How to Protect Your Financial Accounts When Scams Sound Real

[00:00.7] Good morning, everybody. Welcome. We’re so glad you could join us today. Today is a cybersecurity fireside chat that we’re hosting. And let me let me start first of all with a quick question: How many of you listening to this webinar have received a text, an email, or a phone call recently that made you stop and wonder?

[00:29.6] Is this real? My guess is most of us have. The reality is that cyber criminals are getting more sophisticated every day, and they’re not just targeting large companies; they’re targeting individuals and families and business owners.

[00:47.4] So, you don’t need to be a technology expert to protect yourself. Often, it’s about developing a few good habits and knowing when to slow down. I’m Angela Pompian with Sunpointe Investments.

[01:02.9] And I’m excited to be joined today by Page Adlington, Senior Manager of Technology Consulting at Charles Schwab. Page brings tremendous experience helping individuals and organizations navigate cybersecurity.

[01:20.7] We’re also joined today by Jocelyn Hillis, Sunpointe’s Director of Operations, who is going to be monitoring your questions throughout the webinar. The great news is that today is meant to be a conversation, not a technical presentation.

[01:37.1] This is not a webinar with a bunch of slides. We’re going to be going through real questions, we’re going to be taking your questions. We’ll have some practical ideas, some common warning signs, and some steps to better protect yourself and your family.

[01:54.5] Please feel free to submit questions throughout the webinar. Jocelyn is going to bring them into the discussion along the way. Thank you for being here. Let’s get started. Yeah. Welcome, Page. Thank you for having me.

[02:10.7] Thank you so much for for for doing this with Sunpointe. So let’s let’s get started on the the number one question, I think, which is email. Email being a one of the really big cyber public enemies.

[02:28.1] Tell tell tell us a little bit about how to protect ourselves. Yes. And as Angela mentioned, my team that works with advisors across the country. We always say that email is cyber public enemy number one.

[02:43.9] Almost you I could venture to say close to 99, over 99% of fraud that we see at Schwab can be traced back to email. And so, exactly what does that mean? So, your email is not secure. You you almost need to go into it with that perspective and think about, okay, how do I create barriers?

[03:05.1] To keep people from seeing my email, and so, you know, what do we mean by that? So, in other words, let’s just say if you’re an email and you mail or you send a document that has confidential information, there’s a very good chance if your email has been compromised at some point, and this could be for many years, that somebody’s watching your email and they’re sitting there and waiting to see a document to take that document.

[03:28.5] Additionally, when you’re doing email and you’re you know emailing instructions or you’re communicating about buying a house or you know all planning a vacation simple things going to visit relatives if somebody were in your email they literally are tracking your activities they are able to notice say for instance who your advisor is or who you bank with or where you’re buying a house so there’s just so much information that’s in your email so we really like to say that that’s why it’s it’s the riskiest place and it’s public enemy number one.

[03:59.3] It’s just the sheer volume and potential confidentiality of data sitting in there, and so that’s why when we say, you know, people ask, “What’s the one thing that I can do to protect myself?” It’s one, think of email as not being private, but then two is protect it with a really unique password, a unique login, lengthy, complex, all the things that we can dive into when we talk about passwords, but protecting your email is extremely important.

[04:29.3] And what is one of the ways that we can manage our passwords? You know the these lengthy, complex passwords. People sometimes write them down on pieces of paper. What is the best way to protect yourself?

[04:45.0] Yeah. So I might be the bearer of bad news here. And a lot of times I get I see grumbling faces when I see this, but uniqueness and complexity are what is required. So when I say uniqueness, that means yes, unique usernames and passwords across every website you use, including if you have multiple email accounts.

[05:08.6] It was funny last night or yesterday, my sister and I were at the fair and she got home and she had recently rented a car. I couldn’t believe my own sister called and asked advice from me, but she’s like, “Somebody sent me a text and it’s related to something that was in my email and I don’t know how they would have gotten.” I’m like.

[05:24.0] Pretty sure your email’s been hacked, so here’s what you need to do. I was like, “Change your your username’s okay. Your password needs to be at least 20 characters.” And she’s like, “What?” I’m like, “Yeah, I hate to say it, but no longer are the days of eight characters.” So what does that mean?

