Security and Risk Online - Cyber Monday Shopping?

Cyber Monday shopping? How to spot SCAM websites and avoid being ripped off

But online shopping comes with risks, and recent research from comparethemarket.com has found cyber criminals are expected to pocked £8.6million from tomorrow’s spending bonanza alone.

The website’s spokesman Simon McCulloch said: “Cyber Monday is a major retail event and a salmon run for criminals who will try to seize money from unsuspecting shoppers and retail outlets.”

Action Fraud, the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cyber-crime, released figures showing Christmas shoppers were fleeced out of more than £10million in online scams last year.

Alex Neill from consumer body which? added: “If you see any deals advertised on Cyber Monday that look too good to be true, be careful. Fraudsters will do all they can to try and catch you out.”

But there are ways to protect yourself.

Firstly, double-check the domain name. Which? said: “A lot of fraudulent websites will use a domain name similar to a brand or product name. For example, website domains such as ipadoffers.net or discountnikeclothes.com should set alarm bells ringing.”

Be wary of domains which end in .net or .org, as they are rarely used for online shopping and may be misused by dodgy organisations.

Keep an eye out for poor spelling, grammar and English. Which? said: “This could mean the site isn’t genuine and has been put together by someone abroad looking to make a quick profit.”

Check what the shipping and returns policy is - if there isn’t one, proceed with caution.

When using a website, ensure the address beings “https”, and if you are unsure, check forums where other consumers alert people to scam pages.

Before purchasing, check the company’s social media feeds for recent activity and to see what other consumers have said about them.

Keep a close eye on your bank statement for unusual activity, as cyber criminals often make small but regular thefts which are harder to spot than large one-off amounts.

SC Advisors Real Estate Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU)

PROJECT EXECUTIVE FOR WORLD HEADQUARTERS

In 1989, Campus Crusade for Christ, (CRU) an interdenominational ministry then located in San Bernardino, California, received an offer of 275 acres in Southeast Orange County from local landowner Charles Bradshaw who hoped the gift would draw the ministry to Central Florida. CRU accepted the gift and in 1991 moved its world headquarters to temporary space in Orlando, hoping to build approximately 250,000 sf of office and training space and a visitor’s center in a campus like setting.

Initial efforts to develop plans, secure entitlements and zoning, and raise the funds necessary to construct the new headquarters stalled. In 1994, CRU Founder and President Dr. Bill Bright turned to Jay Berlinsky to jump start the headquarters project and lead it to completion. Jay accepted the challenge.

He and his development team quickly engaged architects and engineers to create a site plan and building designs while developing a plan to obtain the necessary zoning and entitlements. In addition to preparing the large number of complex applications required by municipal agencies, team members met individually with agency staff and elected officials to clarify their plans and respond to questions. They held multiple meetings with residents and other landowners in the area. The development team was also actively engaged in the fundraising effort, offering assurances to potential donors that the project was feasible and that every contributed dollar would be spent wisely.

Ground was finally broken in 1996 and in October of 1998, CRU’s world headquarters on the shores of Lake Hart was dedicated. Almost twenty years later, as the landscape has matured and the buildings have aged, the campus is home to more than 1,000 staff and volunteers.

SC Advisors To Serve As Owner’s Advisor For Citrus Bowl Renovation

SC Advisors Real Estate Orlando Projects in Singapore Review - SC Advisors has been engaged by the City of Orlando to serve as the Owner’s Advisor for the renovation of the Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium. The most challenging element of the project is timeframe—demolishing and then rebuilding 80% of the structure—must be accomplished with ten months to avoid losing revenue and continuity from holiday bowl games and other marquee events.

“SC Advisors will work closely with our partners, the City of Orlando and Florida Citrus Sports, to transform this historic stadium into one of the finest bowl venues in the country,” said Jay Berlinsky, founder and owner of SC Advisors. “The timeframe calls for extraordinary levels of planning, integration and coordination. We look forward to the challenge.”

Celebs draw fentanyl addict headlines by Insurance Fraud Advocacy

Reminds that insurance fraud helps finance opioid epidemic

First came Prince, who died from an overdose of the painkiller fentanyl in his Minnesota home.

