AS HEARD ON NH Today WGIR-AM 610: Using Online Trading Apps Safely to Protect Your Privacy

Welcome,

Craig Peterson here. I was on with Chris Ryan on NH Today. We talked about how you can stay secure and private while using the Cloud and then we talked about Contact Tracing, privacy, compliance, and government tracking. Here we go with Chris. 

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- CraigPeterson.com

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Automated Machine Generated Transcript:

Craig Peterson: [00:00:00] Hey, good morning. I was on with Mr. Chris Ryan this morning and I gave, I thought it was a pretty good explanation of the risks when it comes to online trading. I'm not really a trading expert, obviously, and I'm not talking about which platforms to use. I think it was a bit of an eye-opener. I got a lot of time to talk this morning. I did a decent job. Anyways, here it goes. I gave a couple of examples too, from close friends and family and how they got messed up.

Chris Ryan: [00:00:32] Craig Peterson joins us right now on the program. The host of tech talk. Craig, how are you?

Craig Peterson: [00:00:38] Hey, I am doing well this morning.

I'm not going to resign, anymore.

Chris Ryan: [00:00:41] Nor am I going to ask you to resign? I like your spot in the show here. Enjoy talking to you. So there you're not in that consideration at this point, we'll see how the segment goes. So let's start with this.

Craig Peterson: [00:00:53] Is it, Justin?

Chris Ryan: [00:00:54] No, I've already no, you don't get to ask me. He will just, it will be another process which will take place there, which will be outside of a resignation.

So let's start with this. There's been a lot of discussion about, online trading and, getting involved with different aspects of trading outside the traditional methods.

I'm curious as to what you think of that from a safety perspective, when you're thinking about using apps, you're thinking about using entities that are the non-traditional trading mechanisms, in light of the game stop situation. What should individuals be cognizant of?

Craig Peterson: [00:01:32] There's two different parts of this.

Chris. I want to tell you two stories, personal stories, friends, and family members of mine. And we'll start by just saying, this is a new technology and when you get right into it, I've looked at the analysis of some of these trading apps, including some of the big ones, including Robinhood and others.

And many of them are not encrypting our data. And that's just crazy. Like some of its encrypted account balances might not be encrypted, but here's the bottom line on this, frankly, there's always going to be security problems. If you are going to be doing online banking trading, doesn't matter. Make sure you're using, what we would call a secure platform or a more secure platform. This means, do not ever root your phone.

People are using their iPhones or Androids all of the time, Androids, particularly people try and gain master control if you will, over that phone. So they can do anything at that point, you've gotten around even the most basic security measures. So don't do that.

The other thing that you can and must do with these online trading apps is using two-factor authentication. Now there's a few different types.

The most simple is to have it send you a text message when you go to log in, but I have to warn you that is not safe.  It's not safe because it's sending it to your phone and your phone number is attached to that.

We've now seen. Because so many people are trading everything from Bitcoin through stock, that they have very large portfolios.  What'll happen is it's worth it to them to steal a hundred thousand dollars from you or even 50 or 20,000. In some cases we've seen it as low as. 5,000 it's worth it for them to go to the trouble to get the phone company to switch your phone number to the bad guy's burner phone. Now when they go to log into your account.

Guess what people aren't doing the basics, they're not using unique passwords, in many cases.

What will happen is they'll go to your account online and it'll ask for the username. They'll try to use a name they found on the dark web for you. They'll try the password they found on the dark web for you. Maybe they'll try a few different passwords. They've compromised other machines so they can try different passwords in different places. So they don't get caught. Now it sends a text message, but it's not coming to your phone. It's going to the bad guy's phone.

Use an authenticator app, or use a hardware token. Some of these online trading places and banks, including Chase, is a good example. They've been doing this for 15 years.

They'll send you a little key fob, a little thing that goes on your key chain and it has a display with a number on it. That number continually changes it's every 30 seconds and you have to type that number in, that's much, much safer. That's real two-factor authentication.

Now real quickly, two people in my life have been affected by this right now. One of them had an account, an online brokerage account and her stock had gone way up and she decided that she needed to sell her stock.

She didn't ask me, she didn't ask her husband. He's a bit of a techie guy. She was going to do it herself. She went to a Facebook group.  She went to a Facebook group that she found online about how to go ahead now and cash out. They asked her, in the Facebook group, there's a few things we're going to need to do in order to help you out.

First of all, what's your account number? Secondly, what's your password?  She gave it to them. She instantly lost $6,000 from her account by just doing something. I'm sorry here, but dude, you don't go to Facebook to get help with training. Don't ask how do I get Robin hood? What do I do with it and all that? It is not the right place.

Go directly to the company. Picked up a phone. You can't trust some of this stuff online.

Another example is a friend, family member, a close friend where he had been using Robinhood for trading.  He had bought a bunch of stock and it included AMC. Of course, this is a movie theater chain and it had been targeted if you will, by these people on this subreddit.  AMC had finally gotten up to breakeven point and so he decided to sell. He sold and okay, great, fine. He now regrets it. That's a big problem. I've seen him before. Now, he's a millennial and nothing personal guys, but.

Chris Ryan: [00:06:33] I'm going to take it personally. I'm gen X.

Craig Peterson: [00:06:35] So he trusts these platforms.  He trusts what they're saying on the subreddit and he's putting money he cannot afford to lose into this  Robinhood app that lets him buy and sell a stock. That to me is a huge concern.

So, Chris, there's a couple of examples. Make sure you know what you're doing. Day traders, lose money. Most of them lose money. It's that simple. Maybe buy and hold long, maybe follow what the real professionals do. Do check out the basics. Don't just buy it because it's going up.

Also, just basic security stuff guys use a password manager. Unique passwords for every site and full two-factor authentication. These apps are not completely to be trusted, so don't use it on a computer that you use for everything else.

If you're running windows great. Okay. There's a lot of problems with windows and I've got a course coming up on improving windows security. That's one thing.

Try and have a machine that you don't use for anything else, and if you can.

I don't make a dime by saying this but use Apple equipment. They don't make money off of you. They're trying to keep you safe.

Get an iPhone, get an old iPhone. If he can't afford a new one there rather than inexpensive, usually free. Get a Mac and don't use the same computer for online trading that you use for going to Facebook and everywhere else online, because it might be compromised.

Chris Ryan: [00:08:08] Craig, I appreciate your time and encourage folks to check out tech, talk on Saturdays at 11:30 AM here on news radio six, 10 and 96, seven. We'll chat again on Monday.

Craig Peterson: [00:08:17] All right. Take care guys.

I should have mentioned this, but in case you were wondering he was talking about asking someone to resign. He said I never asked anyone to resign. So that's what that was all about. What does it mean? Is it Justin?

Anyways, everybody, take care. Have a great day.

We'll talk later. Bye-bye.

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