ending in gov. Make sure it’s the right website uh to check the status of your tax return or a refund. Um so, you know, don’t click on anything from tax authorities or IRS. Just go to their website, make sure it’s the right website, and uh you’ll be safe that way.
Uh so, you know, this financial exploitation, it can happen to anybody. Um so, if it’s happening to you, uh you’re not alone. uh you shouldn’t feel bad because it’s really tricky out there. Um you know, you want to make sure that uh again you’re pausing and stopping if you uh find anything suspicious in any of your communication, social media, any of your emails, uh etc. So, if somebody contacts you via the phone or internet requesting money, um it’s probably fraud. Uh if somebody, you know, claims that you need to pay taxes or you’re going to win a prize, uh almost certainly fraud. Uh, if they tell you that they’re stuck out of the country, one of your kids, one of your grandkids, uh, they need money, almost always fraud. Um, somebody asks you to use gift cards, wire transfers, cryptocurrency as a form of payment. Uh, bad news, almost fraud. Um, and then, you know, if somebody attempts to scare you by saying you cannot speak to somebody else, then again, be careful. Um, so these are just some common things to watch for. Verify all communications. uh especially when it uh pertains to financial accounts, you know, money uh health information, sensitive information. Uh just be on the watch out.
Here we’re going to go through kind of a little challenge. So um you know there is a knowledge gap in terms of uh many of us out there uh you know staying secure uh keeping up to date and uh you know this little cyber security kind of uh score can help you understand where you’re at. You’re going to go through this um you could take the quiz or uh just kind of follow along either way. Uh but basically uh you want to give yourself five points for each question you answered. Yes. the higher the points uh the better off uh that uh you are the more secure you are uh and you just want to kind of think about you know the there is no pass fail uh it’s not a hard test it’s just you know where you need to to get smarter about cyber security so number one you know you have one email address that you use exclusively for online financial accounts which is banking credit cards have a different email address for those financial accounts uh number two you have two-step verification um um implemented. So, two factor authentication, so turned on for email and online financial accounts. Uh number three, you can spot the difference between um kind of sketchy, dangerous free public Wi-Fi and uh secure free public Wi-Fi. Uh you understand how to tell if your home Wi-Fi network is vulnerable to hackers. Um, you’ve set up uh alerts when uh when money leaves your bank account or your credit cards are charged. Uh, number six, uh, you have complete control over your credit files at the big three bureaus, Equifax, Experian, TransUnion. Number seven, uh, you’ve confirmed with those three credit bureaus um, that uh, your minor children have not been the victim of identity theft and have frozen frozen their credit file. And then lastly, uh always make sure that any computer device has the most up-to-date software, including operating systems, browsers, Microsoft Office, virus protection, um routers, everything. Okay, I’m going to go through uh a whole bunch of suggestions, tips, um ideas for you to stay safer, uh increase your cyber security score. Uh so again, Paul G, I’m going to go through this pretty quickly. Um but these are all just good ideas. uh best practices. Uh again, our email address is the key to our digital lives. You know, you know, we share it with lots of businesses, um organizations, people. If you’ve used the internet for any amount of time, you’ve entered your email address, uh and many different places for shopping, traveling, exercising, gaming, dating. Um and we’re all kind of used to it. Uh sorry, just skipped.
Okay, back. Um, so you want to make sure that uh again if your email address is out there that uh you’re not putting yourself at security uh any kind of significant security risk. U you know hackers try to routinely um you know breach networks um that hold your primary email address and you know try to kind of pair that uh uh information with you know with other things and try to get hold of your data. uh you might not care if uh someone hacks your uh your food network of your uh uh your other account like Yelp or something uh but you certainly don’t want your you know online banking exposed in the same way um this email address um you know if you um decide to kind of follow this rule um you know what you should do is create a secret email address for your financial accounts and you know this email address will be uh only used for your most sensitive information. Uh do not use your first name, last name, initials, other identifying information and make it a strong and unique password. So the first rule of thumb here is create a secret secret email address for your financial accounts that’s different than your other email addresses. And this will help keep you protected.
