SUMMARY BY CHATGPT

In this episode of Screw the Commute, host Tom Antion discusses an important cybersecurity threat called sync jacking (or browser sync jacking). This attack occurs when hackers exploit browser synchronization features to gain access to a user's data across multiple devices.
Key Takeaways & Security Tips:
1. What is Sync Jacking?
o Hackers target web browsers (Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox) to gain control over user data.
o Sync jacking is particularly dangerous because it spreads across synced devices (PC, phone, tablet).
2. How to Protect Yourself:
o Update your browser regularly to patch security vulnerabilities.
o Use only trusted browser extensions from reputable sources.
o Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) for added security on important accounts.
o Do not store passwords in your browser—use a password manager like Roboform instead.
o Turn off automatic synchronization to prevent hackers from accessing all synced data.
o Log out of Google when not in use to minimize exposure.
o Disable autofill for sensitive data.
o Regularly clear cache and cookies to reduce tracking and security risks.
Tom emphasizes the seriousness of these threats, urging listeners to take proactive measures to protect their information. He also reminds users to research more on sync jacking if they want deeper technical insights.
Finally, he promotes his mentor program and Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia, which offers digital marketing education and scholarships for students.
Conclusion:
Sync jacking is a stealthy but dangerous cyberattack. By following Tom’s tips, users can significantly reduce their risk of falling victim to hackers.

===

Episode 969 – Sync Jacking
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:25] It's Tom here with episode 969 of Screw the Commute podcast. Today, we're going to talk about a really important security thing that you got to pay attention to so that people can't gain control of your all your stuff. It's called sync jacking. Sync jacking is the term for it. You'll probably want to look it up and go deeper than I'm going to go today. But what I give you today will pretty much keep you out of trouble. All right, I hope you didn't miss episode 968. Actually, episodes 966 967 and 968 were a week's worth of phone tips. And then, of course, if if you want tons of phone tips, you go to screwthecommute.com/training and then search for the word phone. And I have tons of phone tips to make you lightning fast on your cell phones and tablets. Make sure you grab a copy of our automation book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree and check out my mentor program at GreatInternetMarketingTraining.com.

[00:01:30] Okay, let's talk about sync jacking. And actually the term is browser sync jacking. Now most of you know what a browser is. Everybody knows what a browser is, but there's several of them that are the mainstream ones Chrome, Safari, edge, and Firefox. But there's other ones out there that claim to be safer. But anyway, most of us use one of those four, and I think Chrome is beating everybody. But anyway, you know, a browser is your kind of gateway to the internet.

[00:02:04] You do everything through there. You go to social media sites, you do your banking, you know, all kinds of stuff you do there. Well, the the problem is, is the bad guys and girls know this. And so they attack these browsers and they can actually use sophisticated methods to get control of all of your stuff that's on your computer. And it's extra bad because it's very stealthy, and it really doesn't require you to do a lot of the obvious, like phishing stuff where you see a, a strange email and they're begging you to click on something. It's real obvious, those kinds of things. Well, I'll say that. But again, some of you still click on those things and don't do it. Don't click on anything that that you don't know where it came from. So this is called browser jacking. Browser sync jacking. The reason they put the word sync in there. Because when some of you and many of you use the synchronization function to synchronize stuff between lots of your devices, your cell phone and tablet and desktop and laptop and all that stuff, well, there's a lot of potential security vulnerabilities by doing that. Okay. So I'm going to give you several things on how to protect yourself from this. And it'll probably if you do the things I'm going to tell you here, probably knock out 90% of your risk, but that 10% can still get you.

[00:03:38] So if you're if you're real Propellerhead or Geek or something, you can search browser jacking. And a lot of the super geeks will tell you more advanced things to even protect yourself even more. But if you do these, it's going to give you way more protection than just not paying attention to this. All right. First thing simple. Update your browser. Whatever you're using, make sure it's got the latest update because the geeks that run these browsers keep up with these vulnerabilities that are exploited by hackers. So keep it up to date. And many of the browsers will allow you to install what is called an extension to make it do different things. And there's hundreds of thousands of these things. So only install trusted extensions from reputable sources. So don't just grab this thing that sounds cool, because you could be really opening yourself up to trouble. All right, next thing is, make sure you turn on multi-factor authentication authentication on all your accounts. So let's say you have a banking account. Make sure MFA is on there. You know two factor authentication. They call it also. So somebody trying to break in, you get noticed to say, hey, is this really you or not? See. So that'll that alone will help you tremendously to turn them on. It has nothing to do with your browser. It has to do with the people that got into your browser, are getting into your passwords and user IDs and everything, and trying to log into your banking and everything else.

[00:05:18] And this would stop them because they couldn't get past the if you get a text or something to your phone, as long as your phone hasn't been compromised. All right. Now here's another thing that many of you do that you just should stop doing and erase them all. Do not store passwords in your browser. Use a separate password program like Roboform. There's others. That's the one I've been using for many years. I see people when I'm working with them online. Some of my mentees, especially the new ones until I get get ahold of them and tell them, do not do this is I say, okay, login to your shopping cart system and they do it in one click. And I'm thinking, how did you do that? Did you do it? Do you have roboform? No, it's in my browser, so their user ID and password are in their browser. No, do not do this. You're just asking for trouble. So have a separate password manager like Roboform. And that'll really, really take a lot of these tools away from these bad people that are trying to get you. All right. Now the next thing is, is don't you remember we called it called this sync jacking. Right. Don't have automatic synchronization on that. Synchronizes all your stuff. Yes, it sounds convenient. Yes, it is convenient. However, it's a way that when they do get ahold of you, the hackers get ahold of you.

[00:06:48] Now they get everything because you've synced it all around. You know, every device you have, they got control of everything. You do not want to be in that position. Now, is there times to sync up everything? Yes, but you do it manually when, you know, once a week or once a month, depending on how busy your stuff is. And and then you turn it back off. All right. So don't have automatic synchronization on, on your browser. Now log out of Google. Google is a big, big target for sure. So log out of Google when you're not, when it's not needed or when you're not using it. I told you about disabling autofill, which is putting in sensitive data that's stored in your browser. No, we don't want that. And then regularly clear your cache and cookies cache c-a-c-h-e. I think it's spelled and cookies. And again, that's just knocks out little chips away at the chances of somebody getting in there and being and taking over everything. I can't overstate the seriousness of this, folks. These hackers are. That's all they do all day long, and they get together and they brainstorm on how to defeat you and rob you see and create havoc for your organizations and, and steal your money. And you know, all this stuff. So don't tee it up and make it easy for them, you know, do whatever you can to to stop it. All right. Well, that's called sink jacking.

[00:08:22] So go back and listen to this again. Research it deeper if you want to. Really if you need help on any of these things like how do you clear your cache, you know, stuff like that. Everybody's got YouTube videos on all this stuff. And of course, if you're in my mentor program, we help you one on one on all of this stuff. So there you go. And speaking of my mentor program, if you're in my mentor program, you get a scholarship that you can gift to somebody to my school, it's the only licensed, dedicated internet and digital marketing school in the country, probably the world, and it's certified to operate by Schev, the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia. But it's distance learning, so you can be anywhere and attend the school. But it'd be one of the best gifts you could ever give to a young person, because it's a highly in-demand skill that they'll get within a matter of months. It's six months till it's a certificate school, so minimum of six months until you can get your certificate. But people were making money before that, all right. Just from what they learned in the school. So there you go. Check it out at GreatInternetMarketingTraining.com. And if you want to look directly at the school it's IMTCVA.org internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia. all right. We'll catch you all on the next episode and protect yourself. Don't get sync jacked.