Category Archives: Cyber

Real Estate Transactions Wire Fraud Alert!

Posted on September 20, 2017 by | Leave a comment

It is no surprise the creative bad guys sitting behind computer screens somewhere have found another weak spot in the system. The problem with this one is, it is usually of size.

Real Estate Fraud Alertfraud-2695269_960_720

One of the larger financial transactions many of us make are the purchase of some type of Real Estate. With money, paperwork, and stress sloshing around, it is no wonder the bad guys have squeezed into this arena.

Here is what is going on:

  • After a hack into the system somewhere-
  • Email is sent to one of the parties, stating there is an updated wire account number-
  • In the foray of movement one party fails to verify the new account information-
  • Bam, the funds are wired and disappear-

How to stop it:

  • Confirm ANY email change with your opposite party-
  • Call one last time and check “In Person” with the other party before wiring – just to be safe
  • Get your Fed wire number confirmation after the wire-
  • Confirm your receiving party did in fact, receive the funds

If it is convenient, a cashiers check may be easier/safer– but hold on tight to that check after issue and double confirm how to make the check payable if this is the way you choose to go.

While the above steps look simple, and the bad guys easy to spot, in the heat of the moment, things can slip through the cracks.

Measure twice, cut once!

Have a great “Less Fraud” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

 

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Posted in Cyber, General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning

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Equifax breach and what to do about it?

Posted on September 11, 2017 by | Leave a comment

On Thursday of last week Equifax announced it had a breach of possibly 143 million people who may have a credit report on file.

Before you jump off a cliff, understand this ranks only as the Fourth largest breach in history…. big, but not even close to the largest from yahoo, about 1.5 billion from 2013-2014.

This is again a modern day Bonnie and Clyde!

Breach Occurred in JulyEquifax

Here is the website Equifax is giving for information that also contains a link to a page that will allegedly check to see if your information has been compromised.

Before you jump in and check your information on the Equifax site, read the following:

The website they have given to check to see if your information was compromised says yes to any inquiry according to a  New York Times reporter… hmmmm

What to do? – Calmly take actions

Assume your information has been compromised !- It will most likely be eventually anyway, if it was not already …. so again no jumping off a cliff, it’s better than be held up at gunpoint “Modern day Bonnie and Clyde”

Monitor your credit from now on- Credit.com, credit karma and many others that guard your credit are a good place to go. Many credit card companies and mortgage companies send your soft, high level score monthly, keep an eye on your report for fluctuations.

Check your credit annually,  here in our article on how to safely do this in what is called a soft check so as not to hurt your credit.

Have all of your credit cards send you an email after every transaction- its easy and a good safety net.

You can opt for the free Equifax year, if you do you must do this by November 21st. We would not recommend the monitoring after the free year unless you have an incident. There will likely be a large number of people who forget about the free year and actually become a paying client to Equifax after their breach… real irony !

Expect more breaches in the future, but if you have done the preventatives above, you will be fine.

This too shall pass and likely not nearly the incidents many are calling for!

End of our all our credit?  …. nah … pesky modern day Bonnie and Clyde, and a need to heighten our radars from now on? … YEP !

Have a Great “Less Worrying Credit” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

 

 

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Posted in Cyber, General Financial Planning, Investing/Financial Planning

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1 Minute Video, How to Reset Your Password on your NEW TOTAL VAULT, Second in special series

Posted on July 26, 2017 by | Leave a comment

Last week we told you how to get into your New Total Vault with our (hard to believe it was only 60 seconds) 1 minute video.

The most common issue we have with our NEW TOTAL VAULT, heck any site for that matter, is forgetting or having to reset the password.

For the record, due to our over the top focus on security we have stringent features on our Vault that create an automatic mandatory reset if the Vault goes un-used for a length of time.

How to Reset Your Vault Password

Email or call us and we can quickly and easily reset your password  …. Ahh, but we know you may be accessing your Vault in a peaceful “off-time” during non working hours, late at night, early in the morning with that cup of coffee on the weekend or other time….

Here is how to reset your password, a quick 1 minute video:

Have a Great “New Password” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

 

 

 

 

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Posted in Cyber, Investing/Financial Planning, Vault, Video

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How to Safely Deliver Your Super Sensitive Electronic Documents to Us

Posted on June 19, 2017 by | Leave a comment

Occasionally there are documents that contain more information than comfortable emailing.

