Robert Siciliano Personal Security & Cyber Security Speaker and Expert

Joining me now, Robert Siciliano, CEO of IDS.

Security expert Robert Siciliano says your ATM may be hacked.

I'm armed with the info to help you burn the bad guy.

I'm Robert Siciliano and I'm a personal security expert. Criminals are looking for victims who are naive. They're looking for people who are unsuspecting, who ultimately think that it can't happen to them. People who have their guard down, who aren't paying attention to their sixth sense, that feeling that would empower them, that would allow them to recognize the fact that they may have a bad guy in their presence.

There is a part of our population, we call them one-percenters. They are the human predators that live amongst us. There always has been, there is, and there will always be this criminal element out there looking for their next victim. Your job is not to become their prey.

Bangladesh bank officials' computer was hacked to carry out an $81 million heist. This happened in May of 2016. Ultimately, that money was funneled out of a half a dozen fake bank accounts that were set up in the Philippines, and this hack occurred as a result of an employee in a company, in a bank, clicking the link in the body of an email. How many of you have clicked a link in the body of an email? Every one of you. We're going to explain how phishing attacks and social engineering contribute to you contributing to the fraud. And every single one of us and our bank accounts and our employer's bank account are at risk for this type of a crime. The reason why these data breaches happen is because a lack of security appreciation from frontline employees all the way up to the CEO and the IT people and the security people in the middle. Security appreciation is our ability or want or need or desire to appreciate security at the level that it needs to be in order for us to effectively do our jobs, we don't actually become victims so that we recognize risk on a daily basis. P.T. Barnum once said that there's a sucker born every minute. I don't agree. I think every single one of us at some level are potential suckers. Every one of us, including me. It's just a matter of what are your trigger points, what's your pressure points, how can they get access to you, what would make you give up that data or click that link. How many of you have Gmail? A lot of you. So if you go to the settings section, there is a tab called forwarding, and in forwarding you can actually plug in an email address where all of your incoming and outgoing emails will go, will forward out of your inbox or sent email. Let's say your Gmail is hacked and you change your password. There could still be somebody getting all of your Gmails if within your Gmail they set up forwarding without you knowing it. You wanna go into that forwarding tab occasionally to make sure that nobody has broken into your email and they're forwarding your emails elsewhere. So I did a presentation to some real estate agents last year, and I explained that, how that works, you have to check the forwarding tab. And while I was doing that, a real estate agent on her laptop checked out her Gmail forwarding And she came up to me at the end of the presentation all freaked out, and she said to me, "So I checked out my forwarding, and I saw an email address in the forwarding tab, right, from a guy that I dated 3 years ago that I got a restraining order against. And he's been getting my emails for the past 3 or more years as far as I know." freaked out. Could you imagine?

And then there's identity theft.

Identity thieves scammed more than 11 million Americans last year and walked away with billions. And the numbers are getting worse.

Most people are worried about getting ripped off on the streets. I've got news for you. One of the top places people are getting burned is in their own homes.

The data is out there for the taking. With a quick search and the right tools, I search Mark Sanborn, Laura Stack, and it's not too difficult to determine they live in the close proximity of each other. With another couple of minutes and the right search, you could find photos of vehicles in the driveway with license registration numbers. With that information, You get name, address, phone, email, cell phone, birthdate. From there, potentially you can get Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, and tax forms. With that information, a criminal hacker can then go and create new lines of credit, take over existing lines, and even tax identity theft. There are a number of things you can do to protect yourself. I'll give you two.

Robert, what's your number one tip to help people prevent extreme identity theft? So after the fact, it's very difficult to clean up the mess. One in four victims never actually clean up their identity mess. So being proactive and getting a credit freeze right now is probably the best thing that you can do.

What's a credit freeze?

Yeah.

So if you go to the 3 major credit bureaus, Experian, TransUnion, Equifax, you fill out documentation, you provide an affidavit and a small fee, and when you freeze your credit, it basically locks down your credit so that nobody can open up any new financial accounts under your name. Now when you want to thaw or unlock your credit, then you can go ahead and get credit. But if the bad guy can't get financial accounts under your name, chances are they're going to move on to another potential victim. Mm. And that doesn't affect your credit in any way, right, by freezing it? It does not negatively affect your credit at all. It's probably the best way to protect yourself from complete identity theft.

