Google Assembles “Best Of” Family Safety Center

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Teaching kids internet safety and security is an evolving and complex issue. The goal is to achieve a level of trust with your kids while providing a long enough leash to foster growth and responsibility. Google’s Family Safety Center is a new site compiling the best of resources for advice, guidance, direction and action items to provide parents with the necessary tools to help kids navigate the wild wild web.

“Google Family Safety Center works alongside many organizations in the US to promote action and awareness around Internet safety. They offer resources and advice on cyber bullying, child protection and online education both for parents and children.”

A few of the resources include:

ConnectSafely is the leading interactive resource on the Web for parents, teens, educators – everyone engaged and interested in youth safety on the fixed and mobile social Web. In addition to safety tips, advice, and youth-tech news, ConnectSafely provides a discussion forum for all stakeholders on safe, active engagement in participatory media and culture.

Common Sense Media is a favorite of mine and is an independent nonprofit organization committed to providing kids and families with the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in a world of media and technology.

The National Cyber Security Alliance’s mission is to educate and therefore empower a digital society to use the Internet safely and securely at home, work, and school, protecting the technology individuals use, the networks they connect to, and our shared digital assets.

OnGuardOnline.gov is a project of the federal government and the technology community to help you guard against Internet fraud, secure your computers, and protect your privacy. For more tips on talking to your kids about staying safe online, read Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids About Being Online. This comprehensive guide for parents, also available in Spanish, covers topics ranging from social networking to file sharing.

By investing quality time with your kids learning the intricacies of online security, both child and parent will develop skills that will last a lifetime.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing sharing too much information online on Fox News.

Botnets Lead to Identity Theft

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When a virus recruits an infected PC into a botnet, a criminal hacker is able to remotely access all the data on that computer.

Robot networks, or botnets, have a varied history. A bot, which doesn’t necessarily have to be malicious or harmful, is essentially a program designed to connect to a server and execute a command or series of commands.

As reported by a McAfee study, networks of bots, otherwise known as drones or zombies, are often used to commit cybercrime. This can include “stealing trade secrets, inserting malware into source code files, disrupting access or service, compromising data integrity, and stealing employee identity information. The results to a business can be disastrous and lead to the loss of revenue, regulatory compliance, customer confidence, reputation, and even of the business itself. For government organizations, the concerns are even more far reaching.”

In the second quarter of 2010, more than two million PCs were recruited into botnets in the United States alone. That’s more than five out of every 1,000 personal computers. The rise and proliferation of botnets will continue to put identities at risk.

Computers with old, outdated, or unsupported operating systems like Windows 95, 98, and 2000 are extremely vulnerable. Systems using old or outdated browsers such as IE 5 or 6, or older versions of Firefox offer the path of least resistance.

To protect yourself, update your operating system to Windows 7 or XP SP3. Make sure your antivirus software is set to update automatically. Keep your critical security patches up to date by setting Windows Update to run automatically as well. And don’t engage in risky online activities that invite attacks.

In order to protect your identity, it is important to observe basic security precautions. When you conduct transactions with corporations and other entities, however, the safety of your information is often beyond your control.

Consumers should consider an identity theft protection product that offers daily credit monitoring, proactive identity surveillance, lost wallet protection, and alerts when suspicious activity is detected on your accounts. McAfee Identity Protection includes all these features in addition to live help from fraud resolution agents if your identity is ever compromised. For more tips on protecting yourself, please visitwww.counteridentitytheft.com.

Robert Siciliano is a McAfee consultant and identity theft expert. See him discuss identity theft. (Disclosures)

Travel Security Tips for Turkey Day

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Thanksgiving is coming quickly and it is one of the most traveled times of the year. Burglars know this. There are unfortunately many unsavory characters that are anticipating you are heading to a Thanksgiving Day football game or going to grandmas house and some of you might be helping the homeless at a soup kitchen.

