Don't Be Fooled Again by Cyber Criminals

April Fool's Day is one of those days I wanted to avoid when going to the office. My former co-workers were pranksters who liked pulling April Fool's jokes, knowing there'd be someone who would fall for the spoof.

For cyber crooks, every day is April 1, as they are always hoping to fool someone in order to find a way to mine into corporate data and personal information. The Online Trust Alliance (OTA) wants to help folks avoid falling for the fake websites and phishing emails. So, in honor of April Fool's Day, OTA released its Top 10 Recommendations to Help Businesses Protect Consumers From Being Fooled. According to Craig Spiezle, executive director and president of the OTA, the reason for the list is to show that cyber security and identity theft threats can be prevented with simple but effective actions. He said in a release:

Upgrade all employees to the most current version of browsers that have integrated phishing and malware protection and privacy controls including support of "Do Not Track" mechanisms and controls. Such controls provide users the control on third-party data collection, usage and data sharing of their online browsing activities, while balancing out the value of ad supported online services. Encourage consumers to update their browsers by notifying them of insecure and outdated browsers. In addition, consider terminating support for end-of-life browsers with known vulnerabilities by preventing logons and providing instructions to upgrade.