[05:39.7] So uniqueness, complexity, complex passwords and unique across platforms mean that if somebody were to able to get into one location, so let’s. For instance, you’re doing something we call credential replay, and you’re using that same username and password at something as simple as, you know, Spotify or like some music service or something along those lines, or even a free application, and then you’re also using it for a banking account.

[06:05.6] It’s really more likely that that music or that kind of that free service that you’re using is going to get hacked, and they’re going to get those usernames and those passwords. And then they’re going to brute force try to use that to break into those those more what I’d call critical applications like banking, financial institutions, emails.

[06:27.5] And sadly, with the rise of AI, that’s one of the areas we’re seeing AI encroach upon cybersecurity. I get questions around that is the simple ability to like mass attack is just exponential when it comes to AI, they’re not relying on 10 people in a room to you know hit the keyboards and like make phone calls.

[06:47.1] They can usually use AI. So yes, so we do say we’re we’re approaching 20 characters is really safe. So how can you manage that? It is challenging. I mean, I myself am challenged this. It’s not like I’m above the complexity of having to manage my own accounts, and deal with that.

[07:06.4] So I, you know, one cheat I guess you can call it that I use is I’m really big on passphrases. So, for instance, if you have a username and then a password for a specific account, could be a phrase. So, if you think of a phrase like, you know, my favorite place to shop is at Neiman Marcus, maybe guilty, but you know, and and come up with something that makes it lengthy.

[07:28.9] It makes it incredibly hard to compromise. That’s one way to think about it, but another direction is to think about a password manager. There may be some of you that are familiar with that. If you’re not, a password manager is a product that you license, much like you could use something to protect your computer or antivirus software, and it is a way to house your usernames and passwords in one location with what you’d call a master pass, for lack of a better phrase, and then that application.

[07:59.4] In the background is creating layers and multiple layers of unique and complex encrypted passwords to the websites that you load into it, and so people get a little nervous about that. And we do recommend them. But think of it like this: if if everything is about creating layers to protect your identity, protect your accounts, that is one more layer of protection, and those are extremely secure.

[08:28.0] There have been, you know, an example of a couple of breaches at those at one or two of those applications, but I just want you to understand that it is more than just one layer. There are layers of encryption behind the scenes in those applications, though it it would be getting through your first master and then their first and then first and first.

[08:46.3] There are just layers, so no actual confidential information has been compromised in any when you know a potential data breach had happened around one of those. Some caveats I do put, or a little bit more information around those, is don’t use the free versions.

[09:03.4] Some people that, and I’ve worked many years with Angela and with Jocelyn. I’ve gotten the opportunity to work with cyber on them for a long time, and they they know me well. I’m like, don’t use the free versions. Don’t use the free versions of anything in your life if you can help it. Spend that little extra money to get that licensed version, because a free version just means you’re the testing ground for security breaches.

[09:23.5] That’s the way to think about any application. So you want to license, and you don’t have to get the big super expensive one or something that a business would use. Just that licensing capability, allows you to have more secure protocols. So I’m like, always license the products you’re going to use.

[09:39.2] And from there, you can actually build in features that allow a trusted contact so that if you think, oh my gosh, what if I lose that one password? Who do I go to? You can go to somebody. You can also have an inheritance capability around those. So if you think about a family member passing and then all of a sudden people are scrambling, like, oh my gosh, we don’t have the passwords to anything.

[09:58.5] And did anybody have permission to go to that account? It’s a way to secure it from that standpoint. So one, it’s a lot of work around passwords. But I you know I can’t stress enough that uniqueness and length and complexity are what matter. Yeah and password managers, there’s LastPass, there’s 1Password which which I use.

[10:20.5] It’s a great, it’s a great application. What what about in addition to a password manager, multi-factor authentication? Why is that important? Because I know a lot of people are like, oh my gosh, I’ve got to get my cell phone out.

[10:37.2] Why do I need to have that? Again, protecting yourself around cyber and fraud is all about layering protections. I get the question a lot and I’ll just kind of step back a little bit is you know I got a thing about a data breach on my data’s out there.

[10:53.8] You just need to go into cybersecurity these days assuming that your data is out there. I mean that is it’s it’s you know it’s a bit of a sad mindset but it is a way it’s a protective mindset. So instead of think of it as like it’s like it’s a protective mindset to think my data’s out there you know and it’s potentially not expensive to get my data if somebody wanted to use it.

