Tag: privacy
10 Best Laptop Sun Shade In the UK – Black Friday 2023 – Best Product Review
Every 12 Seconds Britons Fall Victim To Scams
MNK Blog
Every 12 Seconds Britons Fall Victim To Scams
Don’t Be A Victim – Protect Your Privacy
Hello Tech Lovers!
Over £1.2Billion was stolen through fraud in 2022 and Britons lost more than half a billion pounds in the first six months of 2023. According to a new report by UK Finance, criminals stole an, ‘absolutely staggering’, £580million through fraud. This amounts to one theft every 12 seconds.
Unauthorised fraud losses across payment cards, remote banking, and cheques, reached £340.7 million in the first half of 2023 – a three per cent drop compared to the same period in 2022.
The number of unauthorised fraud cases was, 1.26 million – down two per cent on the same period in 2022.
Authorised fraud losses – also known as authorised push payments or APPs, accounted for £239.3million of total fraud, down one per cent compared to the same period in 2022.
Although scammers took slightly less money, the total number of cases was up 22 per cent to 116,324.
The main driver behind this, according to UK Finance, is purchase scams – where people are tricked into paying for goods that never materialise.
Social media also plays a huge part, with the report showing three quarters of fraud started online. Another 17 per cent started through phone calls and text messages.
UK Finance’s director of economic crime, Ben Donaldson, called on tech and telecoms companies to do more to tackle the scam epidemic. ‘We need to see much more effort from the social media and telecommunications sectors. If we are going to see a real difference we need them to work with us,’ he said.
Paul Davis, director of fraud prevention at TSB, had this to say, ‘It’s clear from the big spike in push-payment fraud cases that online companies and telecoms firms must urgently introduce measures to protect the public from scams on their platforms.’
Fraud is divided into two categories, according to UK Finance – Authorised and Unauthorised.
Authorised fraud:
When someone is tricked into paying money into a scammer’s account, or handing over a password. In other words, they take some kind of action or volunteer information which makes the fraud possible.
Unauthorised fraud:
Refers to cases where the victim is not directly involved, for example purchases being made on a stolen credit card. When this happens, banks and credit card companies are legally obliged to protect them from losses – whereas authorised fraud victims may find it harder to get their money back.
Donaldson said, ‘In addition to the financial losses, these crimes often involve callous manipulation of the victim which can cause psychological and emotional harm.’
As the UK Finance report shows, criminals are increasingly using social media, online platforms, screen gleaning, texts, phone calls and emails to deceive victims into giving up their personal details and their money.
The only way we will prevent fraud is if other sectors do much more to help us deal with the criminality which is increasingly taking place on their platforms.’ Concluded Donaldson.
45% of visual hacks occur in under 15 minutes. Often a hacker only needs one piece of valuable information to unlock a full scale data breach.
What do you use to protect your privacy when using your laptop in public places?
Protect your confidentiality with our PROHOOD® the quick and easy to install privacy hood for laptops, iPads, and tablets.
Read the full story, via UK FInance here
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Adam – MNK Founder
#ProtectYourTech
11 Of The Best Laptop Sun Shades – Glamour UK Magazine
MNK Press
PROHOOD® by MNK
11 of the best laptop sun shades to maximise productivity outdoors in summer 2023 Got to keep the tan up.
Glamour Magazine
One of the best inexpensive options, this fold-up sun shade is easy to transport, and water resistant for those inevitable poolside splashes. WFH in Monaco, Mykonos or Milan? Yes, please.
Read the full article via Glamour Magazine UK here
Visual Hacking
MNK Blog
A hacker often only needs one piece of valuable information to unlock a large-scale data breach.
What Is Visual Hacking – And How To Prevent It Happening To You
Hello Tech Lovers!
While most companies focus on intercepting data breaches from high-tech cyber attacks, a study has exposed visual hacking – a low-tech method used to capture sensitive, confidential and private information, as an under-addressed corporate risk.
The Visual Privacy Advisory Council and 3M conducted an experiment from which the results may surprise you. In almost nine out of ten attempts (88%), a white hat hacker was able to visually hack sensitive company information – credentials that could potentially put a company at risk for a much larger data breach. A quick glance is all it takes for visual hackers to gain valuable information and sensitive data. Passwords, account information and even website code are all vulnerable to hackers.
During the study, an average of five pieces of information were visually hacked per trial, including:
- Employee contact lists (63%)
- Customer information (42%)
- Corporate financials (37%)
- Employee access & login information/credentials (37%)
- Information about employees (37%)
Visual hacking happens quickly: Companies can be visually hacked in a matter of minutes, 45% occurring in less than 15 minutes and, 63% of visual hacks occurring in less than 30. Visual hacking generally goes unnoticed. Unprotected devices such as laptops pose the greatest opportunity for sensitive information to be visually hacked. 53% of information deemed sensitive (access or login credentials, confidential or classified documents, financial, accounting, budget information or attorney-client privileged documents) were gleaned by the visual hacker from the computer screen.
If you use a laptop in a public area such as on a train, at an airport or cafe you are even more open to attack. That’s were our PROHOOD® can help you thwart the visual hackers. PROHOOD® is a lightweight, hard, protective laptop case with an integrated privacy shield. The shield, is quick and easy to deploy, it can be opened in seconds.
- In those companies that employed the use of privacy shields, 50% of trials saw three or less information types visually hacked
- while 43% of companies that did not use privacy shields saw four or more information types visually hacked.
No matter where you are, you can work without the worry of visual hacking with PROHOOD® Get yours here today!
See the full report here
Adam – MNK Founder
#ProtectYourTech