Baltimore County, MD Hello Baltimore County, 1 May 2017

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From YouTube: Are you cyber-secure?

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Learn how to protect your identity from cyber-crime from two County experts.

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Welcome to hello, baltimore county., I'm your host, ellen kobler., every day,. We hear another horror story about identity, theft,, hackers,, malware.,.

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We've invited two experts on cybersecurity to help us sort out what we should do to stay safe and cybersecure..

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Joining me in studio are detective brian wolf from the baltimore county, police, financial and cyber crimes, unit,.

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And rob o'connor,, who is baltimore county's chief technology, officer.

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Thank you so much for joining us.. Thank you for having me. thank you. rob,. Let's start kind of on the technical side.

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for those of us who all have home computers, smart, phones,, laptops, et cetera,,.

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What can we do technically to try to be protected?.

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Sure. I mean, similar to what we do in baltimore county.

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To make sure that we protect our employees and our constituent data,.

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Some of the things you could be doing at home are making sure that you are running an anti-virus or malware protection on your pc.

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Also,, making sure that you're keeping your pc, up-to-date.

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With security, patches, and also eliminating older pcs,.

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That you may have in your house that have outdated operating systems.

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Ellen: oh, really? because those no longer get updated when they become end-of-life.

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and if you're not sure,, you can always go to apple or microsoft.

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And check to see if the operating system you're running is end-of-life.

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okay,. So a few of these things:, the virus protection,.

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That's a software that you buy-- correct.

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and you need to go to a reputable place to get it.

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Yeah,, you can go online, or you can go to even stores now sell it, too, your best buys., but most of your internet service providers also offer a service,.

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And it could be a monthly charge., some of them offer it free,, because they also want to protect their network that you're utilizing,. So that's another valid...

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Okay, and the patches and the updates,: that's when your computer,.

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Something comes on the screen and says: there's an update.

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correct. you know,, typically microsoft or apple, will send you an update,.

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And it may have functional updates,, but a lot of times. They also include security patches as well.

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Okay,, so that's sort of the technical.

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Detective wolf,: let's talk about the human side.

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It seems to me that these computer cybercrimes, et cetera,.

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It's two different things. one is kind of the old school scam,, it's just that it comes via computer, and the other seems to be the sites that they want. You to click, on.

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But let's talk about the people side, and we've got a little graphic.

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Of sort of a ninja warrior hovering over your computer.

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What can you do to make sure that you're not falling for these scams?.

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Det. wolf: well,, the first thing you want to do is just make sure.

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That you know what you're clicking on., if you have no idea, it's unusual to you,, not familiar,, do not click.

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Ellen: okay., if somebody sends you an email that says a family member's in trouble,,.

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Or that you need to send money for whatever reason, do not do that.

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And that email could appear to come from the person.

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Absolutely. and because people can hack into your email.

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Absolutely, and as rob was mentioning, the way we get into things,.

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Obviously you want to have virus protectors,, but if somebody sends you an email,, even if you think that.

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That is from the person you may know,, but you're still a little leery.

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Of what it's all about,, don't do anything.

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get on the phone and call that person.

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ellen: yeah. and say, "hey,. I just received an email from you saying that a family member's in trouble,", or, "you need money.".

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Or, "you're in london and you don't have any money," et cetera.

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Exactly. yeah., so the best thing that they can do is not. Click on anything, do not reply to that email, and make a phone call to the person who they believe is sending that email,.

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And they'll find out if that's true or not.,.

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Okay, and there's these emails that they call phishing, where somebody appears to be a reputable company, and they contact you --. What about that?.

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That's the same thing as well.: do not click on that.?

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The companies are not going to send you emails.

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they're, going to notify you through the regular mail; most likely it's going to be a certified mail.

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and again,. Even if you don't get something in the regular mail,.

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And it could be this phishing scheme,, don't click on it.

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Call that company. ellen: pick up your credit card, call the actual number on the card.

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Det. wolf: on the card. ellen: and ask them what's going on.

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Det. wolf: right. and then, they're going to have all your information-- first of all,. If it's not legitimate, they're going to tell you right, away, "we have no idea what you're talking about,. We don't send these emails out.".

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But if it is legitimate, or you believe it to be,.

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Depending on who, you call, still do not give your information.

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To anyone over the phone until you can verify and legitimize.

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Who you're, actually speaking with. okay,? So what I'm hearing is, if it's kind of coming at you,.

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Coming to you in a way that seems unusual, be suspicious,.

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Ask questions, and then call the actual source yourself.

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Absolutely. absolutely.

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Be a little cynical, in a sense, and suspicious is a great word.

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And you can always pick up your phone and call who you believe it may be coming from.

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and they're going to tell you whether that was a true email or not..

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Okay,- and I get these calls a couple times a week from this very nice sounding gentleman- who's on a recording, calls my cell phone, "hi,. This is michael from the 'customer service department.'". I just hang up.

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That's what you do?.

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That's exactly right. do not engage in any conversation..

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You don't have time for that., it's not going to be legit.. Just hang up.

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Okay. and I understand that there have been some criminals.

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That have been trying to pretend that they're baltimore county government.

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Can you tell us about that?.

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That's correct, and I can tell you: baltimore county government will not call your home.

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Asking you for information, or money...

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Information for payment, for anything like that.

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baltimore county does not do that..

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They will send you a certified letter in the mail.

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Explaining whatever they need, and then you'll, obviously follow up on the mail, call that department, whatever it may be,, and then you can ask the questions that you need to ask from them.

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One thing baltimore county does do, the police department, I will tell you,, is if there's a crime going on in your neighborhood,.

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They'll have automatic-- automated dialers that will call.

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But again, there's nobody on the other end that you're actually going to speak to,, so baltimore county may call,, because a crime trend could be in your area.

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They're calling to say somebody's been breaking into sheds,, not "give, me your credit card number,, your date of birth, and your social security, number." exactly., that's correct.. They will not do that.

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They will never ask you for that over the phone. okay. and rob, on the technical side,.

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Anything else people should be alert to,, specifically with their cell phones,, their smart phones?.

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Well,, when using internet, you know,, typically in your home,.

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Hopefully you have not disabled or you're running a firewall on your pc,.

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You have secured your wireless network at home, so that others cannot join it.

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to do banking at home, obviously,.

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Exactly what the detective was talking about,, you know, just be aware and be cognizant of things that you're doing, and the sites that you're going to.

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but,, especially when you're out in public, highly recommend, do not do any type of personal information.

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Or banking transactions in public areas,, using public wi-fi.

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Ellen:, so don't be at the coffee, shop... correct.

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Ellen: ... entering in your credit card, number. yeah,, you know, it's good to get online and check sports, scores, or news,.

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Or anything like that,, but I would not be doing online banking in a public wi-fi.

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Okay, and just real quick,, if somebody feels that they or a family member.

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Has been caught up in a scam,, what should they do?

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call? 911. ellen: is that right?.

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Yes, absolutely. ellen: okay.. They can call 911, and explain to the dispatcher,.

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Or the operator on the other end, what they have, and they'll, send a police officer out to your house, and they'll. Take a report.

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Some reports will be just that,, they'll take it,.

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Depending on the situation,, it may not be able to be fully investigated.

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To a good conclusion,, but at least they can make a police report.

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All right, well, thank you both very much.

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We really appreciate it., thank you for having me.. Thank you for having me. and thank you for watching hello, baltimore county..

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We encourage you to connect with baltimore county government on facebook and twitter., we'll see you next time. ( ♪♪♪ ).