Cybersecurity LibGuide

In the unfortunate event that you or someone you know may have been the victim of fraud or a scam, reporting it here will lead to spreading knowledge of this known scam to over 2,000 law enforcers to find and investigate cases of fraud. Be aware: they don't claim to resolve your individual report though.

Also, this site's FAQs are excellent - they address a lot of uncertainties that would naturally arise if one were to go straight to the report form.

The Better Business Bureau is an American nonprofit organization founded in 1912. It is a quality assurance organization that serves both businesses in accreditation, and consumer reporting across the United States and Canada. It offers consumers the power to leave reviews and file complaints that have a real impact on business reputation.

It also has an incredible toolkit for those who have experienced a scam. When you navigate to their website, "Scam Tracker" is in their main navigation menu, and offers you the options to report scams, look up scams, and learn more about scams through their 'BBB Scam Survival Toolkit.' This toolkit is a simple interactive question & answer interface that will customize a recovery plan. Where the FTC websites have a dense informational website to sift through regarding remediation after a scam or theft, the BBB's toolkit is a lot faster and easier to navigate if stressed out. These are both excellent websites to consult after experiencing cybercrime and figuring out what to do next.

For anyone who is 60 or over, this is a hotline for those experiencing fraud or romance scams, the overwhelming majority of which occur online.

833–372–8311

Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. central time English, Español, and other languages are available.

This is a free resource offered by the Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime. Professional case managers assist callers through local, state, and federal remediation processes.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, and its informational content is extremely similar to CISA's, a newer agency.

In this webpage, NIST has listed an incredible number of free resources (or premium resources, and this NIST webpage offers codes to access them for free) for those who are either more advanced regarding topics of cybersecurity, or interested in pursuing information security as a career. The Educator training and Curriculum section lists games like AttackIQ Academy and CyberCIEGE Educational Video Game that even we want to play!

Otherwise known as StaySafeOnline.org, the National Cybersecurity Alliance offers guides, articles, and additional resources on how to stay safe online for individuals and families. The U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (aka CISA) refers to NCA when it comes to privacy and security education for the general public.

The alliance also runs live events both online and in-person where professionals present, share, and spread current cybersecurity information and practices.

Let me start by addressing the first question I always get when recommending or citing this website. 'Pwned' is old internet/video game slang for 'owned,' which is also old slang for 'taken in' or 'been had.' So, if your email address has been exposed in a data breach, you've been 'pwned.'

Besides banks and credit services that offer dark web monitoring and similar detection programs, there's this website. Created by Troy Hunt, hailing from Microsoft and a developer since the mid-90's, this website has been around since 2013. With a memorable URL, backed by developers with solid reputations, and a simple interface with a simple goal, this website has staying power. The only criticism I've had with it, is that it doesn't go into what to do if/when the results of the search is "Oh no — pwned!" (The answer? The recommended resources in this list tagged #Response!)

However, if you read about the breaches provided if/when your email has been identified as 'Pwned,' you'll notice that other cybersecurity best practices such as enabling MFA, or making sure you use unique passwords for your accounts will have probably kept your accounts safe even if an email or password had been found in a data breach.

Join your community to learn more about cybersecurity together! Check your local library's event calendar (or your local government, or law enforcement agencies) for opportunities like these where you can connect directly with the experts.

Attending programs in your community about cybersecurity is also significant in that sharing and listening to others' stories builds a stronger local knowledge base when it comes to popular or common scams, data breaches, and other incidences of fraud.

The EFF was founded in 1990 and has been at the forefront of social and political movements to keep the internet free and private. Their website offers opportunities for activism as well as education and particularly appreciated: unique privacy tools & projects the EFF's developers and engineers have created that you can use, one of their most famous and successful is PrivacyBadger, a browser add-on that stops advertisers and trackers from secretly tracking where you go on the web

Cool fact: Cory Doctorow, the author of the book Enshittification recommended elsewhere in this subject guide, was the European director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation in the early '00s.

A funny title, and a brutal takedown of 'Big Tech.' Cory Doctorow names every household technology company with an explanation of its origins, history, and how it got to where it is today (often through a lot of unfair and illegal practices that it could weather).

While cybersecurity, privacy, and information security how-to's cannot be found in this book, it's an interesting and passionate read to familiarize yourself with the modern technology landscape and the giant scaled machinations that one's use of Facebook, Amazon, or Twitter, plays a small part in.

While we may be worried about privacy for fear of scams or identity theft, this acclaimed documentary suggests we could also be worried about privacy and tracking as a matter of psychological manipulation by platforms that use algorithms like Google and YouTube.

This acclaimed documentary, hosted on Netflix right now, (hence the link to our Netflix Roku in our Library of Things!), features interviews with leaders and developers of famous platforms like Facebook and Twitter. The Social Dilemma was released in 2021 and won a slate of Emmy awards. Watching it now might prove particularly eye-opening if we compare social media tracking & algorithms (and their impact on us) to what's currently known about current unregulated Artificial Intelligence services and their documented sycophantic tendencies.

This book was published in 2023, and deceptive (or 'dark') patterns are a rising topic of academic research. It's a similar vein to the documentary recommended in this list, The Social Dilemma, only it focuses on deceptive practices in general website design.

A recent example I encountered: a website takes you to a paying portal once you've finished creating a free account. To continue with your free account, you have to find the teeny tiny grayed-out text hyperlink in the footer lets you skip. This design is deliberate, as are many others. Read about them in this book to be 1) validated (I'm sure we've all seen these things and realized how unfair they are - now there's books and research going into it!) and 2) more aware about these tactics so you don't accidentally fall into these traps.