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Cybersecurity: Protecting You and Your Finances from Digital Threats · Money In Motion with Klaas Financial

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Speaker 1: And our phone lines they are open for you right
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Speaker 1: now if you've got a question for our retirement planning
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Speaker 1: professionals from Class Financial join this week by CJ. Closs
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Speaker 1: and Eric Schwartz. They'd love to chat with you. All
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Speaker 1: I gotta do is pick up phone gifts. Call this
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Speaker 1: morning number to get on the air six soh eight
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Speaker 1: three two one thirteen ten. That's six soh eight three
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Speaker 1: about cybersecurity, but any type of retirement related question. The
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Speaker 1: air and get your question answered again. Telephone number six
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Speaker 1: oh eight three two one thirteen ten. That's six oh
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Speaker 1: You have a chance to check out the website class
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Speaker 1: financial dot com. If you haven't been there yet, head
0:37
Speaker 1: on over today. It's coss klaas financial dot com. While
0:41
Speaker 1: you're there, you can learn more about Colss Financial, you
0:43
Speaker 1: can learn about Eric, you can learn about CJ and
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Speaker 1: everyone at Class Financial. Also learn about their separate divisions
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Speaker 1: how they can help you or if you're an employer,
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Speaker 1: two five six three seven. That's six oh eight four
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Speaker 1: four two five six three seven. No charge for the
1:02
Speaker 1: initial gets no the aployment dech co loss financial. It
1:04
Speaker 1: will be complimentary to you. And joining us this morning
1:07
Speaker 1: are CJ Class and Eric Schwartz. CJ, how you doing
1:10
Speaker 1: this week?
1:11
Speaker 3: I'm doing great, Sean? How are you?
1:12
Speaker 1: I'm doing really well. Great to chat with you. Eric,
1:15
Speaker 1: how have you bet? Did you get a little time off?
1:16
Speaker 1: Did you take a vacation? I did?
1:20
Speaker 2: I did? I was off last week, So I'm I'm
1:22
Speaker 2: happy to back be back on the show.
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Speaker 1: Great to have both of you along and welcome back.
1:27
Speaker 1: And we've got a conversation about cybersecurity and oh my goodness,
1:32
Speaker 1: I was, you know, going over the show notes the
1:34
Speaker 1: other day and as a as a tech nerd, I was,
1:37
Speaker 1: I was shocked by some of the stuff out there.
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Speaker 1: So you're definitely gonna want to pay very close attention
1:42
Speaker 1: this week's program for a couple of reasons. As mentioned,
1:45
Speaker 1: a great opportunity to learn some stuff and protect yourself. Also,
1:48
Speaker 1: speaking of great opportunities and why you want to pay
1:50
Speaker 1: close attention, each and every week, we do the Closs
1:52
Speaker 1: Quiz question week. This week no exception, our friends from
1:55
Speaker 1: class Financil have provided a twenty five dollars gift card
1:58
Speaker 1: to Amazon. Tell you a bit later on the program
2:00
Speaker 1: how you can win with the class Quiz Question week
2:03
Speaker 1: little tip. It always benefits you for a couple of reasons,
2:05
Speaker 1: as mentioned to listen closely to the program, but also
2:08
Speaker 1: I'll give you a little leg up on everybody else
2:10
Speaker 1: because most of the time the question answer with Class
2:12
Speaker 1: Quiz Question Week come up during the program, and before
2:15
Speaker 1: we start our conversation this week about cybersecurity, let's actually
2:19
Speaker 1: look back to last week and get the class Quiz
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Speaker 1: Question the week question and answer there as well.
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Speaker 2: Eric. Yes, thank you to everybody for listening, and special
2:29
Speaker 2: congratulations to Connor from Madison who was our winner last week.
2:34
Speaker 2: And the question was it was a true false. Many
2:37
Speaker 2: small business owners are looking at selling their business to
2:40
Speaker 2: fund their retirement and the answer to that was true.
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Speaker 2: So congratulations Connor.
2:45
Speaker 1: Great work, Connor, really good, really good program last week.
2:49
Speaker 1: Don't think you can always listen back at Clossfinancial dot com.
2:52
Speaker 1: That's Class k l aas Financial dot com. So we're
2:57
Speaker 1: talking cybersecurity this week, and of course, given that lost
3:00
Speaker 1: financial you guys are in the retirement planning and investment
3:02
Speaker 1: management business, that's what your firm does. Now, Typically we
3:06
Speaker 1: talk about things directly related to that industry and that
3:09
Speaker 1: specialty like investment, social security, medicare, and so on. Today's show, though,
3:14
Speaker 1: we're going to be kind of going a little bit
3:15
Speaker 1: of a different direction discussing cybersecurity and how to protect
3:19
Speaker 1: your personal finances against digital threats. Let's kind of break down, CJ,
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Speaker 1: what we need to know here.
3:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, Sean. So typically during Money in Motion
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Speaker 3: we discuss topics native to our industry, like you've mentioned, investments,
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Speaker 3: insurance of state planning, taxes, banking, cash flow, so on
3:35
Speaker 3: and so forth, and certainly we're not moving away from
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Speaker 3: that as a broad theme. However, there has been so
3:42
Speaker 3: much of an uptick recently over the just over the
3:44
Speaker 3: past few years in digital threats that we decided to
3:48
Speaker 3: detquete an entire show to the topic. So as we
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Speaker 3: approach this topic, we do want to remind everyone that
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Speaker 3: we are not cybersecurity experts, and we do not offer
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Speaker 3: any cybersecurity service for a fee at Class Financial. We do, however,
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Speaker 3: manage a lot of clients private information that requires us
4:07
Speaker 3: to invest heavily in our own cybersecurity measures. Furthermore, we
4:11
Speaker 3: often get a front row seat to some pretty terrible
4:14
Speaker 3: behaviors around cybersecurity, which has led us to recognize our
4:18
Speaker 3: need for better education to our clients and then of
4:20
Speaker 3: course to the public through this radio show about protecting
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Speaker 3: your personal finances from digital threats.
4:28
Speaker 1: Talking this morning with CJ Closs and Eric Schwartz, our
4:30
Speaker 1: retirement planning professionals from Class Financial and great work for CJ.
4:34
Speaker 1: They're kind of laying out what we're going to talk about,
4:36
Speaker 1: so CJ to start, what are some of those common
4:39
Speaker 1: threats that people should be aware of when it comes
4:41
Speaker 1: to their finances.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, good questions. So the most common digital threats are
4:47
Speaker 3: and in these terms are going to be odd, but
4:48
Speaker 3: don't worry, we'll break them down. The most common digital
4:51
Speaker 3: threats are phishing, smishing, fishing, malware, and identity theft. So
4:59
Speaker 3: let's dig in these just a little bit so you
5:01
Speaker 3: better understand what each of those what each of those
5:04
Speaker 3: kind of means. And I encourage you as I'm going
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Speaker 3: through each of these, think to yourself, have I experienced this?
5:10
Speaker 3: Because I'm willing to bet that if you kind of
5:12
Speaker 3: pay attention during the show and we go through this,
5:14
Speaker 3: you're going to go, oh, yeah, I've seen that before.
5:16
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I've seen that before, And some of you
5:19
Speaker 3: may even say, yeah, I clicked on that before or
5:21
Speaker 3: I responded to that before. So the first one is phishing.
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Speaker 3: This is a type of cybercrime where attackers try to
5:28
Speaker 3: trick you into revealing some sensitive information like usernames, passwords,
5:32
Speaker 3: and credit card details, often by disguising themselves as a
5:36
Speaker 3: trustworthy entity. In an electronic communication. They might send you
5:40
Speaker 3: an email that looks like it's coming from your bank
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Speaker 3: or a popular online service, or even a government agency,
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Speaker 3: containing a link to a fake website that looks legitimate.
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Speaker 3: Once you enter your details, the attacker captures your information.
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Speaker 3: I'll give you two examples simply. I've gotten one from
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Speaker 3: what looked like bank, and I've gotten one from what
6:01
Speaker 3: looked like Amazon. Now I've gone through pretty extensive training
6:06
Speaker 3: on not clicking on anything and navigating to websites. In
6:09
Speaker 3: a couple of those cases, I could immediately tell because
6:12
Speaker 3: the logo was a little odd and they were asking
6:14
Speaker 3: me to reset my password, which typically they don't send
6:17
Speaker 3: you an email to do that unless in anyway. So
6:20
Speaker 3: I was able to figure it out, but I will
6:23
Speaker 3: tell you it's getting harder and harder, and so we're
6:27
Speaker 3: not going to go into all the solutions for this,
6:28
Speaker 3: but I can just tell you phishing so again, sending
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Speaker 3: out all these emails from sources that you and I
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Speaker 3: might think are credible, think Social Security Administration right, or
6:37
Speaker 3: think the IRS. All of us would want to respond
6:40
Speaker 3: to emails from those entities, but often they're actually not
6:44
Speaker 3: from those entities. They're from cyber attackers. The next kind
6:48
Speaker 3: is smishing SMI shing. This is similar to phishing, but
6:54
Speaker 3: uses SMS text messages. You might receive a text message
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Speaker 3: claiming there's an issue with your bank account, onto a
7:00
Speaker 3: package being delivered or a prize you've won, urging you
7:03
Speaker 3: to click on a link or call a number, And
7:06
Speaker 3: of course these links or the phone number leads to
7:08
Speaker 3: a malicious website or a malicious you know a person
7:11
Speaker 3: on the other end of the line to either download
7:13
Speaker 3: malware or to obtain your Social Security number and date
7:17
Speaker 3: of birth. I've gotten two of these just in the
7:19
Speaker 3: last week, FYI, So this is not uncommon at all.
