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Mobile Phone Call Scams, Pegasus Mobile Spyware, Newegg Data Breach – WB35
This is the Shared Security Weekly Blaze for September 24, 2018 sponsored by Security Perspectives – Your Source for Tailored Security Awareness Training and Assessment Solutions and Silent Pocket. This episode was hosted by Tom Eston. Listen to this episode and previous ones direct via your web browser by clicking here. You can also watch each episode of the podcast on our YouTube Channel!
Show Transcript
This is your Shared Security Weekly Blaze for September 24th 2018 with your host, Tom Eston. In this week’s episode: Mobile phone call scams, Pegasus mobile spyware, and the Newegg data breach.
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Hi everyone, this is Tom Eston, Co-host of the Shared Security podcast. Welcome to the Shared Security Weekly Blaze where we update you on the top 3 security and privacy topics from the week. These weekly podcasts are published every Monday and are 15 minutes or less quickly giving you “news that you can use”.
Raise your hand if you’re sick and tired of receiving scam and fraudulent phone calls on your mobile phone. I’ll assume that all of you are probably raising your hand right about now, myself included. Well not to be the bearer of bad news but according to a recent report, nearly half of the mobile phone calls received in the US next year will be scams. In a report from First Orion, which makes phone call data transparency solutions, notes a dramatic increase in mobile scam calls “from 3.7% of total calls in 2017 to 29.2% in 2018—and that number is projected to reach 44.6% by early 2019”. Many of these calls are using a technique called “Neighborhood Spoofing” which happens when a scammer makes their number look like a real local number, tricking the victim into picking up the call. Since these numbers are typically spoofs of real numbers, sometimes if you call these numbers back, you’ll get a real innocent person; not the scammer who spoofed the number.
While many of us are either manually blocking scam calls through the features on our phones or using a third-party app to screen and block calls, the best way to stop these calls from happening seem to be with the mobile carriers themselves. First Orion seems to be addressing this with an in-network technology called “CallPrinting” that is said to significantly reduce the volume of scam calls. First Orion’s press release states that this technology will be used by one Tier-One US carrier this fall.
In regards to third-party apps, I’ve recently installed an app called “AT&T Call Protect” which seems to work fairly well to block scam calls . This is a free app for AT&T mobile customers. I’d say that it’s slightly reduced the number of scam and robocalls that I’ve received but I find it’s not perfect as blacklistin
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