July 2025 

In investing news, we’re approaching mid-July and the markets are behaving.  Amid floods, fires, heat domes, bombings, and trade war continuation, the bulls are still running, although not straight uphill. We still expect to continue the rollercoaster that 2025 has been. Technically and historically, we are still in a bull market. Owning quality individual securities is still tried and true during both up and down markets. We like to relate investing to a long-distance race rather than a sprint. We want you to victoriously cross the finish line on all your goals without injury.

While we watch over your accounts, we need you to watch over your digital security. Some of the biggest risks we face in the world right now are cyber threats.

There are some ever rising dangers we want you to be aware of:

• Don’t plug your device cables into public USB ports directly, use your charging cube.
• Be aware of text, phone, mail, and email scams asking for personal information.  Don’t click on links you don’t know for certain are from a secure source in emails or text messages.  Verify the email address or link from a legitimate source.
• Keep your internet router security features up to date.  This may require downloading updates or a restart, this depends on your internet hardware.  This article from Consumer Reports has tips for router security. 
  
  
  The old tried and true precautions are more important than ever:
• Keep an eye out for unknown use of your identity by watching or freezing your credit.
• Use complex passwords that are not easily guessed by someone following you on social media, such as birthdates, names of kids, etc.  Don’t reuse the same usernames or passwords.
• Use dual factor authentication whenever possible.
• Update your software regularly, most updates have security patches.
• Keep anti-virus software from a reputable source on your devices.
   
  While we know it is inconvenient sometimes to have us be overly cautious with your information, we do it to keep you safe.
• We use alternative methods whenever possible to get you money rather than wires since they have become a large potential source of fraud.
• We send and receive secure text messages via Repchat and secure emails with passwords required.
• Our online video conferencing is secure and requires admittance to our meetings that only we can grant.
• We never send or receive money without positive verification.
• Every member of our team has advanced cyber security training regularly to be up to date on the latest threats.
• We use best in class, redundant state-of-the-art monitoring and security for all data.
   
  Stay safe and enjoy the summer fun,

The Team at TruNorth