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Speaker 3: Text messages that come through like your bank account has
7:25
Speaker 3: been hacked. Click here to reset your password. It's just amazing,
7:30
Speaker 3: terribly amazing, but amazing. The next type is vishing. This
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Speaker 3: is voice phishing where attackers are using phone calls to
7:37
Speaker 3: trick you. They might impersonate bank representatives, tech support or
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Speaker 3: government officials like the irs. They'll use social engineering tactics
7:45
Speaker 3: to create a sense of urgency or fear. By the
7:47
Speaker 3: way social engineering would be Hey grandma, this is your
7:53
Speaker 3: your grandson Jimmy, And you go, what do you mean social? Like,
7:59
Speaker 3: how would they know that? Well, listen, our world is
8:01
Speaker 3: so social. Somebody can just go online, look you up
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Speaker 3: on Facebook, see that your your grandson is Jimmy, and
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Speaker 3: then call and impersonate Jimmy and say they're in Ghana
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Speaker 3: in jail and you need to wire ten thousand dollars
8:13
Speaker 3: at this bank account right now. So again, really tricky
8:18
Speaker 3: stuff that you have to watch out for. The next
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Speaker 3: one is malware. This is a broad term for malicious
8:23
Speaker 3: software is designed to damage, disable, or gain unauthorized access
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Speaker 3: to computer systems. Examples include viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, and ransomware.
8:35
Speaker 3: If malware gets onto your device, it can record key strokes,
8:38
Speaker 3: including passwords. It can steal files, take control of your computer,
8:42
Speaker 3: or even encrypt your data and demand a ransom for
8:44
Speaker 3: its release. So this often comes in the form of
8:47
Speaker 3: an email comes in, you click on it, it downloads
8:50
Speaker 3: a program, and then you know your computer is infected.
8:54
Speaker 3: And finally, the one that people hear about the most,
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Speaker 3: although it's it's actually these other ones that I just
9:00
Speaker 3: mentioned are becoming more common, but the one we've heard
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Speaker 3: historically about the most is identity theft. This occurs when
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Speaker 3: someone steals your personal identifying information like your name, social
9:10
Speaker 3: Security number, data, birth or financial account numbers, and they
9:14
Speaker 3: use it to commit fraud. This could involve opening new
9:17
Speaker 3: credit cards in your name, filing fraudulent tax returns, making
9:21
Speaker 3: unauthorized purchases, or even getting medical services. So there's the
9:26
Speaker 3: most the five most common types of cybersecurity that we
9:31
Speaker 3: are running into. And again back to what I said before,
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Speaker 3: I'm betting if you are listening closely right now as
9:37
Speaker 3: a listener, you have touched personally at least one, if
9:42
Speaker 3: not two, three, or four of those, and so just
9:45
Speaker 3: continue paying attention because we're going to talk about different
9:47
Speaker 3: ways to mitigate that risk.
9:49
Speaker 1: Cute and funny names, but really serious stuff, that is
9:51
Speaker 1: for sure. As we talked this morning with CJ. Claus
9:53
Speaker 1: and Eric Schwartz, our retirement planning professionals from Class Financial,
9:56
Speaker 1: the website class financial dot com, that's Klaas Financial dot com.
10:01
Speaker 1: They're telephone number six oh eight four four two five
10:04
Speaker 1: six three seven. No charge for the initial get to
10:06
Speaker 1: know you appointment tech Loss Financial. It will be complementary
10:09
Speaker 1: to you again their number six oh eight four four
10:11
Speaker 1: two five six three seven. So, Eric, why is you
10:14
Speaker 1: know personal data such such a big target for cyber criminals?
10:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, Sean, financial data is a it's a prime target
10:23
Speaker 2: for cyber criminals, and I think the most obvious reason
10:27
Speaker 2: is probably just that financial information is often directly related
10:30
Speaker 2: to our money, So our bank accounts, our investment accounts,
10:34
Speaker 2: credit cards, all these things allow criminals to steal funds,
10:39
Speaker 2: make unauthorized purchases, or even open new lines of credit
10:43
Speaker 2: for their own benefit. And for this reason, there's a
10:47
Speaker 2: really high value on the dark web for stolen financial
10:50
Speaker 2: credentials personal data, and they can be sold to other
10:54
Speaker 2: criminals who then use them for various fraudulent activities. All
10:58
Speaker 2: this stuff just makes it a really lucrative business for
11:00
Speaker 2: the initial attackers. The other piece of this is all
11:05
Speaker 2: of our devices, all of our you know, accounts with
11:09
Speaker 2: different stores, and our financial lives. They are all interconnected.
11:15
Speaker 2: And you know, a breach in one service, like say
11:18
Speaker 2: an online shopping site where you've you've saved your credit
11:21
Speaker 2: card information, I think we can all say we're probably
11:25
Speaker 2: guilty of this, that that can potentially expose information that
11:28
Speaker 2: could be used to access all sorts of other financial accounts. Right,
11:32
Speaker 2: so I think probably at least every other week, maybe
11:37
Speaker 2: maybe once a month if it's a good month, I'm
11:39
Speaker 2: getting some sort of email from a credit monitoring service
11:43
Speaker 2: saying your information was in a was in a data breach, right,
11:46
Speaker 2: and you just pretty much become immune to it after
11:49
Speaker 2: a while because there's nothing. You know, it's like, well
11:51
Speaker 2: what am I going to do? Change? Change my password
11:54
Speaker 2: every week? So you know, even beyond your financial accounts,
11:58
Speaker 2: if your if your emails impromised, all these things can
12:01
Speaker 2: be used to find ways to access your personal financial information.
12:07
Speaker 2: And finally, this is unfortunately one of the biggest risks
12:10
Speaker 2: is ourselves. So the human element, despite you know, technology
12:15
Speaker 2: advancements and security, we remain a significant vulnerability to our
12:20
Speaker 2: own financial security. CJO is talking about fishings, mishing and wishing.
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Speaker 2: These these words are are they sound crazy, but like
12:31
Speaker 2: you said, they're they're dangerous on and you know, just
12:34
Speaker 2: curiosity and fear. Attackers know all of these things are
12:38
Speaker 2: are ways that they can gain access to us and
12:41
Speaker 2: take advantage of our vulnerabilities. So you know, just a
12:44
Speaker 2: lapse in judgment can lead to a lot of information
12:48
Speaker 2: getting shared.
12:49
Speaker 1: It's it's pretty it's scary stuff as you see some
12:52
Speaker 1: of these some of these techniques, and I always think
12:55
Speaker 1: with like criminals, like if only they would just supply
12:57
Speaker 1: themselves to like the legitimate world, they'd probably be wildly
13:01
Speaker 1: successful because the amount of work and effort and cunning
13:05
Speaker 1: that they put into this stuff is it's pretty amazing.
13:08
Speaker 3: And definitely, Sean, I thought the exact same thing. Yeah,
13:11
Speaker 3: oh my gosh, you're brilliant. It just applies us to
13:14
Speaker 3: a reasonable, non malicious trade and you could be wildly successful.
13:18
Speaker 1: But yeah, I don't get it. It's a it's a
13:21
Speaker 1: scary world out there and you want to protect yourself
13:23
Speaker 1: and really great information this week. This is like many
13:26
Speaker 1: of the shows that we do here on Money in Motion,
13:28
Speaker 1: when you want to share with folks as well. You
13:30
Speaker 1: can always listen back to the podcast share it from
13:32
Speaker 1: Cossfinancial dot com. That website class financial dot com. That's
13:36
Speaker 1: Klaas financial dot com. They're telephon number six oh eight
13:40
Speaker 1: four four two five six three seven. No charge for
13:43
Speaker 1: the initial gets know you appointment tech lots Financial. It
13:45
Speaker 1: will be complimentary to you again their number six oh
13:48
Speaker 1: eight four four two five six three seven. Into our
13:50
Speaker 1: conversation with c Jen Eric. We will do that next
13:52
Speaker 1: as Money in Motion with cost Financial continues right here
13:55
Speaker 1: on thirteen ten. Wiba talking about scams out there this
14:00
Speaker 1: morning with our retirement, specifically cybersecurity with our retirement, playing
14:04
Speaker 1: professionals from class financial really important topic. Don't forget if
14:07
Speaker 1: you miss any part of the show, you can always
14:08
Speaker 1: listen back at classfinancial dot com. So we left off
14:11
Speaker 1: talking about some of those some of those reasons why
14:15
Speaker 1: financial targets are our prime for cyber criminals. Are there
14:19
Speaker 1: specific red flags that folks should be you should be
14:23
Speaker 1: looking looking for, Eric.
14:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're going to talk about just a few of
14:27
Speaker 2: them here, just things to be aware of when you're
14:29
Speaker 2: doing anything online or over the phone. The first one,
14:33
Speaker 2: you want to be very very leary of is urgent language.
14:37
Speaker 2: So scammers will often try to create a sense of
14:40
Speaker 2: panic or urgency so they can bypass your critical thinking.
14:44
Speaker 2: Phrases like your account will be suspended immediately, or action
14:48
Speaker 2: required within twenty four hours, your funds are at risk.
14:51
Speaker 2: All of these things are just meant to make us
14:54
Speaker 2: not stop and think and just you know, respond to
14:58
Speaker 2: whatever the individual is asking for. So just just slow down,
15:03
Speaker 2: especially when it has to do with with your your
15:06
Speaker 2: bank or or your investment accounts. Often you're not going
15:10
Speaker 2: to get a call from those institutions saying we need
15:12
Speaker 2: to we need to move immediately like yesterday, right, They're
15:16
Speaker 2: they're generally going to be much more measured, and so
15:19
Speaker 2: watch out for that urgent language. The other thing you
15:22
Speaker 2: want to look out for, especially in emails and text messages,
15:25
Speaker 2: are going to be suspicious suspicious links, So always be
15:29
Speaker 2: wary of those before clicking. Hover your mouse over the
15:33
Speaker 2: link if you're on a desktop computer, or hold your
15:37
Speaker 2: finger down on it on a mobile device, and that'll
15:39
Speaker 2: show you the actual URL where it's going to take
15:42
Speaker 2: you if you click on it. And if that doesn't
15:44
Speaker 2: match a legitimate website of the organization that it actually
15:47
Speaker 2: claims to be from. So you know, if you're say
15:50
Speaker 2: your bank is uw Credit Union, if it's not taking
15:53
Speaker 2: you to UWCU dot org slash something, it's almost certainly
15:57
Speaker 2: a scam. Okay. So even if it looks similar to
16:01
Speaker 2: something you've received from them before, small misspellings or even
16:05
Speaker 2: extra characters here here and there, those can be giveaways
16:09
Speaker 2: as well. Just be really cautious of links that you're
16:12
Speaker 2: that you're sent unprompted and finally, unsolicited requests for personal information. Okay.
16:18
Speaker 2: So legitimate organizations, especially your bank, government agencies, they will rarely,
16:23
Speaker 2: if ever ask you to provide sensitive information like your
16:27
Speaker 2: full social Security number, your password, or your pins via email,
16:32
Speaker 2: text or just a random a random phone call. So
16:35
Speaker 2: if you receive a request like that, that is a
16:38
Speaker 2: major red flag. I feel like every time I get
16:41
Speaker 2: I get a text message from a website I'm trying
16:44
Speaker 2: to sign into, it says do not give anyone this code.
16:48
Speaker 2: So heed those warnings and if you're unsure, always contact
16:51
Speaker 2: the organization directly using a phone number from their verified,
16:55
Speaker 2: verified website.
16:56
Speaker 1: Really scary stuff. And c J. Let's talk a little
16:59
Speaker 1: bit then about the per prevention side of this, what
17:01
Speaker 1: should folks know and what more importantly, what should you
17:04
Speaker 1: be doing when it comes to protecting your money from
17:08
Speaker 1: these crooks?
17:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, good question, Sean. So we don't want to focus
17:12
Speaker 3: on the scary stuff for too long. Otherwise people will,
17:14
Speaker 3: you know, dig a hole and bury themselves. So let's
17:17
Speaker 3: talk about some things you can do to safeguard your
17:19
Speaker 3: finances digitally, because there are quite a quite a few
17:22
Speaker 3: things you can do to safeguard yourself. Number one would
17:26
Speaker 3: just be around strong unique passwords. So a strong password
17:31
Speaker 3: is long, it's at least twelve to sixteen characters. It
17:34
Speaker 3: uses a mix of uppercase and lower case letters, numbers,
17:37
Speaker 3: and symbols. The unique part is equally critical. Never reuse
17:42
Speaker 3: passwords across different accounts. If one service you use suffers
17:46
Speaker 3: a data breach and you've used the same password elsewhere,
17:48
Speaker 3: criminals can use that leaked credential information and get into
17:52
Speaker 3: other websites. So again, strong unique passwords. Now here's what
17:59
Speaker 3: somebody's going to say to me. And I know this
18:01
Speaker 3: because I'm going through this with my mother right now.