[11:14.4] So what do I do to prevent usage of that data. It’s all about preventing usage. So yes, two-factor or multi-factor. We could also toss in biometrics, you know. So if you think about, you know, using your face or eye or, you know, we used to use thumbprints or fingerprints.

[11:31.4] That’s not really the case with anymore, but I think there’s some applications that still use that. So one, once again, unique complex passwords. That’s the first barrier. The next is two-factor. If for any reason, even in the most extreme cases, your username and password are compromised, the only thing to keep you safe at the next point is being using two-factor or multi-factor or that biometric to protect anybody from getting to that next step in your account.

[12:02.1] So I I’m I kind of draw a line in the sand and and Angela, you know, you I’m sure you talk with clients about this is. There’s just really no reason not to engage two-factor or multi-factor or these second-tier authentication practices. I I don’t even really go for any exception around this in my life or anybody that I’m recommending.

[12:22.8] If it exists, it is to protect you and it’s absolutely what could potentially save you from a financial loss. So, you know, absolutely do it. Absolutely. Okay. And what what about thinking about on on Schwab disbursement requests, can you kind of speak to the to the fraud that Schwab has seen related to money movement fund disbursement requests in you know in general over the past year.

[12:58.0] It’s interesting and when I’m doing these conversations and having lots of conversations with advisors around cyber you know I get a lot of questions about AI, and we might touch on that a little bit more. If questions comes up, feel free to ask me around that. But I get questions related to, “Hey, are you seeing fraud happen at Schwab around AI?” I’m like, “Well, not really.” And and here’s the context: is that people think about calling in and faking your voice and impersonating your personality and images and all that, and not that there’s not a place for that in terms of fraud.

[13:32.5] But is not specifically at Schwab or typically at financial institutions. And why is that? It’s because the old ways still work. And when I say the old ways, the old ways are you requesting money movements via email, you know, doing things kind of in that fashion, and then they’re not authenticated.

[13:50.8] Once again, I’m I’m pointing back to email. Email is going to get beat up today for sure. But if you initiate something via email, it is, you know, it’s a fiduciary duty from Sunpointe’s perspective that they pick up the phone, that they call, that they authenticate.

[14:06.7] I know sometimes there’s a little grumbling about, you know, why are you calling me? But it’s not only Sunpointe’s responsibility and they take it very seriously to protect your identity and protect your money, but it’s also a requirement for Schwab that we say, “Did you talk to the client?

[14:22.0] Did you authenticate that this was a legitimate?” Because almost as I pointed to earlier, email being the the culprit around most of the the fraud we see, it is by initiating money movements, even third-party wires through email that are not verified that turn out to be fake, they turn out to be fraudulent, and they end up being breaches.

[14:43.1] So it’s extremely important to monitor that process and take it seriously. Some other examples, you know just to kind of throw out what people thinking. You know there is kind of the basics of just somebody jumping into your email and then you’ve and they initiate a money movement and if that weren’t to be authenticated or digitally done where it could be authenticated by you and then it comes and it actually processes you know that’s money out the door and so it’s really important if you even see that that’s happening that you immediately reach out like Sunpointe knows and is aware of that there are there are reasons and ways that we can get money back if that happens, but another scenario that we see often is when you’re doing a third-party transaction, and I kind of want to highlight this one: is that let’s say you’re buying a home or you’re buying, you know, a large purchase, and you initiate that and you’ve gone back and forth.

[15:36.9] There’s a title company, there’s potentially lawyers involved, and that’s a lot of communication, oftentimes going through email, and so it’s important as you’re crossing the finish line. That you take that out of email and that those authentications, are validated on the phone and that means calling the title company and saying, “Is this the correct account number?

[15:59.2] You tell me the account number. This is the account number we’re seeing.” Because a lot of times that a fraudster has jumped into your email, you don’t even know it, and they’ve started blind copying people. They can redirect to a title company, completely falsify an account, and then once again, that money is out the door and it’s really hard to get it back.

[16:16.9] So. When people talk about all these really complicated schemes of using AI to do fraud, it it’s really not that. It is it’s pretty much the ways that we’ve seen for years, and that is email being the being that like point of contention, and things not being really validated outside of that and authenticated.

