Five Ways You'll Be Hacked on Cyber Monday

Posted: 11/24/2014 10:54 am EST Updated: 11/25/2014 12:59 am EST

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According to a June 2014 study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the likely annual cost to the global economy from cybercrime could reach $575 billion. It's a big number. Here are five ways hackers will try to get you to contribute to it while you enthusiastically search for the best deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Hack #1 -- Social Engineering - the process of manipulating people to give up private information.  Some of the most well publicized hacks in recent memory have been socially engineered. What's more likely... Apple's iCloud being hacked or someone (such as Kate Upton or Jennifer Lawrence) being tricked or willingly "lending" their password to someone?

If you are checking out on an obscure website this Cyber Monday and the site asks you to "confirm" the last four digits of your social security number, you're about to be hacked.  No commerce site needs your social security number, not even the last four digits.  The request will look innocuous, you'll be busy getting a deal on that awesome pair of rare Nike kicks, and you'll be one step closer to having your credit card spoofed or worse. Countermeasures -- Don't give up more information than is absolutely necessary.

Hack #2 -- Phishing - the act of defrauding an online account holder of financial information by posing as a legitimate company. Got an email from Amazan.com? Yeah, that's not Amazon. Look closely. Thanksgiving is one of the heaviest phishing days of the year, because fewer people paid to protect you from phishing attacks are working. Phishing attacks are actually 336% more common on Thanksgiving, meaning you're far more likely to receive a suspicious email in your inbox on Cyber Monday.

There's a reason Gmail sent that email to your Spam folder. Leave it there. If you didn't ask for it, don't click on it! There's no reason to give out your financial info because a scammer decided to send you a halfway decent-looking email. Countermeasures -- Carefully, carefully, carefully check who emails are from. If you're not sure about a sender, it's best to avoid that email and deal.

Hack #3 -- "Scammer Grammar" and General Scamming Behavior - If a website features many misspellings and grammatical errors, be wary. No company that genuinely wants your business will rush to put up a listing that looks like it was typed by a third grader.

Beware of sites that require payment via wire transfer, or that require you to act immediately to secure the product. Consumer Affairs says, "Beware of 'act now' offers that tell you the seller is a soldier needing cash for possessions before deploying to a war zone or a recent divorcee wanting to unload her former husband's belongings. These tactics are often bait to empty your wallet. Most of the time the items don't even exist."

Another big scam is the auction follow-up email hack. If you miss out on an auction or timed deal, ignore follow-up emails with the same offer. Scammers love to track auction sites and contact losing bidders to direct them away from secure buying environments. If you lose an item, move on to another auction. Countermeasures -- Don't shop on sites that look like they were designed by practitioners of phonetic writing or sites that would have looked awesome in 2004.

Hack #4 -- Fake Black Friday Ads - Inauthentic Black Friday ads re-direct you to places you shouldn't be, or may install malware/unwanted software on your computer.

Everyone's looking for the best deals, so cyber criminals love to release fake Black Friday ads that trick you into visiting sites you otherwise wouldn't visit. If you want to find great Cyber Monday deals, go directly to reputable websites, whether they're vendors (Best Buy, Amazon, Walmart) or trusted third-party aggregators (BFAds.net).

To protect yourself against phony ads, don't change up your browsing habits from the rest of the year. Go directly to websites instead of through Google. Walmart isn't selling a 60" HDTV for $97. If, by some miracle, that's a real sale, you better believe it's going to be front and center on Walmart.com.Countermeasures -- Don't search for phrases like "best Cyber Monday deals." Don't go to websites you've never heard of.

Hack #5 -- Site Swap - Ambitious scammers build entire fake sites that look shockingly similar to popular retailers.  This is a more complicated hack, and sometimes the most convincing - so pay attention.   You will almost always get to a fake site through a search engine or a mistyped URL.  But sometimes fake sites are used in combination with email hacks.  The most sophisticated versions are single pages that actually link to the real sites so the information request looks more legitimate.

If you're not sure about a link, there are a few great resources at your disposal. Sites like getlinkinfo.org or wheredoesthislinkgo.com will show you exactly where a suspicious link goes. Still not sure? It's probably fake. Move on. The chance of landing a great deal is not worth credit card fraud or a credit score hit. Countermeasures --Go directly to retailers' sites, rather than through search engines. Don't click on links from any email you can't verify.

Sufficiently armed with countermeasures?  I hope so.  This should be a wonderful holiday season for consumers and retailers alike.  There are great deals to be had on Ultra HD sets (they've come down 84% from last year).  I've seen amazing deals on phones and tablets, to say nothing of stunning array of wearables on sales this year.  Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at shellypalmer.com - practice safe computing and enjoy the holiday.