Next came singer Chaka Khan. She beat the reaper by entering into rehab this month, along with her sister

The Grammy winner admitted fentanyl is her escape drug of choice. Chaka wisely gave up her summer concert appearances to focus on getting clean.

“The battle of addiction is a serious and long process, which is why I chose to address my use of prescription medications — which came about as a result of the knee surgery I had a few years ago,” she said.

Fentanyl is one of latest prescription painkillers to grab headlines. It’s used for severe pain, and is approved for long term treatment. The stuff also is up to 100 times stronger than morphine, and 50 times stronger than heroin.

Fentanyl quickly shoots into the bloodstream. Dopamine then elevates, stoking the brain’s reward areas. The sweet euphoria grows into dependence, then addiction.

States like New Jersey and Mississippi are reporting spikes in fentanyl overdose deaths.

Insurance fraud is the largely untold story. It’s helping finance America’s epidemic of opioid addiction — billions of stolen insurance dollars worth.

Some fentanyl addicts reportedly are scamming health insurers to score prescriptions that feed the need. Same with other painkillers such as hydrocodone, or anti-anxiety meds and muscle relaxants.

Insurance scams may or may not have funded Prince’s or Chaka’s highs. Yet scams still are part of the bigger opioid picture, so we should be very concerned.

Insurers are stepping up investigations, plus education of doctors and patients to head off addiction. Law enforcement is going after shady pain clinics and pharmacies that dole out insurer-paid scripts.

Still, we risk getting exhausted by it all. We’re subject to steady parades of news stories about people dying from insurance-paid overdoses. Plus welcome busts of cold-blooded pain docs. They’re keeping addicts fed with pills — are we getting fed up?

Sadly, it may take a celeb’s drug death or rehab to keep headlines fresh and the public concerned. Let’s stay concerned, whether it’s a Grammy winner or small-town factory worker just trying to get clean.

Hawkfield Gallery Review: Enhancing and Preserving American Art

How will you respond if someone asks you on what art is? The meaning of art is very broad with many answers. It is one component of culture that lets the artist express his feelings, thoughts and observation. Its concept is subjective, open and debatable.

So how or when will you say that a piece of work is an art? Do you have the knowledge to distinguish good art from bad art? If not, then look for a fine art consultant and a prominent art gallery to help and guide you in buying art. Hawkfield Gallery consultants and its fine art consultants had established a good reputation in the art industry because of their knowledge and capability to recognize talented artists and worthy artworks.

Hawkfield Gallery's massive art collection spans from the 20th to 21st century American visual arts. The gallery's fine art consultants provide quality service to people who are willing to sell or buy impressive artworks. They don't just focus on collectors; they work closely with first-time buyers too. Their wide experiences in buying and selling art have helped first-time buyers to start their own collection and to motivate those who want to enter the art industry.

Check out the website of Hawkfield Gallery or ask for an appointment with them. Their gallery is located in a shore town midway between Boston and Cape Cod, a place where you can see breathtaking landscapes. It is housed in an 1850's farmhouse and became a tearoom, craft shop and lending library in the 1920's. The farmhouse is located in an area beside the historic North River. Tourists can take a stroll along woodland trails which lead to a pier on the river. Moreover, the place has numerous antique shops, galleries of historic sites in the South Shore's Plymouth County.

The team of Hawkfield Gallery aims at enhancing and preserving folk art and American culture contained on artworks. Purchasing an artwork in Hawkfield is like helping to preserve the cultural heritage of America. You will somehow feel that you contributed in maintaining the America's culture and protecting it for future generations.

Bacall Conniff and Associates Review: The impact of restaurant business

We can't deny that restaurants now play an important part in our lives. Today's world is always busy and most people want everything to be made as fast as possible, be it a business transaction or searching the recent album release of your favorite artist. Looking or preparing some food is not an exception, that's why we have a lot of restaurants available these days.

Its changes came from little to big changes happened in each sector of the society - from family traditions, industrialization, and change in the whole economic system.

