Hacking and phishing attacks are at an all-time high and we are all more vulnerable than ever. What can we do to protect ourselves in the face of these constant threats? We live more and more of our lives online and as we do we become vulnerable if we don't keep up with the latest threats. From robot calls threatening your life to cloned Facebook hackers pretending to be your friend some of the scams can be less obvious and from brands you would not expect.
Things we should be on the lookout for though, are "free" products and services. If someone is offering you something for free, then you can rest assured that YOU are the product. Your information, your contacts, your friends and family are all in play and are all for sale. When you sign on to a service like this, you are opening yourself up to exploitation.
If you see incumbent companies suddenly offering ancillary services and access to data owned by other corporations, it is almost guaranteed that somewhere in their EULA your consent will allow the associated company access to your data in turn. As outlined above, your data is not only currency - these businesses can use your information to solicit you for offers- but more importantly; they disguise these offers to look as if they are coming from a trusted source. We are much more likely to let our guard down if we think that we have dealt with the correspondent in the past.
Finally, many new companies have sprung up surrounding the outbreak, offering tracking services for infection mitigation and allowing the user to see where outbreaks have taken place. This data is also of value as is your pattern of movement. Tracking your habits can easily be coordinated with your spending patterns. Unscrupulous actors can correlate this data and use it for access to things that would normally be difficult to verify.
Companies such as TeqMarq never access your data and do not share it with any third parties.
In addition to these steps, TeqMarq has added a third level of security to our products that make it even more difficult to hack your account and almost impossible to trap you in a phishing expedition.
In short, the best thing to do is to be vigilant. Trust only those whom you have been dealing with safely in the past, and don’t sign on to any free service without thoroughly reading the EULA. Better yet, if it’s free, avoid the service. At best you will be inundated with spam. Worst case scenario, someone will access your account through nefarious means.
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