Um you know, what goes kind of uh part and parcel with your login is a uh a password. And you want to make sure that you are um coming up with strong passwords. Technology is making it easier for us to have stronger passwords. Um but you just want to be diligent about this. Constantly update them. Um you know, there’s some tricks here uh to kind of beat the password paradox. You know, and the paradox is is that um you know, we have so many passwords out there. It takes so much time. Um and uh you know if we have a a simple password it’s easier to hack and we have a compliment complicated password then it’s just going to take much more time to kind of think of it and uh kind of uh manage it. Um kind of fun fact here uh it a computer can crack uh a thousand weak passwords in like 17 minutes. Uh so we’ve all heard the statistics about you know supercomputers being able to crack passwords uh you know and AI and everything else that’s coming uh in the future and and password protection. But you know make sure you’re you know using things like uh pneumonics um to come up with complicated passwords um ask asking um you know using a password manager uh to help you come up with uh complicated passwords. you know, never use the word password uh or one two three four five six kind of goes without saying, but uh lots of people still do that. Uh you know, there are some online, you know, ways to to create complicated passwords. You know, there’s the um again password managers or um uh you know, ways to kind of do it. There’s the diceware method um you know which uh which you kind of roll a dice uh you know five times and record the number and then kind of match it to a password. So lots of different ways. I don’t want to go into you know what works for you but the whole idea is uh make sure that you have a complicated password and make sure that you’re using it don’t have simple passwords. Uh number three enable two-step verification on your email and financial accounts. So this is where you have an additional code uh where you log in u most sites more and more these days have this technology. So when given the choice enable it please uh use it uh because then you’ll get a code to your phone and then you know there’s uh you know something online and something physical that grants access to these sensitive websites. Uh so please do use multiffactor authentication. Uh number four use Wi-Fi with extreme caution. Uh, so you want to avoid, you know, financial transactions, checking email on public Wi-Fi. I know this is an inconvenient and, uh, we’ve all done this. Uh, but the whole idea is that public Wi-Fi is often not secure. Um, you know, you want to use your smartphone as a hot spot whenever possible. Um, use a VPN. Uh, sometimes you’re in a place, you know, maybe at a hotel or something where, um, you don’t have a good signal. Um, so you got to find out workarounds. Uh a VPN is a virtual private network. Helps you kind of uh it gives you a bit of a tunnel uh through the internet to help protect you. Uh so look into that. Come up with a you know find a reputable VPN provider to help you so that you can stay secure and avoid issues with public Wi-Fi. Uh your router at home which is that box that helps you kind of tap into the internet. Um other people can you know log in and guests can log in and have access when they’re at your house. uh make sure that it’s secure. Um you know, encrypt your wireless router, change your username and password. Um there is this thing on there called uh Wi-Fi protected se set setup WPS. You want to disable that. You want to make sure that you’re updating your firmware, which is the software, which is um uh running uh you know um running your hardware and uh uh and operating everything. So, make sure you’re doing off all of this. Research this, you know, figure out how to make your Wi-Fi network more secure.
And then, uh, sign up for, uh, text, email alerts for your credit cards and your bank account so that you know what’s happening inside of those transactions. It only takes a second to get this uh, email or, uh, alert or text, uh, but it will help you. Um, and you know, if you um have a credit card that’s uh stolen or fraudulently used, then um you’ll be alerted. The bank will be happy. You’ll be much happier. It’s less hassle for you. Uh you can set this up online um and then contact your bank or credit card company for help. Number seven, uh credit monitoring and freezing. So, monitor your credit report and freeze your credit. Highly recommend this. go to your um main credit bureaus, Equifax, TransUnion, Experion. Um many of us are not signing up for loans, car loans, mortgages very frequently. Um and as we get older, less so. So there’s really no reason that your credit report needs to be accessible. If you freeze your credit, you have a complicated passcode that uh opens it up um and only you know it, then you’ll be much safer. Nobody can take out a loan or a mortgage in your name. Uh freezing your credit is highly recommended.