The average identity theft victim gets tagged for $5,000, and the easiest targets are your kids.

So companies like McAfee, they monitor your kid's identity 24 hours a day. Like any PC, your mobile phone can get spyware. Spyware is software that allows the bad guy to record all your phone calls, emails, text messages, videos, and photos. The best thing to do is to reinstall your phone's operating system, and then from that point on, install antivirus. The independent ATMs are the ones that you see in gas stations, hotel lobbies, convenience stores, various municipal areas, and, you know, downtown areas where there's entertainment and so forth. The ATM ATM industry, like the independent ATMs, it's a relatively unregulated industry.

Stop before you swipe.

Consumers should be suspicious of every ATM machine.

Personal security expert Robert Siciliano says your ATM may be rogue, giving crooks access to your life savings.

It doesn't matter if it's a standalone at a convenience store or at a bank branch, they're all vulnerable.

Karen DiMartino found out the hard way.

Basically, they just wiped out my checking account.

Crooks ripped off $2,500 from Karen. You see, every time you swipe, you're leaving behind a mountain of personal information.

The magnetic strip is everything a criminal needs to clone your card.

Scam number 1: our security expert purchased a used ATM online. No regulations, no problem. If he were a criminal, he'd just drop that ATM off and put it to work. Well, that's just what we did.

Hey, stop! You're about to get scammed. It is pretty shocking. I had no idea that some of these are actually fake.

Scam number 2: Robert also discovered over 1,000 card numbers stored on that used machine.

These right here are potential victims.

Scam number 3: the elaborate scheme includes outfitting any ATM with a cleverly hidden mini camera that displays your personal ATM code.

This is being recorded by the remote camera by a criminal hacker up to a mile away.

The thieves also affix an almost undetectable a detectable skimming device on the slot where you swipe or insert your card. Now the information you swiped is downloaded onto a computer and then burned onto a blank ATM card. Protect yourself. Watch out for protruding devices attached to the card slot. Check under mirrors and envelope holders to make sure there are no hidden cameras, and use your hand to cover—

the point is, do not use the independent ATMs because anybody can— anybody can get into it. Don't worry about credit card fraud. Don't. I don't worry about credit card fraud. I use my credit card everywhere. You cannot protect your credit cards. But what you do is you check out your statements. You can get your paper statements monthly, or you can sign up for alerts and notifications via your credit card company's website. And/or via the mobile app. I get a text message every single time I charge something, or every single time my wife charges something. That said, I get a text message, you know, $1.99 was just charged at Sally Beauty. I didn't shop at Sally Beauty. So I send my honey a text, I'm like, honey, did you just, you know, spend $1.99 at Sally Beauty? She sends me back a text message, she's like, you stalking me again? I'm like, no, I just wanna know if it was you. She's like, yes, it was me, I'm busy, leave me alone. So I, know that she's making this charge because she told me. I'm aware of it in real time, and that way, you know, if there's a problem, it wasn't her. I can call the bank immediately, credit card company, and say, hey, that wasn't us, and refute that charge immediately. The AP's Twitter feed gets hacked. The Syrian army tweets out, "Breaking: Two explosions in the White House. Barack Obama is injured." As a result of the tweet, this happens: a 150-point drop, $136 billion market value in the Dow Industrial Average.

Look at that.

I mean, you can see the timeline. It's all right there. Bang! From a tweet.

This right here.

MI6 chief blows his cover as wife's Facebook page announces and reveals family holidays. It showed Sir John Sawyers, the CIA director of the MI6, basically, in the UK, in a speedo by the lake with his grandkids. Location, GPS coordinates, the whole thing. His wife is directly compromising national security with her Facebook page. And here's the thing: You're doing the same thing. When we were young, we'd hear, you know, the Cold War, the KGB, they're infiltrating corporations and government agencies. They are the mole on the inside, right? Today, we are the mole on the inside, every one of us, and the medium is social media, and we're giving it away. What you do on social is huge. It matters. People are paying attention. This is no BS. This is the real deal. Be aware of the dangers: cyberbullying, kidnappers, stalkers, thieves, terrorists, hackers, phishers, scammers, enemy organizations, pedophiles. 750,000 registered sex offenders are also on social.

There always has been, there is, and there will always be this criminal element out there. Your job is to put those systems in place, alright? And when it's all said and done, don't worry about anything I've said. Really. But do something about it. Thank you.