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A Hairstylist Provides Free Cuts to the Homeless

Mark Bustos works at a salon in Chelsea during the week. On Sundays, he gives homeless men haircuts. Credit

Ramsay de Give for The New York Times

David Terry is 50 years old, H.I.V. positive and homeless. He spends his nights at Bailey House, a nonprofit in Harlem that provides housing for people living with H.I.V., and his days wandering the streets. “I get very depressed because it’s like I’m on the treadmill going 80 miles an hour with the brakes on,” he said.

But for one hour the other Sunday, life slowed down to a happy pace. Sitting on a park bench on the corner of East Houston and Chrystie Streets, Mr. Terry was getting a haircut from Mark Bustos, a professional stylist with a celebrity clientele.

“Can you believe this is happening?” Mr. Terry said, a white bib wrapped around his neck, cigarette in hand and Stevie Wonder’s “Conversation Peace” playing in the background. An hour later, he looked in the mirror, and saw that his messy mop was now a stylish flattop. “Yeah, baby, I’ve still got it,” he said, striking a victory pose. “I’m the king of the world.”

Every Sunday, Mark Bustos, 30, a hairstylist at Three Squares Studios, an elite salon in Chelsea that charges $150 to clients like Norah Jones, Marc Jacobs and Phillip Lim, hits the sidewalk and provides free cuts to the homeless.

Photo

Mark Bustos.CreditRamsay de Give for The New York Times

Mr. Bustos often wanders around Union Square, the Lower East Side and Midtown, where he has gotten to know some of the homeless by name. “See that guy over there,” he said, walking down the Bowery. “That’s Cowboy Ritchie,” whose wife, Mr. Bustos added, “wants him to shave his beard off because it looks too good and the other women flirt with him.”

Other times, Mr. Bustos meets his unsuspecting new clients through friends and paying clients, who tell him about people in their neighborhoods. He does up to 10 haircuts a day.

He started offering haircuts to the homeless two years ago. The idea, he says, is to simply give back. “Whether I’m giving one at work or on the street, I think we can all relate to the haircut and how it makes us feel,” Mr. Bustos said. “We all know what it feels like to get a good haircut.”

In some way, Mr. Bustos, who lives in Jersey City, has always been generous about hairstyling, which he taught himself at a young age. When he was 14, Mr. Bustos set up a chair in his parents’ garage in Nutley, N.J., and cut friends’ hair for free, so they could pocket the barbershop money they got from their parents.

A 2012 trip to the Philippines to visit family made him realize he could do more. He was struck by the number of impoverished children and decided to rent a barbershop as his way of helping. “It made me feel so good,” Mr. Bustos said. “It was right to bring it home to New York.” Since then, he has spent most Sundays in New York, styling the hair of the homeless.

Photo

After the trim.CreditRamsay de Give for The New York Times

Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story

Mary E. Brosnahan, the president and chief executive of Coalition for the Homeless, a nonprofit advocacy group, said that a haircut is often more than a haircut. It can remind the homeless of who they once were, and offer a rosier version of their current, shattered selves. “It helps shift the gear out of survival mode,” Ms. Brosnahan said, letting them envision a better life.

Joi Gordon, the chief executive officer of Dress for Success, which provides professional clothes to homeless job seekers, has similar stories of transformation. “For most women, this is the first time that they’ve ever put on a suit in their lives,” she said. “That blazer really serves as a life jacket.”

Mr. Bustos tells a similar story of a homeless man who once looked in the mirror after a haircut, saw his fresh look and said: “Do you know anyone who is hiring. I’m ready to go get a job.” Mr. Bustos hasn’t seen him on the street since, something he considers a good sign.

His haircuts are always conducted on the street. If a park bench is not available, Mr. Bustos will find a milk crate or turn over a shopping cart. Rain or freezing temperatures do not deter him. (Since many homeless do not have regular access to washrooms, Mr. Bustos wears gloves, carefully disposes of hair clippings and disinfects his tools between every cut, just as he does with his equipment at work.)

“I do it on the streets, on the sidewalks, in the parks,” he said, “so people who walk by can find some inspiration in what I do.”

That is the same reason that Devin Masga, a street photographer, accompanies him and posts before-and-after photos to Mr. Bustos’sInstagram feed with the hashtag #BeAwesomeToSomebody. Mr. Bustos has more than 215,000 Instagram followers, some of whom donate supplies and gift cards, or ask how they can get help. “People ask me if I can come out with you or join your team,” he said. “My answer is just go and do it.”