Update your software always. Do not um fall asleep on this. You know, somewhere like 40% of computer users don’t up their software in a timely fashion. Don’t be in that 40%. Um you know, like 80% of computer hacks are related to outdated software. Um updates um are very very important. uh they fix bugs, they close security vulnerable vulnerabilities. Uh so make sure auto update when you can and just uh remember to be diligent about this on your phone, off your on your laptop. Depending on which laptop you have, whether um you know uh it’s an Apple uh product or uh maybe a Dell or HP or something like that, you’re going to have different protocols, different security updates and fixes for to manage all of that. Uh but stay on top of that and always update. Uh back up your files. Um so there’s a rule of three. Should back up your files to your computer uh a physical backup device and the cloud. Uh so um you know you have three sources. If your information if your computer crashes crashes, if your information gets stolen, if your device gets stolen, um you can be quickly up and running. Secure your information. um like find my phone, uh find my device on your um on your devices and uh again keep bad actors from accessing your information, shutting down those lost devices and just getting back up and running. Rule number 10, uh there’s a 10-second email rule that you want to remember. Uh so when you see an email, um and use the acronym uh email, E A E M A I L. So examine it, you know, look at the message and inspect the link. Um, you know, you want to look at the subject line, the sender, um, you know, information, the greeting, the grammar, the signature, the attachments, all of these. You know, number one, ask yourself if it makes sense. Ask look at for any typos. Big companies do not make typos. They look at their emails very carefully. Uh, so be suspicious if you see anything fishy. If it’s kind of from a uh you know a um an unknown source, then be even more cautious. If it’s from a known source, you know, hover your um your mouse uh over the um you know, over the sender. Uh you can right click on it and uh you know, check who it’s from. Uh but don’t click on any attachments and things like that. Uh just hover. Um again, 10-second rule. uh don’t uh don’t click on anything uh until you’ve kind of like looked at it, taken your time, paused. Uh fishers will uh you know create uh fraudulent links uh you know again hover your mouse over the link uh to determine whether where it’s coming from. Um so again just follow the rule um you know examine it uh look for inconsistencies and and anything that looks fishy. So there you have it. Um, you know, lots of great tips and ideas for um, you know, for uh, staying safe uh, online, increasing your cyber awareness and cyber security. Uh, but you know, it’s up to all of us. We want to take action and uh, you know, we’ve learned a lot today. Hopefully, use some of these tips and ideas, some of these uh, concepts, strategies are new to you and you’ll implement them uh, and and be smarter and safer online. Uh so um again our hope is that uh you get you know sparrer about your financial planning. Um and here again just another friendly reminder uh if you like this information you know please do sign up for other webinars and then if you’re interested in any of these topics uh including financial planning uh we can work with you um I’m going to launch a poll in a second. You’ll have a chance to uh sign up for a meeting. Um I can answer your questions with regard to planning and investments. uh help you get your financial plan done, help you get your estate plan done. Um if that’s something that you put off, then uh you know, please do reach out or you know, click on the poll, respond yes, and I will uh set up a meeting together and make it as easy as possible for you. Uh so again, lots of different strategies to take advantage of. Uh portfolio management, dividend portfolios, um you know, we’ve got feebased, we’ve got no fee strategies, um everything that uh can help you reach your goals. And like I mentioned, the estate plan is also available to you if you become a client. So with that, I’m going to um you know, launch the poll. Um, so if you’d like to uh follow up with a one-to-one meeting or uh ask any questions, uh take advantage of our services, uh think about investments, um you know, please do respond yes and I’ll reach out and we’ll schedule something. Okay, with that, um you know, I have a chat uh up and running also um a Q&A. So uh if you have any questions uh following today’s discussion or on any topic regard with respect to financial planning um just put into the uh the Q&A put it into the chat and I’ll do my best to uh uh respond.
Uh somebody mentioned that uh Firefox as a browser has a VPN built in. Um so I didn’t know that. Thanks for mentioning that. um that’s something to investigate. So if um you know built-in VPN is a good idea again, virtual private network. So uh do your homework and kind of Google that to look at uh you know how that works before um you know you use it. Firefox is a smaller company browser but that doesn’t mean it’s not good. Um so I wasn’t aware of that. Thanks for mentioning that. and uh you know um you know another option for you uh versus Google um Google Chrome or um Internet Explorer. Uh so there’s other B uh browsers out there.
Another person here um I read not to use your cell phone number for two way authentication. Hacker stealing your cell phone number calling bank and using your cell phone to verify uh prove they are the account holder. you know about this precautions um I have heard about this um you know it is an issue it is a risk out there um you know two-way authentication um it is extra protection and uh you know if the hacker has stolen your phone number um you know they’re pretty sophisticated um and then you need to kind of you know have even more steps you’ll figure out pretty quickly if uh you know that two-way authentication is not working um I can tell you that the banks are still using um you can use kind of uh you know there’s some apps online uh Microsoft has one I think it’s called authenticator u some apps online that are another option um to provide uh you know verification u so you can look into those programs or apps as well if you’re not comfortable um you know with two-factor multiffactor authentication um you know but you the the responsibility is on all of us uh I would say two-way authentication is better than nothing uh and certainly is an elevated level of security. But if you want to take it to the next level and the bad guys are always getting smarter, then you know then then great, you know, fully support that. Um so again, it’s up to all of us to educate ourselves, our family, our spouses if they’re not techsavvy, help them, you know, get smarter about this, you know, talk about it at the dinner table. Uh and technology is always changing. So again the latest technology is u you know some authenticator apps uh you can look into that as well uh but multiffactor authentication is still used by the bank. So it is a kind of added level of security that you want to consider.
Okay. Uh that looks like all the questions. Uh not a lot of financial planning questions uh today. Um so I’ll post my contact information. Uh again thank you so much for joining us today. Um, again, my door is always open if you have any questions. Hopefully enjoyed today’s information. Um, my phone number 213-320860.
Uh, thanks very much for everybody that signed up for a meeting. Uh, I’ll be in touch and we can schedule that. In the meantime, look forward to seeing you at the next webinar uh, next week and have a great weekend. Take care.