To ensure an uninterrupted feasting of the fowl and a safe return home, I suggest you consider the following:

Here are a few tips to help protect the safety of your home while you are gone:

  • If you are traveling by car make sure it’s running properly, check belts and tires and oil. Have a good spare and carry an emergency kit.
  • If you are heading overnight pack your car in your garage or late at night under the cover of darkness.
  • Use timers on indoor and outdoor lights.
  • Let a trusted neighbor and the police know you are traveling.
  • Unplug garage door openers.
  • Have a neighbor park their car in your driveway.
  • If grass is still growing where you live and if you’re gone for a bit have a landscaper mow your lawn.
  • Don’t share your travel plans on social media or on a voicemail outgoing message.
  • Lock everything of significant value in a safe.
  • Invest in a home security camera system and home security alarm system.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing burglar proofing your home on Fox Boston. Disclosures.

Protecting Children on the Internet

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Today’s kids don’t even know what it’s like to not be connected to the Internet. But being technology savvy doesn’t mean they are safe and secure.

Since the Internet as we know it was born in the early 1990s, it has become an integral part of our and our kids’ lives. Online shopping, social media, mobile web, and computers in the classroom are as normal to them as riding a Huffy bicycle was to me. For these kids’ parents, the online world often feels too fast and too complicated. Nevertheless, it is essential that parents educate themselves on safe, secure online practices in order to set a positive example and provide guidance for their children as they navigate the web.

Fortunately, safe and appropriate online behavior isn’t much different than in the real world. The main distinction is that on the Internet, it is necessary to be particularly sensitive regarding how and with whom you communicate.

Parents who lack experience with the Internet, computers, or mobile phones must learn the basics before they can adequately monitor their children’s habits. A parent’s discomfort or unfamiliarity with technology is no excuse to let a child run wild on the Internet.

As with any task, one should start with the fundamentals. In recognition of National Cyber Security Awareness Month, let’s go over some of those fundamentals:

  • Spend as much time as possible with kids in their online world. Learn about the people with whom they interact, the places they visit, and the information they encounter. Be prepared to respond appropriately, regardless of what sort of content they find. Remember, this is family time.
  • One popular tactic has been to set up the computer in a high-traffic family area, and to limit the time children may spend using it. This is still good advice, but it becomes less feasible as more children have their own laptops and mobile phones, which can’t be so easily monitored.
  • Teach children to recognize inappropriate behavior. Kids will be kids, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay to say mean things, send racy pictures, make rude requests, or suggest illegal behavior. If it isn’t okay in the physical world, it isn’t okay on the Internet.
  • Consider investing in computer security software with parental controls, which limit the sites kids can access.
  • Decide exactly what is and is not okay with regards to the kinds of websites kids should visit. This dialogue helps parents and children develop a process for determining appropriate online behavior.
  • Children should be restricted to monitored, age-appropriate chat rooms. Spend time with your children to get a feel for the language and discussion occurring on the websites they wish to visit.
  • Do not allow children to create usernames that reveal their true identities or are provocative.
  • Children should be reminded never to reveal passwords, addresses, phone numbers, or other personal information.
  • Kids should not be permitted to post inappropriate photos or photos that may reveal their identities. (For example, a photo in which a t-shirt bears the name of the child’s city or school.)
  • Never allow a child to meet an online stranger in person.
  • Children should be taught not to open online attachments from strangers.

Robert Siciliano, personal security expert contributor to Just Ask Gemalto, discusses online predators on Fox News. Disclosures

Digital Photos Held for Sextortion

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This is a little over the top and if this story was happening to one person I may not even dare to discuss. But it seems to be happening to hundreds, maybe thousands and possibly tens of thousands. And the fact that kids today are posting anything and everything, it needs to be discussed.

Right now hundreds of cyber threat victims are coming forward, arrests are being made and court dates are set because criminal hackers in the form of weird men are breaking into women’s email programs and social networking sites and scanning their media for photos that show them as they were in their birthday suit.

The depraved men are then contacting these women alerting them to their dirty deeds and giving them an opportunity to save face before the photos are posted to Facebook by paying them off in money or more photos!

This is serious stuff, now while you may not participate in stupid activity like this someone you know and care for may. The Register reports One victim, who was 17 at the time, testified that she was so humiliated that she quit her summer job and dropped out of advanced college classes. Another victim attempted suicide.