“Just because they live on the street looking a little scruffy with their hair long doesn’t mean they can’t clean up and look great,” he added.

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Facebook Chief Says Secret of His Success Is Making Lots of Mistakes

Now we know why Facebook is so unafraid to make mistakes, whether it is the company’s privacy stumbles or new products that fail, like Facebook Home and Slingshot.

Mark Zuckerberg, the social network’s co-founder and chief executive, thinks mistakes are good.

Addressing questions from Facebook users Thursday at his second town hall meeting with the public, held at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., and live-streamed on the web, Mr. Zuckerberg said that successful people not only learn from their mistakes but spend most of their time making mistakes.

“If you’re successful, most of the things you’ve done were wrong,” he said. “What ends up mattering is the stuff you get right.” If you get a few big things right, he said, “you can make some pretty important changes in the world.”

As with his first town hall, Mr. Zuckerberg covered a range of topics, like the company’s privacy policies and its new tool that allows people to search past Facebook posts.

Asked if the social network would ever add a dislike button, he said the company was thinking about it. Mr. Zuckerberg said that while there isn’t likely to be a button that says “dislike” because of the potential for hurting people’s feelings, the company is trying to find a way for users to express a wider range of emotional reactions, such as sadness, to a post.

He joked with some of the questioners. When someone asked what his favorite pizza topping was, he said that if you’re going to eat pizza, you might as well go all the way and put fried chicken on top.

Another questioner, a woman who said she lives near Facebook’s headquarters, told him, “Thank you for upping the price of my house.”

Mr. Zuckerberg replied, “That’s the first time anyone has ever thanked me for having Facebook raise housing prices,” a reference to community concerns in San Francisco and elsewhere in the Bay Area about tech millionaires driving out longtime residents.

He discussed the importance of software programming skills. “If you can code, you have the power to sit down and make something and no one can stop you,” he said. He predicted that schools would eventually require everyone to learn a little coding because it sharpens analytical skills that are useful in a wide variety of professions.

Discussing Facebook’s role in public conversations, such as racial discrimination by police, he said, “We want to give everyone a voice.” He cited Facebook’s role in opening up discussions in places like the Middle East, but he avoided mention of the company’s recent censorship of some anti-government posts in Turkey or his courtship this week of Chinese Internet regulators, who insist on tight control over online discussion.

Addressing a question about children’s use of Facebook, Mr. Zuckerberg, who has no children, said that banning technology use by children wasn’t a solution. But “I would not allow my child under the age of 13 to use Facebook.” (Officially, the company bans the use of the service by anyone under 13, in part because of restrictive American privacy laws that apply to younger children, but many parents allow their underage kids to use the service anyway.)

Mr. Zuckerberg also admitted that he was having a lot of trouble fulfilling his 2014 New Year’s resolution of writing a thank-you note to someone every day.

“There are people who see the beauty of things,” he said. “And then there are people who see things and want to make them better, and I tend to be the latter,” he said, drawing laughs from his executive team sitting nearby.

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BEST HIGH TECH HAIR TOOLS

HARRY JOSH PRO TOOLS PRO DRYER 2000

At first glance you might question the authenticity of this dryer as it looks nothing like a traditional professional dryer, but use it once and all skepticism is gone. Much lighter than most this little green monster has a powerful motor that not only out lasts most with over 2000 hours of usage, but also dries hair 60% faster than their closet competition. Forget about the curved handle for styling ease and the super-efficient filtration system that reduces energy use by 70%, there’s still an innovative dual functionality ION switch for sleek or volume styling.  There are simply too many great things to mention about this dryer and we love it!

GHD ECLIPSE

Promising to tackle any hair texture and transform it into silky high gloss shine, the new Tri Zone ™technology has revolutionized the way in which we style our hair. The new ghd eclipse can take much larger sections of hair in one single stroke, significantly cutting the time it takes to style and go. It uses three sensors on each plate to maintain a much cooler and optimal temperature at all times, locking in the shine and style far longer than the traditional flat iron. The super-fine plates are super-efficient and reveal not only shinier, but stronger hair.

THEORIE TITANIUM SAGA 4 IN ONE DIGITAL CURLING SYSTEM

This amazing digital curling system has 100% titanium interchangeable heads each with graduated barrels to create the largest to the smallest of ringlets, curls and waves.  The handle is ergonomic with a non-slip grip to make it easier and more comfortable to style hair. Far-infrared technology ensures consistently even distribution of heat with reduced static and the ionized technology creates super smooth hair. This system was designed for everyone, even those of us with color treated hair and there are few warranties that offer that priceless Lifetime Warranty!

