Oct. 15. As ne’er-do-wells ramp up their online fraud efforts in the wake of Tropical Storm Helene, October happens to be Cybersecurity Awareness Month in North Carolina.

“Storms like Helene offer prime opportunities for cybercriminals looking to take advantage of others during a crisis situation when they may have their guard down,” said Gov. Roy Cooper.

Tugging at heartstrings, pursestrings

An AI-generated image of a scared little girl holding a puppy and being evacuated from a flood area has been circulating on Facebook and other social media.

Scammers can pose as official representatives of disaster aid organizations or charities and use phishing emails, social media messages, texts and phone calls to obtain personal and financial information and access devices and networks that hold sensitive data.

Be careful with any messages that include hurricane-related subject lines, attachments or hyperlinks.

Here are some ways you can protect yourself from online threats:

• Recognize, resist and delete phishing attempts. Do not click links or open attachments in suspicious messages. Always double check web and email addresses to make sure they are legitimate. If you think the message could be real, look up another way to contact the company or person directly to verify.
• Avoid sharing personal information. Don’t send sensitive information such as passwords, account numbers and Social Security Numbers over email, text or chat.
• Make passwords long, random and unique. Strong passwords should be at least 16 characters and include a random string of mixed-case letters, numbers and symbols. Use a different strong password for each account. Password managers can generate strong passwords and remember them for you.
• Enable multifactor authentication for every account or app that offers it. Multifactor authentication requires you to enter more information than just a password, such as a text code or fingerprint.
• Update software. Make sure your devices are running the latest version of operating systems, software and web browsers. When notified about updates, be sure to install them as soon as possible or turn on automatic updates to install updates without any input as soon as they are available.