[16:35.1] Right. I’ll do it. I’ll do a toss in for digital, guys. Yeah. No, I got I would I would be remiss if I did not mention doing digital move money e-authorization if I want to be a little Schwab-centric. Those those methods where it’s authenticated for you and you can say yes I wanted to do this secure I mean extremely low infinitely low fraud happens in those scenarios so I can’t you know I I I want to encourage you that it’s not simply to make it easier for Schwab or even make it easier for Sunpointe it is all about protecting your assets yeah we almost exclusively use the authorization. It’s a great it’s a great system that you have too.

[17:21.8] I want to kind of turn to senior investors. We’ve learned that senior investors are often a deliberate target of fraud. What what are some of the measures that that Schwab is taking there to to help us all better protect ourselves?

[17:42.8] Yeah, so senior and vulnerable investor fraud is on the increase I have I’ve asked I’ve been asked many times when I’m doing events you know why are they going after me or why am they going after me and and I I am very pointed about this I mean it’s where the money is I mean that’s just the reality in our environment is fraudsters not going after the the Gen Zer that just got out of school and is struggling to get their first job. That’s just the reality of our world.

[18:13.3] So they are specifically targeting individuals, and there is you know there’s the concept of the senior and vulnerable investor target, and not for just the reasons of thinking somebody’s a senior, but there’s a there’s a hygiene that happens either when you retire or you’re you know you’re just not in that state of you know like right now as long as I’m working or I’m I mean I am hypervigilant, I am under the microscope every day the way I conduct myself from a business perspective.

[18:42.6] But you know, the further away you get from that, the harder it is to just make it part of your daily routine. So we realize that not only is it where the money is, but it’s also where the focus could go because it’s successful. You know, whether it’s an investment scheme and we still see lots of crypto and I’m not picking on crypto, but it’s an avenue that’s rather untraceable to go.

[19:04.3] To previous you know I’ve seen it happen to previous CEOs, CFOs. It’s not relegated to any one you know unique individual or maybe what they did in their previous life. Going after and targeting these for these types of schemes.

[19:21.2] And so you know we’re heightened alert on looking for red flags around this and we work with advisors very closely. Okay how do you spot these types of situations? Looking for red flags. Schwab actually has a team that is dedicated to fraud around senior and vulnerable investors.

[19:39.7] I could switch to what we would call that vulnerable investor side and point to I don’t even call it just romance schemes anymore that seem to be such a small category of individuals, but it’s almost like friendship schemes and social media schemes.

[19:56.5] Like think of all the ways that individuals could reach out to you now, and target you, to like kind of jump into fraudulent situations. And so it’s not just romance. There’s if you hear that out in in the world and people are like, oh, it was a romance scheme.

[20:12.7] Think of it more than just on face value of romance. It could be somebody on Facebook that said, “Hey, we went to high school together,” or “I once worked with you at you know IBM. I don’t know if you remember me. Let’s get together and have lunch.” All of those types of outreaches.

[20:27.7] Just treat with red flags. I would also say that you know, recognizing that among your friends and family and seeing, I mean, that is really something that you can do for those around you is recognizing red flags around this. Schwab, like I said, we have a team that helps, so we’re always there if an advisor or let’s say you as the client think something’s going on with a family member or.

[20:54.3] You know, you reach out to your advisor. We are ready to come and help in those situations. Have the conversations. We just want to make sure that you know that there’s no embarrassment around it. That like I said, it happens equally. It’s not just an age, but all walks of life that we see it.

[21:11.2] And so we really want to be a part of that conversation. And again, stopping things early and often is what will really protect people in the end, so that’s why I’m just I really want to you know stress that if you suspect anything or you just something doesn’t feel right, call somebody, say something, you know, just check it out because there’s a very good chance that your gut is right.

[21:34.5] Yes, yes, and some of those some of those fraudsters are using phones and making making phone calls and things too. I guess because there’s so much that’s publicly available now about people with the ad, you know, social media, Facebook, et cetera.

[21:54.4] So it’s also important for all the clients to have trusted contacts, right, on their on their profiles. Somebody who you trust, who is going to be looking out for you, with your your accounts if there’s any any issues going on.

