Last week’s program was presented by Rotarian Aaron Davis.  Aaron spoke to the club about Cyber Fraud Detection and Prevention.  Cyber terrorism/fraud is at an all-time high.  The greatest targets are in the financial industry; Banks, Mortgage companies, insurance companies and anyone who works with these businesses.  Fraud is the intentional deception of a person or entity by another made for monetary or personal gain.  Companies are now spending billions of dollars in fraud protection.  “Smart Phones” are a “cyber” game changer.  We are all carrying a computer in our pockets.  It is estimated that by 2020, the number of networked devices or the “Internet of Things” will outnumber people by six to one.  Laws are catching up with technology advances but gaps remain, especially when you consider that a criminal might be half way around the world from you.  Groups that tend to be far less protected are much softer targets such as; small to medium sized businesses, High net worth individuals, municipalities and local governments, and home users.  Most fraud takes place through “Hacking” (manual or automated that takes advantages of weaknesses in systems), social engineering, malware, viruses or physical access.  The most damaging compromise tends to be our personal or work e-mail passwords.  With these passwords cyber criminals can gain control of our bank accounts, see what we’re working on, etc. and then interject themselves at an opportune moment.  The examples of “hacking” techniques are infinite and very creative…making it very difficult to determine what is “real”, and what is an attempt to gain information.  Pop up’s , “click here”, enter your password, your account is in default, “hit “next””, pay a fine, invoices are attached…”click here”, a loved one in a foreign country needs money, you have been approved to be a “mystery shopper”, etc.  If it looks too good to be true…It is!  The best strategy to avoid cyber fraud is to be suspicious…consider carefully what you share on line and with whom.  Avoid sharing passwords and develop a strong password scheme…don’t use your “birth date” for everything, etc.   -provided by Mike Arndt

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