Unemployment Insurance Cybercrime Alert

Five ways to help protect yourself from unemployment insurance fraud

Unemployment Insurance Cybercrime Alert

Five ways to help protect yourself from unemployment insurance fraud

Image courtesy of Brandpoint; Used with permission

Many people around the U.S. are relying on unemployment insurance assistance as the country battles the pandemic and associated economic effects. As unemployment has risen, fraudsters have been targeting consumers to steal unemployment insurance benefits. They do this by taking personally identifiable information (PII) that cybercriminals have posted on the dark web, stolen from unsuspecting consumers or gained from past data breaches.

Once fraudsters have this information, which can include a victim’s name, address, Social Security number and driver license number, they falsely apply to a state’s unemployment insurance program to register for unemployment insurance benefits. These benefits are typically distributed via direct deposit or prepaid debit cards for those without bank accounts. Once a fraudster has access to the stolen funds, they can use a prepaid payment account service and its mobile app to cash out or make purchases — in-store or online — for items like gift cards, electronics, cryptocurrency, money orders, and money transfers.

“We’ve seen a significant increase in fraudulent purchases in July, related to unemployment insurance fraud schemes,” said Michael Lemberger, senior vice president and regional risk officer for North America at Visa. “Fraudsters are actively targeting state unemployment insurance programs hoping to find gaps. This problem requires a collective effort with everyone doing their part, including the state workforce agencies, law enforcement, financial institutions, payment processors and payment networks. Consumers must be on-guard for suspicious activities so fraudsters cannot exploit their identity for financial gain.”

The warning signs for these crimes can be tough to spot, but here are common red flags to look out for:

1) Offers from people or organizations you don’t recognize promising early and faster unemployment insurance benefit payments.

2) Solicitations from people you don’t know offering money in exchange for your personal information.

3) Letters or email correspondence indicating new accounts or unemployment insurance benefits have been initiated in your name.

To avoid your personal information from being used for fraud, Visa recommends the following to protect yourself:

* Proactively register for an unemployment insurance account directly through your state’s website. This way, if anyone tries to steal your information, state authorities will notify you as soon as possible and prevent your money from getting stolen.

* Secure your personal information — online and offline. Use online tools to encrypt and lock down sensitive digital information, such as your financial and health documents. For physical documents with your personal and financial information, make sure they’re locked in a secure spot and safely shred any documents you don’t need.

* Be mindful of social media and email scams. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Fraudsters will try to convince you that you can get your benefits sooner, you may be eligible for more benefits, or a person you don’t know needs help with their unemployment insurance payments.

* Just like our physical hygiene is crucial right now, so is our cyber hygiene. Don’t click on links or attachments from email addresses and people you don’t recognize or offers you didn’t ask for.

* And, last but not least, your information is valuable so keep your personal information to yourself. Never share your personal information unless there is a legitimate reason to do so.

If the worst-case scenario happens and a fraudster gets hold of your personally identifiable information to commit unemployment insurance fraud, there are steps Visa recommends you take, including:

* Contact the three primary credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

* Contact your respective financial institution.

* Contact your state unemployment office.

* Visit IdentityTheft.gov to report the fraud to the FTC and get help with important next steps for recovery.

* Review your credit reports often.

Cybercriminals are continuing to up their game, but if people take the necessary precautions and remain on the lookout for anything suspicious, these fraud attempts will become much less successful and frequent. (BPT)

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4 Myths About PC Technology Small Businesses Need to Reject

12/3/2019

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Advice to Make Smarter Tech Decisions for Your Business

What you need to know to make the best tech decisions for your small business.

(BPT) - The PCs you choose to power your small business can dramatically impact your company's productivity and competitiveness. However, many small businesses fall for common myths about computers, leading to poor purchasing decisions.

Here are four myths about PCs — and realities to help you make smarter technology decisions for your business.

Myth 1: Consumer PCs are interchangeable with business PCs

Reality: Because they're built for activities like watching videos, checking email and surfing the web, PCs for the consumer market will not always have the computing power or security features sophisticated business applications demand. If a family laptop reluctantly boots up or crashes, it's annoying, but not serious.

For a business, however, computers are mission-critical. Employees are more likely to run multiple applications simultaneously, use resource-heavy applications or use software as a service (SaaS). PCs built for consumers often lack the computing power to handle these tasks — resulting in lost productivity.

Consumer-level PCs may also lack built-in security features of computers designed for businesses, which could make your business — and sensitive customer data — vulnerable to cyberattacks.

Myth 2: RAM is the top factor in computer performance

Reality: Adding more random access memory (RAM) usually allows a computer to manage more data. But RAM alone won't improve a computer's performance — unless the PC has sufficient processing power. To make a PC faster and more efficient, you need a powerful central processing unit (CPU) to optimize the RAM. While RAM is the memory, the CPU (or processor) is the computer's "brain," receiving instructions, performing calculations and processing information.

To run today's resource-intensive business software efficiently, look for computers with plenty of RAM plus processing power, such as PCs combining an 8th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 processor with Intel Optane memory — delivering up to 2.5 times more responsive handling of everyday tasks and up to 66% faster web performance compared to 5-year-old PCs.^[1]

Myth 3: You can wait until PCs fail before replacing them

Reality: Long before a PC fails, its performance may suffer, costing your business time and money. Waiting for an older PC to start up every day can waste up to 11 hours a year.^[2] Crashing, freezing or slow computers can keep your employees from working efficiently, and may appear unprofessional to customers or clients. Sluggish, malfunctioning PCs can reduce employee satisfaction, as workers become frustrated with outdated technology.