[22:11.9] Yeah, and I always make sure make sure I share that. Putting a trusted contact on your account does not give that trusted contact permission to actively engage or do anything in your account. It is simply a touch, a reach out. That second, you know, kind of if if something needed to be done or somebody needed to be reached, that’s what a trusted contact is.

[22:32.1] They don’t have the ability on Schwab to action or move money or do anything on your behalf. Yes, yes. Also good if you’re traveling outside the country, for example, you know, to have a trusted contact. Can you talk a little bit about the importance of encryption on our phones and on our computers?

[22:56.4] What why is that important and and how do we do that in terms of encrypting our our Wi-Fi access? Oh, so in encryption most of you probably know that, but just in case, encryption simply means wherever data is sitting.

[23:13.9] So there’s like the concept of data at rest. So follow, like stay with me here. So there’s encryption. There’s data at rest, which is the data that say sits on your computer. Maybe sits if you have like Box or Dropbox or one of those types of applications where you save data, or let’s even say you have old school.

[23:33.4] A hard drive an external hard drive or back in the day USBs I hope nobody’s using those anymore but that is called data at rest so it’s data that’s sitting there and you want to have that encrypted but then there’s the second line and that is data in transit encryption and data in transit is the concept of the data that say you send via email the data that you maybe send on when you’re on a website so think of like the active movement of information as data and then there’s the data at rest. In either case, you want that data to be encrypted, and all encryption basically means is it scrambled the data, and it uses its own little key or you know its own little think of old school where everything’s just scrambled and then you had to go and have a key to unscramble it.

[24:17.3] That’s what it is. It makes the data unusable, and that’s what you want. You want only you or the person that you’ve sent it to in an authorized fashion to have the ability to unlock that data. So on the data at rest side, let’s talk about your computers and your phones.

[24:34.2] We’ll start with computers. This is where it’s necessary whether you have a PC or an iOS or a Mac or an Apple device that you have encryption engaged on that device. Now both of them have automatic capabilities or typically with your Windows, and we won’t get too into that, but certainly something that we could follow up on that both of those types of devices.

[24:55.8] Can encrypt the data that’s on your computer, and what that means is that if somebody were to somehow break into your computer by you clicking on a phishing email, you know, we could talk about phishing, and phishing is where you somebody’s like literally phished and you’ve caught it, and you are now open and there’s a virus on your computer.

[25:13.8] If that were to happen, because your data is scrambled, nobody can get to it. It’s basically useless data, and that includes documents. So if you do store tax documents, I mean. That is a reality. We are storing confidential documents typically on these devices because we have to live in a digital world, but it’s locked down.

[25:33.0] So you want to do that on your phones. Both iOS so app iPhones and Android devices both have the capability of encrypting the data that’s on your phone. Apple’s a little bit simpler in that it’s a lot just by the biometrics that you engage.

[25:50.6] But Android devices are not, you know, Galaxy. It’s not that much more complicated to do it. And typically, when you set up your phone, that means anything that’s sitting on your phone is encrypted as well. Now we’ll switch to data in transit. And data in transit is okay. This is why I say you don’t send emails with confidential information, because it’s really hard to encrypt emails with a not with unless you have a lot of technology built around that.

[26:17.9] So yes. I can send an email even though I don’t send really confidential stuff, but there are so many layers of data at Schwab that if and and Sunpointe and Schwab have a very dedicated way that we can securely send data that nobody is allowed, so the data moving is encrypted.

[26:35.0] It’s hard for you to do that in your personal life because of the amount of technology it takes to do that. So we don’t even recommend like if there’s something that says oh create a PDF with a password, we’re even anti that. If you want to send, that’s where we say this is where you go to a portal to load your document.

[26:51.9] So think about data in transit. If you were to use a portal or share files, some of those things, effectively it is scrambling or encrypting that data, in the movement to that next place so that nobody can jump in in the middle of it and steal that data.

[27:09.2] Also this is why we discourage, it’s it’s an area in my life where I just don’t use public Wi-Fi. I you know, if you think about public Wi-Fi, it is like having you’re on a highway where anybody can jump in.

[27:25.0] And when we say a highway, again, I’m talking about the movement of data, that data in transit, and it is not encrypted. Think of it like that. Wi-Fi is just not a way to securely send information. So I say stay away from public Wi-Fi. We all have pretty much unlimited data on our phones.

