers looking for an easy opportunity to trick you just like the Grinch! So how can you shop safely online this holiday season? Here are eight helpful tips to keep you safe… 1. Stay away from ransomware. Don’t ever open email attachments from a shopping website that are not trusted or well-known and be sure to back up your files on a regular basis just in case you do get infected with ransomware. 2. Be wary of phishing scams. Never, ever click on a link that is sent unexpectedly through email, SMS or other messengers such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. 3. Always use strong passwords. Use a combination of letters, numbers, special symbols as well as upper and lower case letters to ensure that your password is strong and harder for hackers to figure out. 4. Only shop on safe websites. Before you mak...

Twitter has gone from a silly, novelty social media platform to a source of news and information that almost everyone uses! But just like other social media networks, Twitter is full of trolls and scammers who aim to harass and provoke you. You need to know how to avoid scams and trolls on Twitter, here’s how. 1. Don’t be scared to block. It is vital that you know how and when to block someone, whether they are spamming you or bullying, you need to get rid of them before you end up infected with dangerous followers. The sooner you block the spammers or trolls, the better! 2. Don’t get hacked. Twitter accounts get hacked on a regular basis, so it is vital that you keep your account safe by using a strong password that has different numbers, symbols as well as upper and lowercase letters. It is best to use two-factor authentication. Even if it takes longer, it’s worth it to keep your account safe. 3. Don’t be fooled by trending topics. Twitter created trending t...

Social media users continue to grow every day, with a shocking annual increase of 17%! Massive amounts of data such as photos and posts are shared every day, some of it interesting and some of it pointless, let’s take a look at the 5 golden rules every social media user should always keep in mind… Ignore the trolls. Internet trolls are there to irritate you for fun and you can find them just about anywhere from chats to online forums. What should you do when you spot a troll? Just ignore them! Lots of people like to take the bait and start an intense debate, but someone will always be wrong so don’t waste your time and energy. Don’t post anything illegal. Did you know that you can be fined in New Zealand for trolling and cyberbullying? In other countries posts and reposts on social media networks can have all sorts of serious consequences, so always think before you post something on social media. It may seem like a joke to you at the time, but you should always kee...

The pyramid scheme has been ongoing for many years, but still, so many people continue to fall for this scheme! Why? Because it’s hard to resist an offer that promises easy money without much effort! Here’s how to spot a pyramid scheme and steer clear to avoid being defrauded. - If you ever hear the words “no risk” or “guaranteed returns” then start running! There is no such thing as an investment without any risk. Even if you keep your money under your bed there is still some sort of risk of losing it. - Almost all pyramid schemes will convince you that you’ll get incredibly high returns. Your best bet is to use the repo rate as a baseline to compare, this is usually 6.75%, so if the return rate is more than that then it’s most certainly a scam! - Do not be scared to ask the person or broker offering these investment lots of questions. Ask how long they’ve been involved, what qualifications they have, etc. Don’t be shy to interrogate them! - If you have to in...

In short, a pyramid scheme is an illegal scheme that promises you will get rich, but in fact, it just ends up costing you money. You may have heard about pyramid schemes through friends, family or old school pals you haven’t spoken to in years. The scheme will usually convince people to pay to join and then convince others to join and pay as well. In order for people to start making money they need to get a certain amount of people to join, but the truth is that’ll never happen! Those who are at the top of the pyramid scheme make their money by convincing others to join the scheme, but the truth is they pocket the fees of those who are joining and when the scheme falls apart relationships are damaged over the money that has been lost. Never promote or take part in a pyramid scheme no matter how amazing it may seem! Here are some warning signs of a pyramid scheme: - Someone tries to convince you to join a group, scheme or team where you will need to recruit mor...

Let’s face it, scammers are everywhere. On our social media platforms, websites, and emails and even on dating apps and sites, including the ones you may know and trust. Because of online dating scammers, you need to pay attention and look out for these four online dating scam signs… Spelling and grammar errors. If the person you are chatting to is English speaking, but their conversations are full of terrible spelling and continuous grammar errors then be wary. Obviously not everyone speaks English as their native language, but scammers often like to cross borders online in search of foreign victims, so spelling and grammar errors are a red flag. Copy and paste. Some messages and emails may read way too well if so be wary! Scammers love to steal information and content from other dating profiles and just paste them into their own so they don’t have to bother to write their own. If the text looks too perfect, run it through an internet search and see what pops up. ...