Jul 21, 2019
Craig was on with Jim Polito. We talked about some of the latest warnings and problems people are having. If you are using Microsoft, I get it. I understand why you're not doing the updates but, man, it is essential. We talked about Organized Crime, Russia and Iran and then we also discussed a little bit about my Security Summer Summit.
These and more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com
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Transcript:
Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors.
Airing date: 07/09/2019
The latest warnings and problems people are having with Microsoft and updates and a little bit about my Security Summer Summit.
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Craig Peterson
Hey, good morning, everybody. Craig Peterson here. I was on with
Mr. Polito this morning. We talked about some of the latest
warnings and problems people are having. If you are using
Microsoft, I get it. I understand why you're not doing the updates
but, man, it is essential. That is what I talked about with Jim
this morning. We also discussed a little bit about my Security
Summer Summit. So, here we go with Mr. Jim Polito.
Jim Polito
The man the myth, the legend, I'm talking about our tech talk Guru
Craig Peterson. Good morning, sir.
Craig Peterson
Hey, good morning, Jim.
Jim Polito
Craig, always a pleasure. Missed you last week. It is still a
pleasure to have you here. We have to get right down to it. We got
like, I must pull out the Godfather theme here somewhere. Do I
still have that? Geez, I should have probably should have checked
it, beforehand. But I should pull up the Godfather theme. Organized
crime is doing some drive-bys. But they're doing them in
cyberspace. No more, old Al Capone days that the car pulls up and
those machine guns, the Tommy guns, blaze out the windows where
mobsters dropped to the sidewalk. Now, this is online, right?
Craig Peterson
Yeah, exactly. We don't have to worry about the St. Valentine's Day
Massacre. Yeah. But we all do have to worry about this. Organized
crime has been doing some innovative things, at least for them.
Right.
Jim Polito
Good. Good. I agree with you.
Craig Peterson
When you think about organized crime and muscle men and paying the
protection money and everything. Well, this is just a step up or
down for them? Yeah.
Jim Polito
Well, they always go where there's an opportunity. I mean, I used
to report a lot on organized crime. Mostly Cosa Nostra, you know,
the Italian five families from New York. I used to cover and report
on them because we had a crew of the Genovese crime family, out
this way. But there are a lot of other organized crimes, Eastern
European, Asian and 20 some odd gangs. It's all over. These guys
are doing it online. Seizing the opportunity, because that's what
did they say to Dillinger? It was a Dillenger or other guys that
said "why do you rob banks? Well, that's where the money is," you
know?
Craig Peterson
It's a fascinating thing because there are so many vulnerabilities.
The NSA made a statement, and that is something they've never done
before. You are old enough to remember when NSA stood for "no such
agency." They deny the existence and everything else. Well, for the
first time, ever, they've come out and issued a warning because
there doing drive-by downloads going on. That is where they use
your machine to mine Bitcoin. Now, that's just a huge, huge thing.
They are using some features in your web browsers, which, again,
kind of shows it's time to go to a privacy browser. The NSA issued
a warning, now, because apparently, there are at least 10 million
computers here in the US that are vulnerable, Windows computers, of
course, that are vulnerable to some of these significant drive-by
problems as well as attacks. Remember that President Trump pulled
back an offensive attack that we were about to launch. It was going
to be a kinetic attack against Iran. We were going to take out
their missiles and take out those radar installations. What we did
instead was we carried out a cyberattack against them. Yeah. And we
went after those same installations with cyber attacks. We also
went into Russia's power grid a few weeks ago, and we quite
literally flipped the power on and off a few times, to let them
know, we weren't happy with something they did.
