Regardless of which holiday you’ll be celebrating in the coming weeks—Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or none at all—you’ll want to take note of the less-than-cheerful seasonal scams recently uncovered by McAfee. To help you safely navigate through the flurry of activity this month, we’ve created a simple, at-a-glance chart that describes each scam and recommends an appropriate McAfee solution that you can apply at home and at work. It’s our gift to you!
Of course, you’ll want to follow the usual caveats related to shopping online, spam, phishing scams, and other online threats. Here are few articles from the McAfee® Security Insights archive that are worth reviewing to make your online experience safer year round:
| Scam |
Description |
System Solution |
Network Solution |
| 1. Charity phishing |
This year almost 30 percent of U.S. consumers plan to donate online to charitable organizations during the holiday season. Cybercriminals get in on the action by sending emails that appear to be from reputable organizations with links to fraudulent websites that will steal consumers’ money. |
McAfee® SiteAdvisor® Enterprise warns users before they click on a malicious or fraudulent site with web safety ratings.
Or, use SiteAdvisor Enterprise Plus, available only in McAfee Total Protection for Endpoint, which offers advanced phishing protection and blocks access to malicious websites.
McAfee Host DLP can coach or prevent users from submitting sensitive financial or other information via personal email accounts.
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McAfee email and web security products powered by TrustedSource and McAfee SiteAdvisor technology block phishing emails and prevent users from wandering to fraudulent sites.
McAfee Network Data Loss Prevention (DLP) can inspect the content and context of incoming emails and determine whether they pose a risk to sensitive user and company information. |
| 2. Email banking |
Hackers are preying on consumers’ economic concerns by posing as financial institutions to gather sensitive information. They act with official-looking emails asking customers to confirm account information that could empty their wallets. |
See the anti-phishing solution above. |
See #1 above.
Also, McAfee Network Security Platform includes anti-phishing technology that ensures the user’s information/confirmation is not secretly redirected to the hacker’s site. |
| 3. Holiday e-cards |
Online greeting cards are clever ways for scammers to download malware on a user’s machine. Suspicious e-cards may ask the recipient to download the card, which is actually a Trojan, and later asks the user to verify personal data or enter credit card information. |
McAfee’s Anti-Virus and McAfee Anti-Spyware, available in Total Protection for Endpoint solutions, offer proactive protection against dangerous downloads and unwanted programs.
McAfee Host DLP can coach or prevent users from submitting sensitive information, such as credit card data to external, unknown websites. |
Our web security product provides comprehensive malware detection and blocking in the network, preventing the Trojan from installing.
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| 4. Fake invoices |
Online gift giving becomes an easy way for predators to scam consumers out of money and expose them to identity theft. They email fake invoices to consumers, presumably from a reputable parcel service, which asks the recipient to confirm an order or notifies them about an undeliverable package. The email requests a credit card or other payment for the fictitious delivery. |
See the anti-phishing solution above (#1).
McAfee Host DLP can coach or prevent users from submitting sensitive financial or other information via personal email accounts. |
See our anti-phishing solution above (#1).
|
| 5. You’ve got a new friend |
Hackers use the spirit of the holidays to trick users on social networking sites. While a consumer thinks they have received a new friend request, they may in fact be downloading malicious software that can steal personal and financial information. |
See #3 for bad downloads or spyware. |
See #3 for bad downloads or spyware. |
| 6. Dangerous holiday-related search terms |
Holiday-themed screensavers, ringtones and other downloads can actually be masks for potentially unwanted spyware. |
See #3 for bad downloads or spyware. |
See #3 for bad downloads or spyware. |
| 7. Coffee shop cybercrime |
Unsecured wireless networks, like those in coffee shops, are an easy avenue for attackers to see what sites patrons are visiting and information they are entering. They might set up a rogue wireless access point nearby a coffeehouse and then use packet sniffing programs to monitor users that log on to that network. |
See #3 for bad downloads or spyware, or use ToPS for Endpoint, which also offers firewall protection to provide a moat around your data castle. |
McAfee Host DLP protects users against accidental or malicious leaking of sensitive information on their laptops, whether they’re on the corporate network or not. |
| 8. Password stealers |
Many consumers use the same bank of passwords for all of their online sites and services. This makes it easy for hackers to steal passwords—and therefore information and money—from multiple accounts or sites. They often target passwords for e-commerce sites, online role playing games, instant messaging, and social networking sites. |
Focus on McAfee anti-spyware to detect and block key-loggers and phishing attacks. |
Network Security Platform and our network firewall protect online websites from hackers attempting to steal information.
Network DLP detects and blocks any attempts to send personal data outside the network. |
| 9. Fraud via auction sites |
Holiday shopping often brings new users to auction sites. New visitors may not be familiar with site policies and are therefore vulnerable to scams. Hackers can post fake items and request immediate payment, which exposes consumers to theft. |
Use SiteAdvisor to check on the ratings of potentially malicious sites.
Also, exercise common sense—carefully review the item and the seller’s ratings, and use a safe form of payment, such as PayPal or a credit card.
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SiteAdvisor integration with our web security offering is the best protection. You’ll immediately know that the payment site is a scam. |
| 10. Holiday-themed email attachments and spam |
About 49 percent of consumers are intrigued by emails with holiday themes. Attackers capitalize on holiday spirit by connecting malicious software or other threats to emails containing holiday messages or offers. |
See our anti-phishing solution above. Additional email protection in ToPS for Endpoint solutions can also help filter spam.
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McAfee email security products, powered by TrustedSource, block malicious emails and emails containing harmful software. |
| 11. Online identity theft |
Online shopping increases during the holidays, and so does the potential for identity theft. Merchants of any size store personal information, and small sites, in particular, often lack adequate resources to ensure data security. Both can be attractive targets for cybercriminals. |
SiteAdvisor is a free web security plug-in that tests sites for spyware, spam, phishing, identity theft and online scams. It provides you with intuitive red, yellow, green rating icons based on those tests. Plus, it shows McAfee SECURE™ trustmarks for sites passing more rigorous daily testing.
Look for McAfee SECURE trustmark whenever you shop online. Or you can go to
mcafeesecureshopping.com, a central destination exclusively for certified McAfee SECURE sites with millions of products from thousands of retailers.
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McAfee’s data protection products provide intelligent, deep protection of consumers’ personal information for online merchants, keeping that merchant’s reputation for trust intact among their customers.
Network Security Platform and our network firewall protect online websites from hackers attempting to steal information.
Network DLP detects and blocks any attempts to send personal data outside the network. |
| 12. Laptop theft |
The chances of having a laptop stolen are one in 10, and 97 percent of laptops are never recovered. During the holidays, people may let their guard down a little, and this could lead to theft of their personal devices. |
Encrypt critical laptop data with McAfee Endpoint Encryption and ToPS for Data.
McAfee Endpoint Encryption renders a laptop useless in the event of loss or theft by encrypting the entire hard disk, only allowing the user with the appropriate strong authentication credentials to access the laptop.
Invest in security management that help track your assets.
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