Cybersecurity experts have said that the 2020 global pandemic created the ideal conditions for a 2021 Cyber pandemic. It changed things so rapidly that it has become impossible to respond to online threats and cyber-attacks the way we used to. 2022 is almost over and we are still feeling the impact. In this post, we’ll provide you with a breakdown of this new situation and explain in simple terms why it’s so important for you to act.
How 2020 Changed the Cyber-security Landscape
Technology experts believe that the commercial response to the pandemic accelerated the digital transformation of our society by about 7 years. The rapid transition to working from home presented IT professionals with unique challenges for securing corporate data networks on an epic scale. Cybercriminals took advantage of these changes immediately and responded with a cascade of cyberattacks, even taking advantage of the beleaguered healthcare sector while hospitals were overwhelmed by sick and suffering patients. With people regularly working from home 2 years later, businesses are trusting individuals to be responsible with their data.
With people working, buying, and selling from home, the sheer number of attack points has increased. Companies are unable to secure every vulnerability since employee home networks are never going to be as secure. The increased communication by email also created more attack points for tricking employees into giving away sensitive information. Data breaches made ransomware attacks more prevalent and profitable than ever.
As more of the things we use every day become internet-enabled “smart” devices, the attack points and vectors increase dramatically. There’s really no way back to the old way of thinking.
The Old Way Vs. The New Way
The old way of thinking is to protect your identity against cyber-attacks the same way we would protect a building from physical attacks with “walls,” “fences,” and cyber shields. It hinders our ease of use to use too many fences. Since hackers are smarter at cybercrime than you are, it takes significant effort and information on your part to protect yourself. It’s not a matter of if, but when they get your information.
And that means it’s time to get proactive by feeding misinformation to cyber-thieves!
We believe the best defense is a good offense where your identity is temporary and misleading only to cyber criminals. Using a temporary Online ID, Credit Card, or Phone number is a great way to protect your true identity. We know of numerous tools to help you feed misinformation while conducting business as usual on the Internet.
Anonyome Labs
Anonyome Labs was created to give people control and freedom over their personal and private information. They believe that people should be able to determine how, what, and with whom they share their personal details. They build the tools to empower consumers with the necessary capabilities to protect and control their digital information. Anonyome Labs puts control back into users’ hands through mobile and desktop applications.
“Privacy will be the defining topic of this decade.” – Anoyome Labs
Modern people rely on the Internet for managing their lives, requiring personally identifiable information to use a wide array of services that make life happen. The Anoyme Labs solution is to provide a platform that enables a next-generation approach to security and privacy. The key component of their approach are fake digital identities that they cleverly call “Sudos.” Using and interacting with them reduces the amount of personal information you need to navigate today’s digital world. You can keep your activity smoothly without unnecessary disclosure or collection.
Abine’s premier solutions are Blur and DeleteMe. With smart tools and a minimal interface, Blur and DeleteMe help you remain anonymous and let you decide who gets your private information and who doesn’t.
DeleteMe
Have you ever considered that data brokers are selling your personal info? If you do a Google search for your name or for the names of those you love, you’ll probably receive unnerving results. DeleteMe accomplishes just what its name implies so that you can eliminate your personally identifiable information from places you don’t want it on the web.
Simply submit your personal information for removal from search Engines. DeleteMe experts find and remove it. You’ll receive a detailed report in about 7 days. It will show you the multitude of databases that DeleteMe scanned, what they found, and what they’re doing to remove it. Your personal listings will be removed from each database within a month.
Abine suggests that you could go through and opt out of a few of these databases yourself, but they are aware of thousands of places where your information is located and you aren’t. The benefit of using DeleteMe is that they continue to search for new information while you remain protected by the service. They do the work on your behalf so that you can have privacy and peace of mind without the hassle of keeping up with it all.
DeleteMe keeps your information off personal information brokerage websites such as Spokeo, Peoplelooker, AnyWho, PeopleSmart, Truthfinder, identityPi.com, and more.
Blur
Blur was created with one simple mission: to make it easier to manage and protect your identity without sacrificing convenience. Blur secures all the personal information you put online making it safe, fast, and easy to login and checkout on all your devices. Blur has a premium version and a free version. The Free version allows you to save and auto-fill information and create unique, strong passwords for every account. Blur Premium allows you to do all the following:
- Masked Credit Card – mask your true credit card with a virtual credit card and burn the virtual credit card at any time.
- Encrypted Passwords – Easily generate a unique, strong password for every account. Passwords sync across devices and fill in automatically when you want to log in.
