March 10th, 2010 Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
Skimming data off of debit and credit cards has been happening at ATMs, gas pumps and electronic funds transfer point of sale terminals for quite some time.
When criminals plant skimming devices, they have to physically attach a skimming device that fits over the face of the ATM’s card slot. Then [...]
March 9th, 2010 Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
Naiveté: A lack of sophistication or worldliness. That sums up a lot of people I know. “There’s a sucker born every minute” is a phrase often credited to P.T. Barnum (1810 – 1891), an American showman. It is generally taken to mean that there are (and always will be) a lot [...]
March 9th, 2010 Growing up we used to spend hours prank calling people we knew and also calling completely random numbers. The best calls were when you got someone on the line that got all mad and reacted in a way that made us want to call that person every five minutes forever. We just needed “stimulation.”
Then we [...]
March 8th, 2010 When I was 17 my friend “Baldo” as he was known by all was the Fake ID Master. He also fixed TV’s and still does today. But he didn’t actually create “fake ID’s”, he altered real ones. The technology he used back then is still used today. It’s called Crayola Crayons. He would take a [...]
March 8th, 2010 Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
I see headlines like this every day. “Security increases” because we wait until something bad happens until we do something about it. How about we increase security right now because there is a small chance something bad can happen? Like the Boy Scouts, “Be Prepared.”
Some time ago a home invasion in [...]
March 7th, 2010 New Hampshire, USA. “Live Free or Die,” baby. The official state motto emblazoned on every NH license plate has always intrigued. The thought of someone from NH might bring to mind revolutionaries or America militia sympathizers. New Hampshire has come a long way since its motto was created in 1945 and is not much different [...]
March 5th, 2010 It made a little buzz in the States, but over in Dubai, as more details become available about the assassination of senior Hamas terrorist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, it is becoming apparent to some (depending on which side of the wall you live on) that the assassins stole the identities of several Israelis carrying [...]
March 5th, 2010 Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
GPS is the single greatest invention since the wheel. Well, it is for me. Admittedly, I’m not a great driver. I don’t pay attention as much as I should. I day dream and I miss exits. I’m safe, but I just don’t like to drive. GPS gets me there.
I’ve messed [...]
March 4th, 2010 Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
By now you’ve heard about a Web site called PleaseRobMe.com. This site is re-posting people’s messages, and uses a location-sharing technology to post where you are when you’re not at home. The sites motivation is to teach people they are putting themselves at risk.
I’m not a fan. There are better [...]
March 2nd, 2010 A webcam is certainly one way the bad guy can get intelligence about you. They can use it to spy on you. They can listen into everything you say all day. They know when you are home or not, whether or not you have an alarm, they watch you. But in my opinion, the real [...]