Martha Roby: Staying alert against fraudulent scams
Every day we consume information in a variety of ways from our cell phone screens to our computers. With having several types of options available, the amount of content can be overwhelming and easily inundate even the most avid consumer. The ability to understand if information is fraudulent or real is becoming ever more difficult to immediately recognize. This month is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month and there are so many fraudulent scams that we all must stay alert against. Have you ever clicked on a suggested ad on Instagram, liked a normal looking product for sale on Facebook or clicked on a link from an unsolicited email? If so, you most likely have been viewing deceitful companies at least a few times. According to a recent Better Business Bureau’s report on those who documented a scam, 91 percent directly engaged with the fake company and 53 percent of those ended up losing money. These types of companies do all they can to appear legitimate from a professional website to consumer reviews and proper looking forms to enter in your credit card information. When scrolling down your own social media page or that of a friend’s you feel safe and secure, but it is the sense of regularity that can invite normal-looking fake products and websites to appear welcoming. I invite everyone to utilize the tools from the Better Business Bureau at www.bbb.org to review questionable product advertisements and websites. Additionally, if you do unfortunately fall victim to an online scam, you can easily report that information here as well. Everyone should practice the same amount, if not more, awareness online for products and companies as you would if you walked into a store to buy a product. While scams and fraudulent activity online remain the most likely avenue of interaction with consumers, bad actors continue to use unsolicited calls to cell phones as well. In fact, just this past week, I received numerous calls to my cell phone from people who identified themselves as being from the Social Security Administration. These calls claimed criminal activity was pending against me, and I must call them back immediately with my Social Security number to rectify the situation. Most of these type calls can easily be determined to be fake on the onset, however, every situation for each person is different. Think of the person who had recently interacted with the actual Social Security Administration or had indeed just participated in some sort of court case. With online fraudulent activity receiving the most oversight and awareness, I want to remind everyone that those claiming to be actual government agencies continue to exist over the phone. While it can be alarming to get a call like this, it is important to protect yourself and your identity. First, it is very important to know that you should never give out any personal information on these types of calls. It is best to hang up and immediately report the phone call directly to the actual government agency. In the case of the Social Security Administration there are two ways you can report the call, by phone at 1-800-269-0271 or online at oig.ssa.gov. There have been safeguards implemented on social media platforms and unsolicited phone calls have decreased over the years, but the ability to protect your identity and defend yourself from getting scammed continues to get more difficult as corrupt individuals adapt to the consumer. At the end of the day, you ultimately are in control by what ads you click on, websites to visit, or phone calls to call-back. Asking questions and always double-checking the legitimacy of any new online interaction or entity is the best practice to follow. Martha Roby represents Alabama’s Second Congressional District. She lives in Montgomery, Alabama, with her husband Riley and their two children.
State House passes data breach protections for consumers
Before Thursday, Alabama was one of only two states in the nation that did not require a data breach notification. SB318, or the Data Breach Notification Act, passed through the Alabama house with a unanimous 101-0 vote Thursday evening. The bill requires all companies doing business in the state to notify their customers if their personal information has been compromised. “Virtually all of our vital personal information – including Social Security numbers, military IDs, drivers’ licenses, bank account numbers, and medical data – is now online,” said the bill’s sponsor Decatur-Republican state Sen. Arthur Orr. “With this bill, consumers will know if their information has been compromised and what steps a company is taking to recover and protect consumers’ data.” “Tonight, the Alabama House took action to arm Alabama consumers in the event that their personal information is compromised in a data breach,” added state Attorney General Steve Marshall. “Passage of the Alabama Data Breach Notification Act has been a high priority for my office. It is all the more important now, as yesterday the only other state in the country without such a consumer-protection law – South Dakota – enacted a data breach notification law, leaving Alabama alone.” Marshall congratulated Orr and Huntsville-Republican state Rep. Phil Williams, who advanced the bill through the House. “I appreciate the hard work of Williams and Orr in moving the data breach notification bill a step closer toward final passage,” said Marshall. The Alabama Senate passed SB318 by a vote of 24 to 0 earlier in March, the bill now returns to the Senate for a vote on whether to concur with the House changes.