Don't wait until your business PCs slow to a crawl before upgrading. Be proactive. Look for hardware that exceeds your software vendor's recommended system requirements. This will help ensure your PCs can handle future software upgrades. Then set a regular schedule for upgrading your hardware.

Myth 4: You're saving money by repairing old PCs

Reality: Repairing or adding RAM to squeeze more life out of older computers may seem economical. But the cost of keeping older PCs running quickly adds up. According to Intel(R)-commissioned research from J.Gold Associates, repairing breakdowns of a five-year-old computer costs an average of $662 per year. The same research found 43% of the small businesses surveyed had PCs that were over five years old — and malfunctioned each year.^[3] At that rate, you'd soon be spending more on repairs than on a brand-new, more powerful computer.

Besides losing productivity during breakdowns and repairs, older computers are also slower. Using five-year-old PCs can make your employees up to 29% less productive,^[4] potentially costing your business up to $17,000 per year, per worker.^[5]

Older PCs can also put your business at risk of cyberattacks. Per the J.Gold Associates survey, small businesses estimated that 34.47% of their computers over five years old had been hacked.^[6] With the average cost of a single data breach worldwide estimated at $35,745 per employee,^[7] an older PC rapidly becomes an expensive liability.

In the same survey, small businesses reported that just 5.92% of their PCs newer than one year old had experienced cyberattacks.^[8] Newer computers frequently offer built-in security features to reduce risk of cyberattacks. If you've updated to Windows 10, upgrading to a PC with the 8th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) processor can help you focus on growing your business instead of worrying about cybersecurity.

Blindly accepting myths about PCs can be expensive for your small business. Upgrading to more powerful computers can optimize the performance of your business software, enhance your cybersecurity and boost employee productivity. The next time you're making decisions about computer purchases, be sure you base your actions on reality. Then choose the right PCs to make your business more competitive.

Learn more at Intel.com/smallbusiness.

[1] Performance results based on testing as of March 2, 2018, and may not reflect all publicly available security updates. See configuration disclosure for details. No product can be absolutely secure. Software and workloads used in performance tests may have been optimized for performance only on Intel microprocessors. Performance tests, such as SYSmark and MobileMark, are measured using specific computer systems, components, software, operations and functions. Any change to any of those factors may cause results to vary. You should consult other information and performance tests to assist you in fully evaluating your contemplated purchases, including performance of that product when combined with other products. For more information about performance and benchmark results, visit Intel.com/benchmarks. As measured by SYSmark 2014 SE Responsiveness Subscore comparing 8th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 8400 (16GB Intel(R) Optane(TM) memory module) vs. Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3330 (HDD Only).

[2] “Just waiting for an older PC to start up every day, an employee can waste up to 11 hours a year” is based on a 2018 web-based survey commissioned by Intel and conducted by J.Gold Associates, LLC., of 3,297 respondents from small business in 16 countries (Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, UAE, UK, USA) to assess challenges and costs associated with deploying older PCs. Assuming one start-up per day and using an average start-up time calculated by taking the midpoint of the time that survey respondents estimated it takes to start up a PC over 5 years old, employees were estimated to spend up to 11 hours a year starting up a 5-year-old PC (4.07 minutes X 5 days per week X 52 weeks per year divided by 60 (to get to hours) X utilization rate of .67 so 4.07 X 5 X 52 / 60 X .67 = 11.8). Full report available at Intel.com/content/www/us/en/business/small-business/sme-pc-study.html.

[3] The J.Gold study is based on a 2018 web-based survey, commissioned by Intel and conducted by J.Gold Associates, LLC., of 3,297 respondents from small business in 16 countries (Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, UAE, UK, USA) to assess the challenges and costs associated with deploying older PCs. J.Gold research indicated that the failure of a PC under warranty cost a company $1,070 for each failure, and the cost of failure for a machine out of warranty was $1,525. We can allocate a cost per user per year based on the above calculated costs of failure (assuming an in-warranty failure cost for year one and a non-warranty failure cost for all other years) where: Cost = 43.42% (average failure rate) X $1,525 (cost of failure outside of a warranty) 1 (usage from Q2). Full report available at Intel.com/content/www/us/en/business/small-business/sme-pc-study.html.

[4] Ibid. “Using five-year-old PCs can make your employees up to 29% less productive” is based on the productivity impairment respondents estimated was attributed to using a five-year-old PC multiplied by the average amount of time respondents estimated was spent on a PC.

[5] Ibid. “Potentially costing your business up to U.S. $17,000 per year per worker” is based on survey respondents’ estimates that for PCs more than five years old, employees would be up to 29% less productive. Based on an average assumed employee’s salary of $60,000, the lost productivity cost will amount to $17,000.

[6] Ibid. Allocating the cost of a malware attack or data breach by employee can be calculated by the following formula: $35,745 (Cost per employee) = 34.47% (average percentage that have had a breach) X $103,705 (the average cost of the breach).

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid. “Small businesses had reported that just 5.92% of their computers had experienced cyberattacks” is based on the responses to a question in the J.Gold 2018 web-based survey.