[27:41.9] You could use that if you needed a hotspot to create a safe place. Once again, a safe highway for your data or to work on your computer. But on your phone, you just you just don’t need to use public Wi-Fi. I mean, it’s you know there’s we we just have phones. Data is cheap these days, and when you’re using your network, so if you’re using AT&T or Verizon or whatever it is, when you see that AT&T or that Verizon or that 5G, you’re effectively using a secure highway.

[28:07.9] That’s the best analogy. So encryption is making the data useless in whatever way you’re storing it or you’re communicating it, and you want to engage in both the at-rest side and like the movement side. Yes, yes, and so when we at Sunpointe send a client some information, we will we will encrypt it.

[28:30.3] We will send it in in an encrypted format. Which then they have to use a special password to get into that document, and that’s in order to protect that data. But sometimes when we have clients who are sending us information, we have a client portal that has a secure upload location where a client can upload their information and it will securely reach us, and we do that.

[29:02.3] As you’re saying exactly to protect and encrypt the data in transit, so that’s really important. And and VPNs are also features right that you can have put onto your PC when you are using Wi-Fi.

[29:20.9] How does a VPN work? So VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. So you can think of engaging a VPN as a lock to that to that highway. So if you were on if you had to use public Wi-Fi, you can engage that VPN, that virtual private network, to lock down that highway.

[29:43.3] There’s lots of thought now on whether or not it really works or it doesn’t, but yes, it’s another layer and it does effectively create a scrambled highway. That if you had to use public Wi-Fi or say you were at a hotel and needed to work and you couldn’t do it any other way, I mean.

[30:00.3] I am allowed to do that as Schwab. We have a series of effectively VPNs that lock down my computer when I’m on the road, so I can work in the hotel or whatever I need to do. So you can engage that type of technology. I get questions about are there you know what’s one that’s out there is Nord.

[30:18.2] You know there’s if you’re thinking of Norton, I mean various what do you think of various identity programs that are out there, you know, people say, “Should I use those programs to protect my identity?” And I often say, “Yes, they’re a great idea.” And then they often offer you up a VPN, that virtual private network, as part of the package.

[30:39.7] But there are several out there that you can go, you know, use or license. Again, I’m going to reiterate what I’ve said earlier: is don’t use free versions of VPNs. If somebody offers you a free version, they’re letting you be your guinea pig. You’re the test subject to see if. If you can, if somebody can break in, so again, these aren’t super expensive things.

[30:59.3] Go out there, find one that you can use. That’s what’s important is what you feel comfortable using. That is you know, a a reputable brand or what reputable site, and then use the licensed, the paid-for version to make sure you’re getting that extra security. Okay, great, great.

[31:17.5] And what about the importance of software updates and software maintenance on your computers and on your phones? Yes. So, for those of you that still do a lot of work on a computer, you know a desktop or a Mac, most of the antivirus software that you have today, including Windows, has one that’s built in.

[31:41.7] You know Macs or iOS devices, Apple devices, they have a lot of them built in. Is antivirus on your computer and what that does is it’s actively scanning for vulnerabilities, for potential. I mean, if many of you are using this product, you’ve probably said we blocked so many websites or we blocked this or you know there was a notorious you know item that came through and that’s just from your natural browsing that you might do on your computer.

[32:09.8] You don’t even realize some of the background noise that’s going on when you go to some websites. If you’ve ever gone to a website and all of a sudden you’re getting an ad for something that you searched on Amazon last week, but it’s popping up now because you’ve gone to look at Macy’s, you know that is actively tracking on your computer.

[32:26.9] I mean that’s how they they’re they’re keeping you hooked in, but those antivirus software that you and firewall all that that you can have and engage on your computer is extremely important. You can effectively turn those on or you should when you are having your computer.

[32:43.5] Really, you’re initially having it or you’re configuring it to make sure. And if you need help in this, I definitely say reach out for help. Go to places that can help you, reputable places. That is a safer option than like not doing it. So some people like, well, why would I go and like talk to the Geek Squad or you know, some people have Micro Center in their neighborhood.

[33:03.2] That is the least, you know, kind of worry. You’re much better having them help you configure things and make it set up right. Right. Yeah absolutely on your phones and that is also the case for keeping things updated. So if you’re not aware, I’ll stick with the computers for a second.