EVAN PROFESSIONAL FLAT IRON

One of the reasons we love this iron so much is the vibration effect – it creates plate oscillation to glide the iron swiftly and smoothly through the hair, even on lower temperatures (14 different temperature options) you still get that glistening shine. However, the main reason we will always keep one on hand is our travelling. Yes some others may say they are global – but from here to Canada barely gets you to glo let alone global! This baby comes in a neatly designed case super easy to pack and yes, can be used anywhere in the world.

PAUL MITCHELL NEURO CELL PREMIUM HOT ROLLER SYSTEM

Images of neighbors in the morning sending their kids off to school with a head full of rollers comes to mind when I think of hair rollers, but I am quickly snapped into reality when I am shown the technology that goes into this innovative compact system. The flocked rollers are heated to the optimum temperature for maintaining style in as little as 8 seconds. Simply choose your hair type and the rollers will heat to accommodate the best temperature for your hair, leaving you with soft, shiny and bouncy waves or curls.

COOLWAY GO PRO DRYER WITH TRUE SMOOTH SET

Proven to reduce hair breakage by 75% this new system of hair drying challenges the heat dryer with a cool new way to dry hair, literally. The secret to drying the hair without the intense heat is in the motor that boosts airflow without the need to increase the temperature. Using the products that come with the entire kit definitely helps maintain your smooth style avoiding any frizzy fly aways.

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THE LOOK AND FEEL OF FALL 2014 CATWALK TRENDS

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THE LOOK AND FEEL OF FALL 2014 CATWALK TRENDS

GONE ARE THE DAYS OF BEDHEAD HAIR AND GOTH EYES WITH PALE LIP – IF YOU ARE STILL WEARING THIS LOOK – TIME TO DITCH THE SMOKE AND MIRRORS AND PRESENT THE OPPRESSED PRETTY!

This majority of this fall season is reminiscent of the late 80’s hit from Robert Palmer ‘Simply Irresistible’. Super tight, sleek and tidy hair pulled back tightly to reveal a softer face framed with slightly stronger brows. Bright red is out for lips and a more subtle shade of corals and pinks work best unless you’re hitting the clubs – at which point dark and dramatic wins hands down. Bronzers are super sheer just to leave a warm glow and put the brakes on the heavy highlighter. Overall we all find that the aesthetic is appealing and have to admit we really like the look, it’s fresh, it’s beautiful and let’s face it, a rare occurrence on the catwalk!

- See more at: http://thebeautymagazine.com/catwalk04.html#sthash.yeVW4XpA.dpuf

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2014: The year in pictures

January 1: Couples kiss in New York's Times Square to ring in the new year.

January 6: Ice builds up along Lake Michigan at Chicago's North Avenue Beach. Chicago hit a low temperature of 16 below zero.

January 6: A cornfield in Karo, Indonesia, is covered with volcanic ash following the eruption of Mount Sinabung. See other recently active volcanoes

January 6: A lamb is placed around the neck of Pope Francis as he visits a living nativity scene near Rome for the Epiphany religious holiday.

January 12: An ostrich runs by destroyed buildings in Bentiu, South Sudan, after government forces retook the provincial capital from rebel forces. After decades of war, South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011, making it the world's youngest nation. Since then, South Sudan has become embroiled in its own internal conflict.

January 18: A large crowd in Mumbai, India, joins a funeral procession for Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin, the head of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community. Police say a predawn stampede killed more than a dozen people as tens of thousands gathered to mourn the death of the Muslim spiritual leader. Burhanuddin died a day earlier at the age of 102.

January 23: A trail of destruction is seen behind a boulder after a landslide in Ronchi di Termeno, Italy. The boulder missed the farmhouse at right but destroyed a barn before stopping in a vineyard. According to reports, the family living at the house was unharmed.

January 31: Refugees at the besieged al-Yarmouk camp, south of Damascus, Syria, wait to receive food distributed by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency. Millions of peoplehave either fled Syria or become displaced because of the civil war there.

February 14: A man in Aleppo, Syria, holds a baby who survived what activists say was an airstrike by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The United Nations estimates more than 190,000 people have been killed in Syria since an uprising in March 2011 spiraled into civil war.

February 14: A Coton de Tulear dog is hit by strong winds on the beach in Lyme Regis, England.

February 17: A baby elephant sits stuck in a ditch near railway tracks in Assam, India. A group of wild elephants was crossing the tracks when the calf got injured and fell.