- Masked Email – Give websites Masked Emails, and then receive emails privately or block spam easily. Stay anonymous.
- Tracker Blocker – Most websites allow third parties to monitor your activity. Blur automatically blocks tracking scripts, targeting images, and other tracking technologies.
- Auto-Fill – Fill out any online form with a click. Auto-fill your Masked emails, passwords, credit cards, addresses, and more.
- Masked Phone – Use a virtual phone number to hide your real phone number.
- Backup and Sync – Backup all your private and virtual information on your computer and sync across all devices.
Lookout
Lookout is a mobile app designed to keep personal information secure on mobile devices on every level, including the apps and services you use and the networks you connect to.
Some of the more powerful features of this app are part of the Premium Plus subscription, and we highly recommend it. Lookout monitors the dark web for your personal and financial account information and recommends actions you can take to protect yourself. If your Driver’s License # or SSN shows up, they’ll let you know.
Your mobile phone will be an asset in protecting you, instead of a liability. If your credit card or bank account information shows up online, you’ll be notified immediately, and you can act immediately from your device. You can also act immediately if you lose your wallet or any of your cards with Lookout’s lost wallet protection service.
Another feature of Premium Plus is a service that provides Identity Restoration and up to $1 Million dollars in identity theft insurance due to damage resulting from your device being stolen.
A great strength of the app is the developer’s cybersecurity posture toward the thousands of apps that people use on their smartphones. Lookout reviews all dimensions of app risks including code construction, permissions, behavior, malware, network traffic, and vulnerabilities. Also, it protects you from undesirable attacks hidden inside the software on your phone.
Lookout is effectively an all-in-one mobile security, identity theft protection, and device theft protection app that’s worth investing in.
Jumbo
The concept of Jumbo is simple. It analyzes your social media accounts and makes privacy and security-based recommendations for making your identity safe online. The scans happen on a set schedule because policies and features are always changing.
The app manages your privacy on the following services: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google, and Amazon. In the future, Jumbo plans to manage your privacy on Instagram and Tinder as well. It will also scan the web for data breaches and for your information on the dark web, but these last two features are part of a premium subscription plan.
On Facebook, you can have it automatically delete your searches, archive your posts, block specific advertisers, block ad tracking, archive old messages, and hide your relationship status, among other things.
On Twitter, you can use Jumbo to automatically archive posts. Anyone familiar with the way old Tweets often come back to haunt a user can see the value in this feature. But it can also keep cybercriminals from profiling you. Your Tweets aren’t gone forever because you can save them in the cloud for your future personal reference without keeping them available to prying eyes.
Jumbo has seen many quality enhancements and additional features added to its repertoire, so you can be sure that Jumbo will continue to protect you for years to come.
Burner
Business owners want to share their contact information with confidence. And if you like to shop around for vendors, consultants, or service providers to enhance your business, you can expect to receive many calls.
With Burner, you create a fake telephone number for any situation so that the other party doesn’t know your actual mobile number. You can ditch a number any time and rid yourself of unwanted calls.
Burner is a second phone number app for calling, texting and picture messaging. Stay safe and anonymous when you give out your number. Burner reroutes calls coming to your Burner temporary phone number and sends them to your cell phone, so your personal number stays private.
The more you share your personal information with the world, the easier it is for cybercrooks to find it and do some real damage, so it only makes sense to do as much as you can to prevent it. It’s critical to diversify your protection with the best services and products to cover your different devices and technology.
Obviously, this is an excellent tool for protecting your identity, and it also prevents you from having your phone blow up with unwanted calls.
Privacy
Privacy.com works like a password manager or a virtual private network for shopping online. It comes between you and the online business so that you can make purchases with total anonymity. When you pay, Privacy uses a one-time credit card number with no connection to you. The store is charging “Privacy.com” and not you, leaving them with no idea that you bought something from them.
Using Privacy.com, you can create secure virtual cards for each place you spend money online. It completes checkout forms for you, saving you time and money while masking your real card details.
You can also take control of your subscriptions and other recurring payments. Set limits for how much a company can charge you with each transaction. Privacy won’t let you fall prey to suspicious price hikes or accidental purchases. You could even give your children an allowance for how much they can spend online each month.
You can even delete individual virtual cards anytime you want.
One thing to note, Privacy.com won’t allow you to use your actual credit card as a funding source. It will have to draw from your bank account or debit card. It really is a virtual credit card in this regard.
Privacy includes technical advisors from some of the top payments and security companies (American Express, Expensify, Palantir), and they’re bringing that expertise to Privacy. Privacy is PCI-DSS compliant and is held to the same rigorous security standards as your bank.
