<\/a>The audience at the Moose Lodge listens to Frank Reid speak at the Juneau Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019. (Peter Segall | Juneau Empire)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
He gave some statistics that some at the luncheon that sent murmurs through the crowd.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
A ransom ware attack, where a system is taken over by hackers and not released until a payment it made, occurs somewhere across the globe an average of once every 14 seconds, he told the crowd. Since 2013, $26 billion had been lost worldwide to various cyber attacks and since January 2015 there had been a 1,300 percent increase of reported incidents.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
He told the audience to use reputable anti-virus software, and to keep the program up to date.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Crucially, Reid said, it was important to be vigilant and keep an eye on accounts and suspicious emails or phone calls.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“Pick up a phone,” he said. “Call a known number of a known contact to verify. A lot of cases the only thing that needed to be done was a phone call made.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Most in the audience were aware of the problem but some were taken aback by the scale.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“This is a lot bigger than I thought it was, and it’s a lot more worldwide than I thought it was,” Sharon Van Valin said. “It’s very sophisticated, something we probably can’t guard against no matter how clever we think we are.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
She complained that she received spam calls daily, to the point to where she no longer answers an unknown number unless a voicemail is left.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Andy Hughes, a former government worker, said this was the first presentation he had seen on fighting crime on a world-wide basis.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“I do fair amount of (online) banking and investing and it just alerts me that I have to double check.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Reid encouraged the audience to be vigilant, and have protocols for both business and personal accounts for verification and reporting potential crimes.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
While the FBI couldn’t investigate every report, because Juneau was a smaller community, smaller actions have more impact and can get more attention.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
The State of Alaska<\/a> has been the victim of a number<\/a> of cyber attacks over the years. In August, the City and Borough of Juneau lost nearly $80,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t