18:03
Speaker 3: I wish if she was listening, she could call it
18:05
Speaker 3: and testify. But CEJ, I won't remember them, right, I
18:11
Speaker 3: need to use one of three because then I can
18:13
Speaker 3: remember them. Well, that's where secure encrypted password storage managers
18:18
Speaker 3: comes in, So this is an indispensable resource. These are
18:23
Speaker 3: tools like last pass or one password, or bitwarden, or
18:28
Speaker 3: even built in browser password managers, although the built in
18:32
Speaker 3: browser password managers are generally a little less secure. But
18:35
Speaker 3: the idea of this is to say, no, no, no,
18:37
Speaker 3: we get it. We totally get it that. Ultimately, if
18:40
Speaker 3: you're gonna have unique usernames and passwords for every single website,
18:44
Speaker 3: there's no way your brain can store that information and
18:47
Speaker 3: we don't.
18:48
Speaker 1: Expect it to.
18:49
Speaker 3: What we would say is get a secure encrypted password
18:52
Speaker 3: storage manager like the ones I mentioned before, last Pass,
18:55
Speaker 3: one Password, Bitwarden and save those unique passwords on there.
19:00
Speaker 3: Not to mention, listen, everybody, good websites will require you
19:03
Speaker 3: to reset your credentials aka you're using name or password
19:07
Speaker 3: every few months because they want to reduce the likelihood
19:11
Speaker 3: of a data breach where suddenly they get current usernames
19:14
Speaker 3: and passwords ripped down from their website. So I cannot
19:20
Speaker 3: encourage you enough strong unique passwords number one, but number two,
19:25
Speaker 3: purchase one of these secure encrypted password storage managers so
19:28
Speaker 3: that you're not so anxious about remembering all of them. Now,
19:33
Speaker 3: the next topic, or the next kind of way to
19:36
Speaker 3: safeguard yourself would be around multi factor authentication. This is huge.
19:42
Speaker 3: Multi factor authentication is also sometimes called two FA or
19:47
Speaker 3: two factor authentication. It adds an extra layer of security
19:51
Speaker 3: beyond just a password. It typically requires you to provide
19:55
Speaker 3: two or more verification factors to gain access to an account.
20:00
Speaker 3: So even if a criminal somehow gets your password, they
20:03
Speaker 3: still can't log in without this second factor. So it's
20:07
Speaker 3: important to have think of it this way. If I
20:10
Speaker 3: have a key or a lock, and somehow a criminal
20:14
Speaker 3: gains access to that key or that lock on my door,
20:20
Speaker 3: that's scary, right, They pop open the lock and they
20:22
Speaker 3: walk into the house and they steal my valuable stuff.
20:25
Speaker 3: But what if I had two locks or two keys,
20:29
Speaker 3: what's the probability that that same person gets access to
20:33
Speaker 3: both of those access points? Well, guys, for the listeners,
20:37
Speaker 3: it goes down dramatically, and it's not just cutting in
20:40
Speaker 3: half your risk, It actually cuts your risk down by
20:42
Speaker 3: like eighty percent. So the two FA the two factor authentication,
20:46
Speaker 3: also known as multi factor authentication, is a huge way
20:52
Speaker 3: to reduce that risk. Now, this often comes in the
20:54
Speaker 3: form of like you getting a texted code, so you
20:56
Speaker 3: put in your username and password and then you get
20:58
Speaker 3: a text message on your phone. It can also come
21:01
Speaker 3: into things like physical tokens, so they have like a
21:05
Speaker 3: physical item that generates a new numeric number that you
21:12
Speaker 3: have to enter in or a smartphone app that again
21:15
Speaker 3: is generating new numbers. So there's also like biometric two
21:20
Speaker 3: factor authentications like fingerprint scans or facial scans. I know
21:24
Speaker 3: Apple iPhones and different devices have that function. But the
21:28
Speaker 3: idea of this is that when you add in a
21:31
Speaker 3: second layer of security, it just dramatically reduces the risk.
21:36
Speaker 3: And I know, again I've sat with my mother recently
21:39
Speaker 3: on this. I know this can be an area of
21:41
Speaker 3: frustration because people go, my goodness, if I didn't have
21:44
Speaker 3: to use my using him in password. Now I've got
21:46
Speaker 3: to have this cell phone sitting around all the time
21:48
Speaker 3: for the text messages. Well, it's either that or your
21:52
Speaker 3: stuff gets stolen, right like kind of pick your poison.
21:55
Speaker 3: And I get it that it's frustrating. I totally empathize,
21:58
Speaker 3: but we've all got to get over that because this
22:01
Speaker 3: is just an extra layer of security to make sure
22:03
Speaker 3: that your critical information is not getting taken by hackers.