Now, the NSA issued a warning, as well as the FBI. I got an alert from the FBI about this, again right now. They are warning that the Iranians are attacking us directly. They are going after us. They're using some software that they've cobbled together from some open sources, but they're using some software that will wipe computers, it just deletes everything. It doesn't try and hold it ransom or anything. What they're trying to do is strike back at us economically. Iran is now deploying it. It's just amazing. The warning out there right now, that Iran is coming after us in a cyber way. You've got that organized crime was using drive-by downloads and is trying to hack in. We've got nation-states are like Russia and China that are invading our systems. We just found out last week, the FBI and other intelligence agencies are saying that we have had all of our major phone companies records have been taken by the Chinese and have been monitored by the Chinese for years. Then we've got the organized crime going after us using our machines to mind Bitcoin, literally mine money, as well as steal from us. We've got Iran who is on the offensive, right now, attacking our business computers as well as our home machines. You know, here's the disappointing part of all of this, Jim.
80% of the time, the attack can be stopped by just going back to the brass tacks and making sure your machines are up to date and patched. It has to be automatic. We have over 10 million devices now that are out there, Windows machines, that have not still have that unpatched vulnerability. Look at the Equifax hack. The Equifax hack happened because there was an uninstalled patch that was about eight months old. The Target hack, the TJ Maxx target all hacked because of an HVAC contractor. Can you believe we're talking about the system that controls the heating and cooling the air conditioning system for a retail store? A contractor installed them, and that contractor had remote access to track those systems so they could monitor them. The bad guys this unpatched track access point and they went in and hacked target.
Jim Polito
That's a way to sneak in. We're talking with Craig Peterson, our
tech talk guru. At the end of the segment, we're going to give you
a number. If you text, My name, Jim, to that number, you'll get all
the information like how to protect yourself from this and other
things. Standard data and text rates apply. So, Craig, it's
straightforward. It's just that people aren't doing what's out
there and available to protect themselves.
Craig Peterson
I think they have good reason to. You know, I don't want people to
feel bad. Lies and misrepresentations have them confused. You go in
you, you buy a router at the local Staples store, and you install
it in your small business. You think you're all set. Well, no, that
has to be patched. Right? Yeah, some routers will automatically
apply patches. But the other big problem is they say Microsoft has
been mistreating consumers for decades. I mean, slapping them in
the face and kicking them around. And they've done worse for small
businesses. We could go on for hours on this one. But when you
install a patch from Microsoft, look at the last two months look at
patches from Microsoft. They broke computers. And I mean, most
machines to which they were applied. Microsoft, sometimes it's the
first choice. Here's our Patch Tuesday patches. So all these
patches hate to install them, there were almost 80 critical patches
last month from Microsoft. So when you install them and they don't
work, and they break your computer, and you can't get your work
done, and you can't get the paperwork out to the court and time,
I've had calls from listeners on that one. Right? Law offices, I've
got a four o'clock deadline and my machine, I can't do it. My
Windows machine is trying to do an update or whatever. So, I don't
blame the people. I don't blame consumers. I don't blame the small
businesses that aren't doing them because they have a reason to be
afraid. However, there is a real and present danger, right. We have
the bad guys trying to go after you. That's also a real and present
danger. There are some services out there. I'm going to be covering
this as part of my security summer summit. That's free summit I'm
doing this summer, on what to do. There is software out there that
will do the updates for you. Some companies will do it for you.
We'll talk about that. But I can't blame them, Jim, because
Microsoft has been frankly, lying to them because of how they have
entirely just misused people for profit.
Jim Polito
Alright, so look, let's get folks in touch with you. So they'll
know about this. And the way we do that is you text My name to this
number.
Craig Peterson
855-385-5553. Just get out your smartphone and text, Jim to
855-385-5553.
Jim Polito
Standard data and text rates apply. Craig will provide you with
this information plus a lot of other stuff this week, and he won't
annoy you. He won't sell your name, and he won't be selling you
anything. So, there you have it. What have you got to lose, other
than the information? Having a ton of knowledge on how to protect
yourself. You'll get that from Craig. Thank you very much.
Craig Peterson
All right. Thanks, Jim. I'm glad you're back and then glad you had
a great vacation.
Jim Polito
Thank you, sir.
Craig Peterson
Bye-bye.
Jim Polito
All right, when we return a final word
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