The Social Media Club of Fort Worth’s speaker event last night was one of the coolest ones ever. Nothing at all against previous speakers at SMCFW events; they have all been informative and enjoyable. But, it’s not every day that you get to hear from an actual employee of the United States Secret Service.
Special Agent David Bentz was nice enough to take the time out of his busy day to talk to us about Internet security, and I really learned a lot. Bentz works for the Secret Service North Texas Electronic Crimes (N-TEC) Task Force, so when he started talking about security, needless to say, we all listened! Plus, Bentz was hilarious and a great presenter, so that helped. I’ll go ahead and say it — I was expecting an uptight, dry government stereotype. I was way off.
To give you a little background on the N-TEC Task Force, it was formed on September 10, 2003, to bridge a partnership among the U.S. Secret Service Dallas Field Office, law enforcement, private corporations, and academia. More broadly, the N-TEC Task Force is a part of several nation-wide task forces used by the U.S. Secret Service after the USA PATRIOT Act was signed into law by President Bush on October 26, 2001. The main responsibility of these task forces is to prevent, detect, and investigate attacks on our nation’s financial and critical infrastructures. To learn more, visit the source of this information: the Electronic Crimes Task Forces and Working Groups page on the U.S. Secret Service website.
I usually like to include pictures in my SMCFW event recap posts, but you will notice the absence of pictures from last night. We were told that we couldn’t record the presentation, so I went ahead and left my camera at home just to be on the safe side. I noticed that some people who attended did take pictures, so you should pop over to the SMCFW Facebook page to see them when they are posted.
Now that you have a little background on what the N-TEC Task Force is all about, let’s get right to my key takeaway points about Internet security:
- Bentz opened with a quote that pretty much summed up his presentation, “When I’m finished here, you might not be so excited about social media”
- What he went on to explain is that you can’t prevent cyber crimes completely, and you should be cautious of anything you share online. For example, even if your Facebook page has all of the security settings activated, that information can be accessed if someone truly wants it
- There are many parallels on how your social media tactics might mirror similar tactics used by the U.S. Secret Service to fight cyber crimes:
- Use a systemic, proactive approach
- Practice prevention rather than reaction
- In order to be successful, information sharing and working relationships are a must
- Another interesting quote from the evening, “A common misconception is that the Secret Service is tracking everything you say and do online. We’re not. But Google is!”
- Cyber attacks happen every single day. Some of the biggest offenders of attacks on the U.S. are allied countries looking for trade secrets and money/capital information
- Over the past five years, roughly 261 million U.S. residents’ records have been exposed due to security breaches. Hackers and laptop theft are some of the most common forms of breaches
- No one can get credit in your name without three things: your name (obviously), your Social Security number, and your date of birth. Protect your personal information and don’t give it out to just anyone
- To protect yourself against identity theft, make sure you do the following:
- Get a copy of your credit report at least once a year. You can obtain a free copy by visiting the Annual Credit Report site or by calling 877-322-8228
- Subscribe to a credit monitoring service so that you are alerted if anyone opens a line of credit in your name. In most cases, you can be alerted within hours of someone fraudulently using your information to get credit in your name
- Buy a shredder and use it. Make sure you shred all credit card applications that you receive, too
- Due to the popularity of PCs, Windows is a big target for cyber attacks. Make sure you have your automatic updates set so that any holes are patched up in your operating system
- Keep your Flash player updated because it is prone to security vulnerabilities
- There are many free anti-virus programs available online, so download one and keep it updated. Avast is recommended (I use Avast and love it)
- Change all default program passwords, and make sure you change all passwords every 90 days
- If you get an email with a link in it, be cautious before you click it. If you see an action to “click here” or are prompted with an action to do something, don’t do it. For example, if you get an email that appears to be from your bank and it asks you to click a link to update your account information, don’t click it. Go to your actual bank’s site or call them
- Some Facebook/social media scams can infect users with a virus at the rate of one user per second. If you see a story pop up on Facebook that relates to a current news story, it could be a link to a virus
- If you become a victim of identity theft, be sure to report it on the Federal Trade Commission site and contact your local police department
Thanks again to the Social Media Club of Fort Worth for getting such a great speaker, to David Bentz for taking the time to educate all of us, and to Chimy’s for providing the perfect venue for the evening. Stay tuned to see who will be speaking at the next SMCFW event!
If you came out to the event last night, I would love to hear what you thought of it. Let me know!
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