The hacks occur when:

Users have simple and easy to guess passwords and their accounts are infiltrated

Malicious software is installed on the users PCs in a number of ways

The computer has Peer to Peer (P2P) file sharing programs that allow anyone to scan the computers hard drive.

Here’s the bottom line: If you don’t want the world to ever see it, then do not do it. Because if an ex-boyfriend, ex-husband, ex-girlfriend or ex-wife has an axe to grind it may go live. Worse, a devious criminal hacker may get it and “sextort” you. Otherwise you’re next consideration (if you just need to be a shutterbug) is to put all digital media on hard drives that are not connected to the internet.

Otherwise protect yourself with anti-virus, don’t install or remove P2P file sharing software and create passwords that are difficult to crack that have numbers and letters.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing hacked email passwords on Fox News. Disclosures.

Colorado Supreme Court: Using a Stolen Social Security Number is Not Identity Theft

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I feel like my head is going to explode.

The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled “that using someone else’s Social Security number is not identity theft as long as you use your own name with it.”

The defendant in this particular case had admitted to using a false Social Security number on an application for a car loan, and to find employment. The court ruled that since he had used his real name, and the Social Security number was only one of many pieces of identifying information, he “did not assume a false or fictitious identity or capacity,” and “did not hold himself out to be another person.” The court found the defendant’s use of a false Social Security number “irrelevant,” since the number was provided to fulfill “a lender requirement, not a legal requirement.”

Justice Nathan Coats dissented, writing, “The defendant’s deliberate misrepresentation of the single most unique and important piece of identifying data for credit-transaction purposes” was “precisely the kind of conduct meant to be proscribed as criminal.”

This is yet another example of the lack of justice in the judicial system. The justices erred by failing to understand what identity theft really entails, especially when considering the distinction between a “lender requirement” and a “legal requirement.” Whether or not a Social Security number is legally required in order to obtain credit, it is still a legal identifier in many circumstances.

42 USC Chapter 7, Subchapter IV, Part D, Sec. 666(a)(13), a federal law enacted in 1996, determines when the numbers should be used. This law requires a Social Security number to be recorded for “any applicant for a professional license, driver’s license, occupational license, recreational license or marriage license.” It can also be used and recorded by creditors, the Department of Motor Vehicles, whenever a cash transaction exceeds $10,000, and in military matters.

“Synthetic identity theft” occurs whenever an identity is partially or entirely fabricated. This commonly involves the use of a real Social Security number in combination with a name and birth date that are not associated with the number. This type of fraud is more difficult to track because the evidence does not appear on the victim’s credit report or on the perpetrator’s credit report, but rather as a new credit file or subfile. Synthetic identity theft is a problem for creditors, who grant credit based on false records. It can also create complications for individual victims if their names become associated with synthetic identities, or if their credit scores are impacted by negative information in an erroneous subfile.

With this decision, the Colorado Supreme Court has fundamentally upset the balance of law, effectively opening a Pandora’s box of problems. This saga is far from over.

Since the law won’t protect you, at least in this scenario, consider investing in McAfee Identity Protection, which includes proactive identity surveillance to monitor subscribers’ credit and personal information, plus access to live fraud resolution agents who can help subscribers resolve identity theft issues. For additional tips, please visit www.counteridentitytheft.com.

Robert Siciliano is a McAfee consultant and identity theft expert. See him discuss identity theft victims onThe Morning Show with Mike and Juliet. (Disclosures)

Using Video To Catch a Nasty Neighbor

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Living in the Northeast has its pros and cons. We have the four seasons, great food, entertainment, sports, everything is at your fingertips, and for me it’s where business gets done.

Drawbacks include lots of congestions, crime, traffic, bad attitudes and nasty neighbors. Most people I know have a neighbor they are in some kind of entanglement with. It’s everywhere. When houses are stacked on top of each other people get territorial and stuff happens.

A New York Times article highlights a few of these nasty scenarios that I’m talking about. One person from the article was quoted saying “I’m not sure now, whether to worry more about my neighbors or strangers.”