Examples … just to name a few

  • Legacy Tax Return Software that still includes full social and bank information (Newer versions blank that information)
  • FBAR (Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts) filings still show full personal information
  • Passports
  • Drivers License

New Vault HandoffVault Add View W Arrows for private and Full View

One of the fantastic features of our New Total Vault is the ability to safely upload your Super Secret Document into your personal vault thereby allowing us to safely download it from our side. Here is a link to an article showing how to upload your document…

Good News, a summer project is to include multiple Very Short Videos to show us how easy it is to complete.

Have a Great “Safe Document Transfer” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

 

 

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Posted in Cyber, Investing/Financial Planning, Vault

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Watch Cyberattacks as they occur …. Save the Date VERY special announcement

Posted on May 24, 2017 by | Leave a comment

We ran across this  cool living graphic this week from Visual Capitalist and Norse..

This is a still picture of Cyberattacks occurring live.

While neat, this picture does not do it justice.

Click here for the actual living breathing attacks tracking as they occur. After a few minutes you will be dazzled. Especially at the scrolling monitor.

Have no idea how they track this, but figured someone would have a graphic like this. Now we know.

Save the Date

We confirmed our Holiday party venue this week and it is going to be spectacular. Please save the Saturday before Thanksgiving, (November 18, 2017) from 1-5 pm on your calendar and ready your friends and family for a fun event!

An event for kids, family and anyone who likes the change of season ….hint hint … More to come next week, but we were too excited to keep it under wraps any longer.

Have a Great Day!

John A. Kvale CFA CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

 

 

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Posted in Clients/Clients Only, Cyber, John Kvale, Personal

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Cyber Safety Lesson from a recent Virus “WannaCry”

Posted on May 17, 2017 by | Leave a comment

On Friday May 12, 2017 of last week, a Malware Virus was unleashed that rendered  problems across the international globe. While not the first Virus of it’s kind, this is the most recent.

What can we learn? …… Something important!

WannaCry Virus

“WannaCry”, the odd name of this most recent virus has spread to an estimated 230k machines.  Once infected, your nice machine turns mean and asks you to deposit $300 into a bitcoin account or else deletes your files.

The ransom is doubled to $600 after three days if not paid, allowed another three days, and then if not paid, the files are supposed to be deleted.

Created by the NSA- accidentally lost

According to this NPR report the WannaCry virus was created by the NSA (National Security Agency) against many computer companies wishes, shelved for later use or research, then stolen from the NSA by a hacker.

Not withstanding the coincidence associated with an agency who’s purpose is Security, losing its own files there is an important lesson to be learned. Here is another good article from Wharton.

Lesson learned- Download those updatesWindows Update

The WannaCry virus was completely blocked by a patch from Microsoft several months ago.

The only systems affected at this time are older systems that did not do their regular updates or very old outdated systems that did not have updates.

The picture above taken was from the machine used to make this post.

Make sure you are doing your updates, either manually or automatically and do not use outdated software that does not have updates!

This certainly does not guarantee an infection free future for our machines, but at least it may stop the easy access !

Have a Great “Computer Virus Free” Day!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com

 

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Posted in Cyber, Investing/Financial Planning

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Coming next week for your “New Total Vault” cutting edge extra safety……. Two Factor Authentication aka 2FA

Posted on April 28, 2017 by | Leave a comment

Today’s Bonnie and Clyde sit in a room somewhere trying various ways to break into our digital lives via a computer. It is much better than looking down the end of a barrel, but intrusion is intrusion….

As the bad guys adjust, so do we!

Say Hello to my Little Two Factor Authentication Gun

Two Factor Authenitcation aka 2FA for those techie fans, present party included, is a second step for logging into secure areas, such as our New Total Vault.

Starting next week, we will all be asked to set up 2FA in order to enter the Vault. A cell or home phone number entered will give us a text for a code to enter our ever more secure vault.

We pardon the inconvenience for those disturbed, but safe over sorry is our mantra !

Have a great 2FA safe Friday!

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.

A Dallas Texas based fee only

Financial Planning Total Wealth

Management firm.

http://www.jkfinancialinc.com

http://www.street-cents.com

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Posted in Cyber, Investing/Financial Planning, Vault

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