In this episode, the hosts of Women Talking Frankly interview Susan Douglas.
Sue has worked in Technology since graduating from Oregon State in 1984, almost 40 years now, for Companies such as Dell, InfoSys, and NEC. Because fighting bad actors is particularly a passion for her, the last 10 years, Sue has specialized in Cyber Security. She currently works for Fortinet, the #3 cybersecurity corporation in the world. She also volunteers with the FBI Citizens Academy.
- Candace had a personal experience several months ago and was scammed out of a large sum of money. This was very traumatic and prompted us to do an episode on this topic as women are often the victims of cyber security scams.
- Sue is passionate about what she does and her goal for this episode is to prevent at least one person from being the victim of scammers, or as she calls them, “bad actors."
- 1/3 of people in the U.S. have been victims of phone scams alone and 20% of them have fallen for something twice.
- Sue breaks down the various types of “phishing” for our audience.
- Ransomware is a common technique used by bad actors and most commonly hits banks and hospitals, crippling their operations until they pay a ransom to resume their operations.
Sue goes over guidelines for actions that will help prevent us from getting scammed:
- Don’t open links/attachments.
- Always scrutinize the email address of the sender: scammers are crafty and will use common logos and addresses that mimic the ones companies use. Just a slight variation can be a tip off: slow down, take your time.
- Use your critical thinking skills. Sue stresses this over and over again. If it doesn’t feel right, or is ‘too good to be true’, trust your instincts and be wary.
- Once you click something and end up talking to someone, if you are feeling pressured, if there is a sense of urgency, HANG UP!!
- The IRS, Social Security, UPS, Fed Ex, USPS: don’t send emails or texts.
- Be wary of emails from Amazon: this is a common method they use. Go to the website or your app to check the status of your orders.
- Watch out for generic salutations: Hi Ms. Kyle. Watch for grammatical errors: these are often non-native English speakers.
- When looking for a website, don’t always click the first one that pops up: make sure you are on the correct site.
- Don’t call the number the email gives you. Search for the customer service number of the company who presumable contacted you.
Sue also educates us about additional ways we can protect ourselves, from password protection, two step authentication, security software, etc.
Bottom line: DON'T FRICKING CLICK!!!
USE YOUR CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS.
When in doubt, hang up, don’t respond to a text or email.
This is the ‘stranger danger’. We learned NOT to open the door to strangers. We need to adapt to the world we live in and avoid the strangers in cyberspace.
Sue has additional resources to share:
The $50K Scam: New York magazine’s money columnist wrote about being conned out of $50,000 by crooks pretending to be from Amazon and government agencies: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/16/your-money/scam-new-york-magazine-amazon-ftc-cia.html
How to Protect Your Personal Information Online: https://my.aarpfoundation.org/article/how-to-spot-scams/
What to Do After You've Experienced a Scam: https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2024/what-to-do-after-scam.html
CONNECT W/CANDACE + KYLE
Candace Burch:
YourHormoneBalance.com
Info@yourhormonebalance.com
Kyle McAvoy:
kylebmcavoy@gmail.com