[33:20.9] A lot of breaches that you heard over the years about Windows being compromised or you know there was a big hospital. Really the reason most large institutions get compromised is because they haven’t updated the software on their computer. There’s some gap where the Windows patches didn’t go in.

[33:37.7] I’m sure that’s a big one that people hear, and that’s because patches, whether it’s on your computer or on your phone, are not about an emoji or getting some new widget on your phone or something pretty on your computer, you know, a new wallpaper. It is all about protecting you. Now, granted, there’s some activity that they’re going to give you or something new, but it really is about finding security breaches and patching those.

[33:59.3] So you always want to make sure you’re up to date. When it comes to your phones, absolutely when an update is released, go ahead and and and update your phone. Don’t let those get behind. Though I mean if you ever have read through what Apple’s sending you specifically on an iPhone, what they’re doing, the top ones are always around security.

[34:19.8] And that’s what they’re doing is they’re they’ve either found something nefarious out in the environment, they found some hacker that’s trying to find a way in, and so that’s the only way you’re going to protect yourself from ongoing threats. You might be protected against current ones, but actively doing those updates is going to be keep you protected in the future.

[34:38.3] So just do them. There used to be days historically for those of you that might have been in corporate America or like a technology background where people like, oh you got to wait 3 days and make sure there’s no bugs in the bug fix. That’s those days are kind of gone. The technology is really good now that once it’s out, I’d go for it.

[34:56.7] That’s great. That’s great advice. And then finally, the last big subject that I think a lot of people think about pretty much every day now, reading reading the news, is AI. You know, how how is AI making a difference here, or how how do we need to protect ourselves against any AI threats?

[35:21.1] And and are there are there good things that we, you know, we think that there’s good things with AI too, but how do we protect ourselves against any AI generated threats? Yeah, well I would say that first of all I’m I’m a huge fan of AI and I do work with advisors around AI and that includes like how to you know strategically implement AI but also do it in a very compliant and a safe way so you know I could start by I’m I’m not one of the completely pessimistic people around AI, but at the same time, there is a responsibility, to those using your information and you using AI in that way.

[36:00.2] So I’ll start with just the concept of identity theft and what we’re seeing. We do see it, but I will say that in the broader context of the market. So I’ll I’ll turn away from Schwab. So not specifically at Schwab, but out there, there is a real threat of your voice being out.

[36:18.3] And your image being out there and that being replicated with AI. So you know I’m always telling folks like be extremely cautious with social media. I’m a super nerd in this way. I use no social media. I don’t even have my voice on voicemail.

[36:34.4] But I could be a little extreme and also a little lazy too if I’m fully transparent. It’s just I’m not keeping up with it all. And so. You know, I I, simple things around social media that if your voice is out there, and I I even stress this to younger folks, man, I mean, I have college-age son, nieces.

[36:52.9] I’m like, be careful what you put out there because it can be used. So there’s just a safety of protecting yourself, your identity in terms of your voice and your image that you need to be really cognizant of. From that standpoint, you know, it can be used to.

[37:08.2] To do deepfakes and things like that. Now, right now in the world of what I would call finance, this I wouldn’t say is the biggest threat. Again, going back to me originally saying because the old way still works, so we don’t have to go down these complicated schemes. Where I do see AI jumping into the financial side of things is using it to entice people to have a false sense of trust or to build a sense of confidence in a relationship.

[37:35.4] That you think it’s a real person, or a real image, or a notable figure. I think we’ve all heard about oh like weird things like Al Roker from you know the Today Show recommending some vitamin and it’s completely fake. So somebody says, “Oh, you know, I’m going to go do that.” Those are the areas where you really need to be skeptical and you need to trust.

[37:53.4] I mean, you need to verify before you trust. So think of AI in that space of how it’s used in social media. Be very cautious. Be very skeptical of how it’s used out there, and how it’s used with your image, but also turn that into how do you react when you get information or you get outreach.

[38:15.8] And this is where I say there’s a potential for AI. So, AI can be used brute force to make phone calls, outgoing phone calls to people. So let’s say you get a phone call and they say, “Oh, this is Chase and we want to verify XYZ.” I’m like, red flag, say great.

[38:31.7] I’m gonna hang up and I’m gonna call the legitimate number. And if they get mad at you, which I’ve had somebody get mad at me, you know, or you know somebody get irritated and I know it’s been a bot because I can hear like don’t hang up. You have to talk now. You don’t. You owe them no.