It's amazing how people in the past do everything at their own homes. You will see a lot of plants surrounding their houses and they even raise animals for meat. They are also used to build their own houses, especially those who live in the wilderness.

People continue to improve their lifestyle, thus the birth of towns and cities occurred. Formal education has been introduced along with the removal of the barter-trade system. People learned how to focus on various skills or enterprises to make a living. They also entrust the cooking of their food to an individual or an enterprise that makes good money in doing so.

With restaurants, you can surely save more time and enjoy different cuisines at one place. The success of this business is evident in our current society. A lot of people tend to spend their breakfast, lunch or dinner at restaurants because of their busy schedules since they don't have enough time to cook for themselves.

However, with the massive growth of restaurants, come the fast foods chains which offer foods that are not really healthy to the body if consumed on a regular basis due to the fact that these foods are often high in calories yet offer little or no nutritional value. Because of this, many restaurants now offer fresh alternatives in healthy diets.

If you're a restaurant owner and you need help about the accounting or financing of your business, don't hesitate to contact Bacall Conniff and Associates. Restaurants around the world will surely continue to provide delicious foods to everyone.

Heimdal Online Security: Top 10 Most Dangerous Financial Malware

The Top 10 Most Dangerous Malware That Can Empty Your Bank Account [Updated]

At the beginning of June 2014, a large international effort – named Operation Tovar – involving US and European enforcement agencies and security firms worldwide, blocked the spread of Zeus Gameover botnet and managed to control servers that were important for CryptoLocker, the well-known ransomware, which encrypts system files and demands a ransom in exchange for the decryption key.

Gameover Zeus and Cryptolocker are some of the most well-known pieces of malware that target financial data, but there are many other variants and types of credentials stealing Trojans out there that you need to pay attention to.

We organized a list of the most dangerous financial malware out there. Just to make sure you understand our approach and intentions, what you’ll find below is a short presentation for some of the most advanced credential-stealing Trojans on the web.

Nevertheless, you can rest assured that Heimdal PRO is one of the few security solutions that can protect you from these advanced pieces of malware.

Top 10 Most Dangerous Financial Malware

1.Zbot/Zeus

Zeus, also known as Zbot, is a notorious Trojan which infects Windows users and tries to retrieve confidential information from the infected computers. Once it is installed, it also tries to download configuration files and updates from the Internet. The Zeus files are created and customized using a Trojan-building toolkit, which is available online for cybercriminals.

Zeus has been created to steal private data from the infected systems, such as system information, passwords, banking credentials or other financial details and it can be customized to gather banking details in specific countries and by using various methods. Using the retrieved information, cybercriminals log into banking accounts and make unauthorized money transfers through a complex network of computers.

Zbot/Zeus is based on the client-server model and requires a Command and Control server to send and receive information across the network. The single Command and Control server is considered to be the weak point in the malware architecture and it is the target of law enforcement agencies when dealing with Zeus.

To counter this weak point, the latest variant of Zeus/Zbot have included a DGA (domain generation algorithm), which makes the Command and Control servers resistant to takedown attempts. The DGA generates a list of domain names to which the bots try to connect in case the Command and Control server cannot be reached.

Zeus/Zbot, known by many names including PRG and Infostealer, has already infected as many as 3.6 million systems in the United States. In 2009, security analysts found that the Zeus spread on more than 70,000 accounts of banks and businesses including NASA and the Bank of America.

2.Zeus Gameover (P2P) (Zeus family)

Zeus Gameover is a variant of the Zeus family – the infamous family of financial stealing malware – which relies upon a peer-to-peer botnet infrastructure.

The network configuration removes the need for a centralized Command and Control server, including a DGA (Domain Generation Algorithm) which produces new domains in case the peers cannot be reached. The generated peers in the botnet can act as independent Command and Control servers and are able to download commands or configuration files between them, finally sending the stolen data to the malicious servers.

Zeus Gameover is used by cybercriminals to collect financial information, targeting various user data from credentials, credit card numbers and passwords to any other private information which might prove useful in retrieving a victim’s banking information. GameOver Zeus is estimated to have infected 1 million users around the world.

READ: 3. SpyEye (Zeus family)