February 18: Britain's Prince Charles wears a traditional Saudi uniform as he attends the Janadriyah culture festival in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

February 20: Protesters in Kiev, Ukraine, catch fire as they stand behind burning barricades during clashes with police. Kiev's Independence Square had been the center ofanti-government protests since November 2013, when President Viktor Yanukovych reversed a decision on a trade deal with the European Union and instead turned toward Russia.

February 20: Pamela Rauseo performs CPR on her 5-month-old nephew, Sebastian de la Cruz, after pulling over on the side of a Miami highway. She was stuck in traffic when the infant stopped breathing. Sebastian was taken to the hospital in critical condition, but he survived.

February 23: From left, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev look at their watches before the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

February 23: A leopard leaps near a furniture market in the Degumpur area of Meerut, India. The big cat sparked panic in the city when it strayed inside a hospital, a cinema and an apartment block, an official said.

February 26: Riot police in Ankara, Turkey, disperse demonstrators trying to march to Parliament to protest Turkey's ruling party. Audio recordings that sounded like Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan giving his son money-laundering tips over the phone became a social media rage that poured out into the streets. Erdogan denounced the recordings, calling them "immoral edited material."

March 2: A python begins to swallow a crocodile at Lake Moondarra in Queensland, Australia. The snake, thought to be about 10 feet long, constricted the crocodile to death before dragging it to shore and eating it whole in front of a shocked crowd of onlookers.

March 2: A baby has his hair cut in Hefei, China. Many in China believe it is good luck to have your hair cut 

on the second day of the second lunar month, known in Chinese as Er Yue Er, or "a time for the dragon to raise its head.

March 2: Host Ellen DeGeneres takes a moment to orchestrate a selfie with a group of movie stars at the Academy Awards ceremony. Actor Bradley Cooper, seen in the foreground, was holding the phone at the time. "If only Bradley's arm was longer," DeGeneres tweeted. "Best photo ever." It became the most retweeted post of all time. See the year in selfies.

March 7: Debris covers a street in Aleppo, Syria, after a reported airstrike by Syrian government forces.

March 9: The Northern Lights appear over snow-covered mountains in Iceland.

March 17: Conservators at Egypt's Grand Museum, just outside of Cairo, clean a female mummy that dates to the 

Pharaonic Late Period between 712-323 B.C.

March 24: An intact house sits at the edge of a massive landslide that devastated Oso, Washington a couple of days before. The landslide crossed the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River, causing multiple deaths and massive damage.

May 9: Valentin Gruener runs with a lioness named Sirga at a private reserve in Botswana. Gruener helped raise Sirga since she was a cub.

May 19: A supercell thunderstorm is seen above Sidney, Nebraska. A supercell can produce severe winds and powerful tornadoes. It can also produce damaging hail, flash floods and unusually frequent lightning.

May 20: This picture, taken from security camera video, shows a knife-wielding attacker going on a rampage at a primary school in Macheng, China. Eight students were injured in the attack, according to the South China Morning Post.

May 21: Two same-sex couples -- Eliza Callard and Emily Gavin, left, and Christopher Whibley and Bill Good, right -- complete their paperwork for marriage licenses at Philadelphia City Hall. A day earlier, a federal judge struck down Pennsylvania's ban on same-sex marriage, declaring it unconstitutional.

May 26: Laura Youngblood weeps over the grave of her husband, Travis L. Youngblood, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. It was Memorial Day in the United States.

June 6: Members of a hardline Sikh group clash with guards of the Golden Temple, the religion's holiest shrine, in Amritsar, India. Half a dozen people were wounded, officials said.

July 12: Central American migrants climb on a train in Ixtepec, Mexico, during their journey toward the U.S.-Mexico border. Days later, Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced that he would deploy up to 1,000 National Guard troops to the border, where tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors have crossed into the United States this year.

August 6: An elephant relieves an itch on a small car in South Africa's Pilanesberg National Park. The two passengers in the car were shaken up but not injured.

September 28: Firefighters and members of Japan's military conduct a rescue operation at a cabin near the peak of Mount Ontake. Dozens of people were killed when the volcano erupted.

October 26: Students grieve during a gathering at Marysville-Pilchuck High School in Marysville, Washington. Law enforcement officials say Jaylen Fryberg, a popular freshman at the school, shot five fellow students before committing suicide on October 24.

November 25: Police Sgt. Bret Barnum hugs 12-year-old Devonte Hart at a Portland, Oregon, rally showing support for the protesters in Ferguson, Missouri.

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