Insurance agent’s trip to Russia a wakeup call to risks of cybercrime

If you think your cybercrime worries have reached their peak, don’t be too quick to send your digital bodyguards on an extended vacation.

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The reality of criminal intrusions from people and places around the world isn’t going away any time soon.

Just ask Mary Contreras of Tempe. Contreras is the longtime owner of a State Farm insurance agency that handles claims resulting from identity theft and the criminal use of forged or stolen credit cards.

Additionally, she spent a week in Russia last year where her own laptop may have been compromised. “This cyberthreat epidemic is a new panic situation,” said Contreras, who is advising clients to establish or update their digital defenses.

“There will be a point in time when it becomes readily evident that there are risks in what people believe to be some of the most bulletproof protections,” and by then it may be too late to recover losses without agonizing months—and sometimes years— of trying to pick up the pieces of whatever electronic mischief has been perpetrated.

While a $25 annual homeownerspolicy add-on may seem an unnecessary extravagance, the economic damage that typically follows a cybercrime hit makes such an addition extremely valuable in the weeks, months, sometimes even years, that follow, she said.

In Contreras’ own case, her trip to Russia as part of a U.S. businesswomens’ delegation was well organized and seemingly worry-free. Until, that is, she found out that the laptop she took with her may have been compromised and its contents copied or altered.

“When State Farm learned I had taken the computer with me, they wanted me to turn it over to their security people when I got home,” she said. A thorough digital scan turned up no provable signs of intrusion, she said, and the laptop eventually was returned to her.

However, because the many-headed hydra of cybercrime seems continually to morph into new and even more worrisome intrusions involving our daily lives, Contreras offers a list of do’s and don’ts that Wrangler News shares with its readers, to wit:

• Use strong passwords and change them regularly

• Look out for email attachments and Internet download modules

• Install and use a firewall

• Remove unused software and user accounts; clean out everything on replaced equipment

• Establish physical access controls for all software

• Create backups for important files, folders and software

• Keep a high level of awareness regarding potential phishing emails that don’t look quite right

• Use unique passwords for each online service you use

• Don’t write passwords down or share them; if you do need to keep a record, put it in a locked place There are many protective strategies you can employ to guard against cybercrime. Contreras maintains a portfolio of ideas to help with specific situations.

Information: Contreras State Farm Agency, 480-775-7788.

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