Cyber Criminals Targeting Natural Disasters
Be Careful Before Opening Your Wallet to Relief Efforts
With Hurricane Florence blowing through the Carolinas, many people are eager to lend a helping hand or open their wallets to help victims of the disaster. While these acts of kindness are well-intentioned, you must still be cautious when donating to natural disaster relief.
Cyber criminals target victims, relief organizations, volunteers and donors during natural disasters. Hackers take advantage of donors by setting up fake charities to elicit donations, creating links to fundraising pages and pose as members of reputable organizations to allow them access to your personal information.
Email and social media threats are on the rise in times of a natural disaster. Here is what you need to know before donating to any organization:
- Make sure that all of your anti-virus software is up to date. If you don’t have anti-virus software or need an upgrade, give us a call!
- Verify the organization that you are donating to, you can search for nonprofit organizations on sites like GuideStar and CharityNavigator.
- Verify the sender of your emails and never open links from senders that you do not know. Hackers will often have addresses and links that look legitimate but are often slightly different. Businesses should invest in Security Awareness Training for their employees to ensure data protection. Contact us to help arrange this training for your organization.
- Avoid donating through a link, even if you think you know the sender. Instead, donate directly from the organization website. This will eliminate the risk of coming into contact with a cyber criminal.
- Know that any relief organization will NOT ask you for your social security number or private banking information when making a donation.
- For businesses, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security strongly recommends that organizations develop business disaster recovery plans that would address IT procedures during a natural disaster. If your business needs help creating or reviewing your Business Disaster recovery plan – DDKinfotech can help.
- If you suspect email fraud in your inbox, report it to the Report Phishing page of the IRS.
If you have any questions or would like further information
about how you can protect yourself or your business,
contact us at 212.997.0600 or hello@ddkinfotech.com or click here