22:07
Speaker 1: What about software there CJ.
22:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, so software developers constantly find and fixed security vulnerability,
22:14
Speaker 3: so this would be bugs or weaknesses in their operating systems.
22:17
Speaker 3: Thanks you know, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and then
22:22
Speaker 3: web browsers do the same, Chrome, Firefox, Fari and these
22:25
Speaker 3: different applications. So one thing you should be doing is
22:28
Speaker 3: updating these apps. Another thing that I often run into,
22:32
Speaker 3: both with my folks and then with clients that we know,
22:36
Speaker 3: is they'll say, I never do any of those app
22:39
Speaker 3: upgrades or the or the Windows upgrades or the iPhone
22:43
Speaker 3: upgrades because you know, little things move around and I
22:45
Speaker 3: don't know where they are. And on the one hand,
22:48
Speaker 3: I get it.
22:49
Speaker 1: I'm there with.
22:49
Speaker 3: You, like it's frustrating when a new update is coming
22:52
Speaker 3: out constantly and things look different and function differently. But
22:55
Speaker 3: what you're missing is it's not just about the look
22:58
Speaker 3: and the functionality behind in the screen. Behind the scenes,
23:01
Speaker 3: they're adding in patches, security patches from threats that they've seen.
23:06
Speaker 3: So I would encourage you keep your operating systems, your
23:10
Speaker 3: your programs, your apps, keep them up to date. If
23:14
Speaker 3: there is an update to be downloaded.
23:17
Speaker 1: Downloaded, great, goodvice, great great program as always, don't forget
23:20
Speaker 1: you and listen back today's show also great one you
23:23
Speaker 1: want to share sad on over to Classfinancial dot com.
23:25
Speaker 1: That's Gloss Klaas Financial dot com. Can subscribe listen right online.
23:30
Speaker 1: They're telephone umber at Loss Financial six oh eight four
23:32
Speaker 1: four two five six three seven. No charge for the
23:35
Speaker 1: ininanitial get to know your appointment to at Coss Financial.
23:37
Speaker 1: It will be complementary to you again their number six
23:39
Speaker 1: oh eight four four two five six three seven. More
23:42
Speaker 1: of money in motion with Coss Financial comes your way
23:44
Speaker 1: next right You're on thirteen ten WIBA talking with our
23:47
Speaker 1: retirement planning professionals from Class Financial, CJ. Closs and Eric
23:50
Speaker 1: Schwartz talking this week about cybersecurity and just got a
23:53
Speaker 1: couple of minutes in the program. I do want to
23:55
Speaker 1: make sure we talk about things like you know, I
23:57
Speaker 1: know a lot of folks do like online banking and
24:00
Speaker 1: other things from your phone. Are there some things Eric,
24:03
Speaker 1: that folks should be thinking about when it comes to
24:05
Speaker 1: security of those devices.
24:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, Sean, that's a really good point and a good
24:09
Speaker 2: question as well. So just a few considerations in this
24:13
Speaker 2: area Number one, When you are accessing your banking information,
24:19
Speaker 2: use the official banking apps only. Okay, So when you're
24:23
Speaker 2: on your smartphone and you're wanting to access your checking account,
24:27
Speaker 2: bound savings account, or make a transfer, whatever it might be,
24:32
Speaker 2: make sure you're using the most up to date application
24:35
Speaker 2: because this is going to have the most robust security features,
24:38
Speaker 2: it's going to undergo regular security audits, and it's designed
24:42
Speaker 2: to protect your data. Okay. And if you're trying to
24:46
Speaker 2: access your bank information through like a mobile browser, so
24:50
Speaker 2: like you just pull up Safari your Chrome on your phone,
24:53
Speaker 2: that is not that that's not as secure or up
24:56
Speaker 2: to date as the app in many cases, and it
24:58
Speaker 2: can expose you to risks. Beyond that, unofficial apps might
25:02
Speaker 2: be malicious fakes that are designed to steal your login credentials,
25:06
Speaker 2: while outdated browsers or insecure browser settings could really just
25:09
Speaker 2: make you vulnerable to phishing. So make sure you're using
25:13
Speaker 2: the official banking apps and they are up to date.