Alabama cyber security programs ramp up amid rising threats
Protecting the nation’s infrastructure, industries and sensitive information in the digital age is the focus of advanced research taking place across Alabama. Universities are boosting their research efforts in the field of cyber security, along with programs that produce highly skilled graduates. Gov. Kay Ivey, second from left, stands with officials from the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, after she presented a $10 million check to expand its Cyber Camp program. The expansion will increase the number of students in cyber-security fields of study and increase awareness of workforce opportunities in Alabama. (Jamie Martin / Governor’s Office) Gov. Kay Ivey also recently announced the formation of a new high school focusing on cyber technology and engineering, which will be based in Huntsville. The school will prepare Alabama’s top students for jobs in these in-demand fields. In addition, she gave a $10 million economic development grant to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center to expand the activities of its Cyber Camp, where selected students receive training in technology. At Auburn University, the new director of the Auburn Cyber Research Center said his goal is to establish a greater focus on economic impact in Alabama. To accomplish this, the center’s research is focused on improving cyber security in industries that are major economic drivers in the state, such as health care, manufacturing, agriculture, chemicals and more, said David Umphress, an Auburn engineering professor with nearly 40 years of experience in software and systems engineering in academic, military and industrial settings. “What we’re trying to do is research that is directly in line with improving cyber security within those economic drivers,” he said. Cyber security center Manufacturing is a key economic driver in Alabama, and a growing segment is additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing. The practice involves fabricating parts layer-by-layer from metals, plastics or other materials based on a 3-D computer-aided design model. “There’s an entire digital information exchange on how people build things, and if you change just a little bit of that, you could change the entire product,” Umphress said. “If you were a bad guy, you’d want to get in there and change it just a little so that product doesn’t perform as it should.” Umphress said he wants Alabama to become the go-to source for companies across these industries when they want to know the best ways to protect their products, processes and other information. David Umphress serves as director of Auburn University’s Cyber Research Center. (Auburn University) “We’re trying to put Alabama in the forefront of all of those areas,” he said. The Auburn Cyber Research Center supports the overall mission of Auburn’s McCrary Institute for Critical Infrastructure Protection and Cyber Systems by conducting research in the field of cyber security. The mission of the McCrary Institute, named for former Alabama Power Co. CEO Charles McCrary, is to study protection of the nation’s infrastructure, including power grids, transportation systems and supplies of natural resources. In addition, Auburn was recently awarded a five-year, $4.7 million National Science Foundation CyberCorps grant to help address the shortage of public sector cyber security professionals. The shortage of skilled cyber security professionals has dramatically come to light amid high-profile consumer data breaches and increasing concern about public infrastructure’s heavy reliance on computers. “Even up until 10 years ago, we didn’t pay a lot of attention to it. It wasn’t until we reached this global economy, with information driving so many things and so many mobile devices and homes and cars filled with computers,” Umphress said. “With all that global connectivity, the demand for cyber security surged so quickly, and that’s also driven up the criminal element to try to exploit the weaknesses.” Expanding emphasis Elsewhere in Alabama, there are similar efforts to expand cyber security education and research. The University of Alabama in Huntsville is also participating in the NSF CyberCorps “Scholarships for Service” (SFS) program. The university, which received a $4.2 million grant, recently awarded 10 students full cyber security scholarships. The scholarships include full tuition and fees, and an annual stipend of $22,500 for undergraduates and $34,000 for graduate students, among other benefits. The staff of the University of Alabama Cyber Institute includes, from left, Reg Hyde, Dr. Winnie Callahan, John Callahan and Dr. David Mayhew. (University of Alabama) “UAH has a large number of students across four majors pursuing computing degrees, making it easy to find a cohort of top-notch students for SFS,” said Dr. Tommy Morris, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of UAH’s Center for Cybersecurity Research and Education. “This year we have scholarship recipients from the fields of computer engineering, computer science and information systems, as well as from UAH’s interdisciplinary master’s program in cybersecurity.” At the University of Alabama Cyber Institute, there have been new additions to the staff, as well as a refocusing of research and academic priorities. Several researchers have joined the team, allowing the Cyber Institute to branch into the areas of supply chain risk management and secure architecture. The moves also are improving teaching in the area of cyber security. “We are concentrating on areas where there is tremendous interest or demand among the private sector or government, but where there is little work being done, particularly by universities,” said Reg Hyde, the institute’s executive director. For example, the Cyber Institute’s effort to study supply chain risk management is headed by Dr. Darryl Williams, a leading expert in the field with more than 20 years of experience in both government and the private sector. His Supply Chain Risk Management and Analysis Laboratory is focused on the integrity of systems and components that are a part of national security and defense. These programs can be compromised if inferior or doctored components get into the supply chains, and UA is the only university in the nation tackling the full scope of this threat. The new research efforts have prompted interest in collaborating with UA from the U.S. Department of Defense, Fortune 500 companies and the intelligence community, Hyde said. This story originally appeared on the Alabama Department of Commerce’s Made in Alabama website. Republished with permission from the Alabama
