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...