25:17
Speaker 2: The second one here is avoid public Wi Fi when
25:20
Speaker 2: you're doing sensitive transactions. So public Wi Fi networks like
25:24
Speaker 2: those in coffee shop, airport, hotel. They're very convenient and
25:30
Speaker 2: nice to have, but they are often unsecured or they
25:33
Speaker 2: have weak security protocols. We always get this warning I
25:36
Speaker 2: think too when you log onto a public website, I
25:39
Speaker 2: feel like I do where it says, you know, be
25:41
Speaker 2: careful what you share on this network. This means that
25:44
Speaker 2: the data that's transmitted over these networks can be easily
25:48
Speaker 2: intercepted by malicious actors who might be quote unquote eavesdropping
25:53
Speaker 2: on the network. So when you perform sensitive transactions like
25:57
Speaker 2: logging into your bank account, or making online purchases, or
26:01
Speaker 2: even just checking your investment portfolio, your your logging credentials,
26:06
Speaker 2: and your financial details can be vulnerable. If you are
26:09
Speaker 2: on a public Wi Fi, it's best to use your
26:11
Speaker 2: cellular data connection for these activities and that will provide
26:15
Speaker 2: you with a more secure and private connection. If you
26:18
Speaker 2: do need to use a public Wi Fi source, consider
26:22
Speaker 2: using a reputable virtual private network or a VPN that's
26:26
Speaker 2: going to add some additional encryption to your to your
26:29
Speaker 2: internet traffic. Finally, keep your phone locked and encrypted. Okay,
26:35
Speaker 2: so this refu this refers to securing your physical smartphone device.
26:41
Speaker 2: When we say locked, we mean make sure that you
26:43
Speaker 2: have a strong password, pin fingerprint, or you know facial
26:47
Speaker 2: recognition to keep your phone secure and prevent unauthorized access
26:53
Speaker 2: if it is lost or stolen. When we say encrypted,
26:56
Speaker 2: we mean that most modern smartphones are often built with
27:01
Speaker 2: in device encryption, and when your phone is encrypted, all
27:04
Speaker 2: the data on it, like your photos, your messages, your
27:07
Speaker 2: financial application data, it's scrambled and unreadable without the correct
27:13
Speaker 2: decryption key okay, which is all tied into your lockscreen,
27:18
Speaker 2: password and pin. So if your phone falls into the
27:20
Speaker 2: wrong hands, if it's locked and it's encrypted, it acts
27:24
Speaker 2: as a much stronger barrier against data theft. And without
27:28
Speaker 2: that protection, someone could potentially access your your financial applications,
27:32
Speaker 2: your personal information, or any other sensitive data that's stored
27:36
Speaker 2: on your device. So ensure that you have these features
27:38
Speaker 2: enabled and configured correctly.
27:40
Speaker 1: A lot of great information this week, don't forget. You
27:42
Speaker 1: can listen back to this on previous shows podcasts all
27:45
Speaker 1: at Cossfinancial dot com. That's also a great place to
27:48
Speaker 1: get to know the team at COSS Financial again the
27:50
Speaker 1: website cossfinancial dot com. That's k l Aasfinancial dot com.
27:54
Speaker 1: Telph number six so eight four four two five six
27:56
Speaker 1: three seven No charge for that initial get to know
27:58
Speaker 1: your appointment dech Lots Financial. It will be complimentary to
28:01
Speaker 1: you again their number six oh eight four four two
28:03
Speaker 1: five six three seven. You want to hold on to
28:05
Speaker 1: that teleph number as well. It's time now for the
28:07
Speaker 1: Class Quiz question of the week. It works like this.
28:09
Speaker 1: In just a moment, I'll ask you the class quiz
28:11
Speaker 1: question of the week. You will then have thirty minutes
28:12
Speaker 1: for in today's program to call the Class Financial Office
28:15
Speaker 1: right here in Madison at six oh eight four four
28:17
Speaker 1: two five six three seven. If you are the first
28:19
Speaker 1: caller with the correct answer, win this week's prize, which
28:22
Speaker 1: is a twenty five dollars gift card to Amazon. This
28:24
Speaker 1: week's coloss quiz question of the week is this true
28:27
Speaker 1: or false? Multi factor authentication, which is sometimes called two
28:32
Speaker 1: factor authentication is like having two locks on your door
28:37
Speaker 1: instead of only one. True or false telephone number six
28:40
Speaker 1: oh eight four four two five six three seven. First
28:43
Speaker 1: call with correct answer whin this week's prize again the
28:44
Speaker 1: twenty five dollars gift card to Amazon. No forgot as well.
28:47
Speaker 1: That's Class Financial Office right here in Madison. CJ.
28:50
Speaker 2: Eric.
28:50
Speaker 1: It's always informative, always great chatting with both of you guys.
28:53
Speaker 1: Have a great day, Thanks Sean, Thanks Sean, Take care guys.
28:56
Speaker 1: Doctor Greer comes you way next year at thirteen ten
28:58
Speaker 1: Wiba