February 17th, 2010 Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
Financial institutions have the most to lose and the most to gain by improving security education of their clients and employees.
A while back I appeared on a local TV show talking about phishing. Amazingly, still, not everyone knows what phishing is. A good friend saw the show and was shocked [...]
February 17th, 2010 Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
Now that the 3 major search engines Google, Bing and Yahoo index real-time search for Twitter and other social networks, consumers must be aware that not all relevant search is a safe click. Scammers and identity thieves see this as real-time free advertising for their malware.
When news breaks, the social media [...]
February 17th, 2010 Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
Diploma mills were born along with elearning institutions who are actually legitimate and accredited bodies. Degrees and diplomas issued by diploma mills are frequently used for fraudulent purposes, such as obtaining employment, promotions, raises, or bonuses on false pretenses. They can also be used as a form of fake ID when [...]
February 16th, 2010 Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
Botnets are robot networks of computers connected to the Internet that sit in our homes and offices. A botnet is generally banks of multiple PC’s from the 10’s to 10,000’s to millions. There are no hard numbers on botnets but last figure I saw was somewhere between 3-5 million. Another stat [...]
February 13th, 2010 Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
Makers of fake anti-virus software force people to buy ’scareware’. If one could have a favorite scam, for me, it would be “scareware.” My reasoning is it’s one of the few scams that actually gets through to me. My computer’s defenses are pretty good, but I still see scareware. They’ve even [...]
February 13th, 2010 Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
Readers of these posts are familiar with ATM skimming. ATM skimming is a billion dollar problem and growing. A relatively new scam over the past few years is electronic funds transfers at the point of sale (EFTPOS ) skimming. People commonly swipe both credit and debit cards through the in-store machines [...]
February 13th, 2010 Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
Belmont Massachusetts is right near Boston. This is not too far from my house and it’s where people “Pahk the Cahh in Hahvad Yahd.” Police are fighting a battle that has its residents all shook up over more than a dozen home burglaries in recent weeks. Many of the victims [...]
February 13th, 2010 Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
In the University of Cincinnati’s Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, the authors write “The general population must be engaged as active security providers, not simply beneficiaries of security policy, because their practices often create the threats to which government responds.” Somebody is saying to take personal responsibility and start [...]
February 11th, 2010 Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
A Texas bank is suing one of its customers who was hit by an $800,000 online bank theft that could determine who is to be held responsible for protecting their online accounts from fraud.
Computerworld reports Romanian and Italian based criminal hackers launched numerous wire transfers out of the client’s back account. [...]
February 11th, 2010 Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
According to the National Crime Prevention Council, apartments have an 85 percent more chance of being burglarized. Homeowner or renter, everyone has the same cares and concerns regarding their personal security.
As a landlord, or, as I request they refer to me, a Landdude, I make apartment security a priority for my [...]