[38:46.8] I I say this boldly. You owe them no respect of acknowledging their phone call. It’s a business. Your safety is paramount, hang up and call the legitimate number. The same thing. If you get an email and it’s been gener- it’s potentially been generated by AI because they have these massive amount of data that they can gather from you.

[39:06.0] Again, you have no obligation to action that email. You can step away and either call that location. You can go to the legitimate website. Simple things. Remember, toggle up. When you get an email and you say, “Hey, it’s from Page Adlington at Schwab,” go click on that.

[39:25.6] And if it says Page Adlington at company.schwab.com, then like, “Hey, red flag.” That doesn’t look like a legitimate email. Those are the ways that AI is kind of leaping into the space. It’s really to trick you into doing behavior. So that’s kind of where we see it.

[39:42.4] Same thing with text, brute force text. I don’t know if you get phone calls and then you can see they turn it into a text and you can just tell that it’s a bot that’s like leaving you a message. Again, you don’t have to action them. Action them. You you have a responsibility to protect yourself, not to make them feel good or comfortable or feel successful in their outreach.

[40:02.7] That is not your responsibility. I’m like, turn away, protect yourself. And any legitimate company would completely understand that you were doing this. Now I’m not saying being rude, you know, I mean it’s there’s there’s a there’s a way to handle it. But by all means, that is a significant way we’re seeing AI be used in that way.

[40:20.4] And once again, this kind of mass, I I have true stories and true test cases that I’ve heard where the guy in Russia that had a room full of hackers is no longer has a room full of hackers. It’s one guy and a really good piece of AI that that’s doing the activity.

[40:38.2] So, you know, that’s that’s where it’s just the sheer volume has gone up. Yeah, wow, good to know. I I could switch it. I’m sorry to interrupt you, Angela, because I’m like, you can tell I get really passionate about AI. Yeah.

[40:53.2] But I also want to kind of turn a little bit and give you some more practical advice while I have the opportunity. And that is, I love large language models. So if you’re hearing things like, I hear frontier model, I heard large language model. That is basically Chat, Gemini, Claude. Those are the the that that’s kind of what we think of as the super Googler.

[41:11.2] Whatever you know, that is the large language model that’s answering your questions. So if you’re using those, and I think a lot of us are now, again, I’m gonna I’m gonna go here. Don’t use the free version. At the very least, get the basic version that’s say $20 or $120 a year, because again, if you use those and you put anything in them, they have permission to use that data and learn from it.

[41:35.8] When you use a free version, you are actually giving permission to use and sell your data. I’m not going to pick on anyone specifically because they are all equally guilty at this. This is how they conduct business. That’s how Facebook does it and Instagram and all of them. By using them, you give permission to use your data.

[41:53.0] When you license these tools, then you are able to lock down those models and say, “Don’t use my data and don’t learn from my data.” And you can tell at the boundaries of security around your own personal life. Now, having said that, there’s no way I’m loading my tax document into, you know, any of these models and saying, “Hey, tell me what you think my taxes will be for next year.” As a basic example, I’m still cautious, but when you’re using those, just be cognizant of that.

[42:19.2] And also things like they can connect to your email. So, like if you say, “Hey, go look at my email and tell me did I miss something?” or look for a person’s name. Remember, once you give them that access, they have access to that data. And they can use it. So really important to think about how you use these and how to protect yourself and lock them down.

[42:40.8] Great advice and very much cutting edge because I think that’s, you know, really and such a new technology for a lot of people. So awesome. So it looks like we didn’t get questions today, but I think we’ve covered so much ground.

[42:59.5] I really want to thank you so much, Page, for sharing all of your knowledge, your insights, and your your wisdom with us. We really appreciate that. We really appreciate your time too, everybody who joined this webinar.

[43:18.6] We hope that you’ve learned some really valuable information about how to protect yourself. If you have any other questions later on, feel free to contact myself, contact Jocelyn, any of us at Sunpointe.

[43:33.6] We would love to to help you talk through any cyber questions that you have. Thank you so much. Really appreciate your time today. And hope you have a wonderful rest of your week. Thank you, everyone.

[43:49.6] Thanks a lot. Take care. Bye bye.