I hear you man. I HEAR YOU!

Installing video surveillance outside your home can be a deterrent to a burglar or home invader. Cameras are another layer of protection. But they can also catch a person doing things they shouldn’t too.

For example:

My cameras caught one of my neighbors attacking another neighbor. The film was used as evidence in court and the attacker moved.

Man catches a neighbor who “had been tossing plastic bags of dog excrement into the sculptured shrubs around a palm tree in his front yard.” Man gets a fine and is shamed on Youtube. He moved.

A former state district judge, is caught scratching the back of his neighbors car. The video, was posted on YouTube. Shamed.

One man used the cameras to document a “neighbor’s cats prowling and fouling the yard around his mobile home. He also discovered neighbors looking in his windows while he was away.” Posted to YouTube.

Another man who had items missing from his home caught his neighbor on film entering his basement and rooting around which was enough for the police to arrest him.

Video is available through ADT Pulse which provides customers with anywhere, anytime access to their home via smart phones or personal computers, including an iPhone application to:

• Arm and disarm their home security system.

• Get notified of alarms and selected events via email and text messages as well as video clips.

• View their home through cameras and watch secure real-time video or stored video clips of events from monitored areas of the home.

• Access lights and appliances or set schedules to automate them.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing Home Security on NBC Boston. Disclosures.

5 Tips to Help Prevent Home Invasion

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Warning: This is about to get very graphic. The Boston Globe reports “A woman hacked to death with a machete and knife in her home was alive for all 32 slash and stab wounds that split open her skull, sliced through bones and pierced organs, a medical examiner testified.”

Steven Spader, 17 years old at the time formed “Disciples of Destruction” a gang, “pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and burglary and witness tampering. He was 17 when prosecutors say he plotted the home invasion and rounded up the three other young men who accompanied him.”

“During the home invasion, Kimberly Cates, 42, was killed, and her daughter was severely injured.”

Prosecution asked the medical examiner if the mother was alive during the attack and he said yes. Meaning she didn’t die upon being bludgeoned, she bled to death.

Spader has a penchant for the “pen” too. He has sent letters to fellow inmates which he calls “bedtime stories” describing the crimes in detail. He has also written songs in rhyme describing his brutal acts.

This young man is obviously an evil person who has no value for human life or remorse for his crimes. He views his crimes like a trip to a theme park, one amusing afternoon.

It is unfortunate that civilized humans must live amongst predators. But there has always been, is, and always will be human predators around us.

Many will recall the horrible home invasion that occurred in Connecticut when the Doctor lost his wife and two daughters. The first of two home invaders in that case was prosecuted and is awaiting sentence.

The chance of something like this happening is very small. But there is a chance. So you should make yourself a tougher target.

Here are 5 tips to help keep you safe and prevent a home invasion:
1. Never talk to strangers via an open or screen door. Always talk to them through a locked door.

2. NEVER let children open the doors. Always require and adult to do it.

3. Install a home burglar alarm and keep it on 24/7/365. With a home alarm system on, when someone knocks on the door, a conscious decision has to be made to turn off the alarm. Most people will keep it on.

4. Not all home invaders knock, some break in without warning.  Just another reason to have that alarm on.

5. Install a 24-hour camera surveillance system. Cameras are a great deterrent.  Have them pointed to every door and access point.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing home invasions on the Gordon Elliot Show. Disclosures

15 Facebook Fiascos to Watch Out For

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The following 15 activities, all of which are facilitated by Facebook and other social networking websites, are causing lots of heartache and headaches:

1. Posting illegal activities. In the little town where I grew up, 30 kids recently faced the wrath of their parents, school officials, law enforcement, and the Boston media, all because someone posted their party pictures, which depicted underage drinking, on Facebook. It’s never okay to show illegal behavior.

2. Account hijacking. Phishers imitate the Facebook email template, tricking victims into believing they have received an official Facebook message. Once you enter your login credentials, criminals can take over your account, pose as you, and ask your friend for money. Always log into your Facebook account manually, rather than going through a link in an email.

3. Facebook bullying. It is so much easier to write something awful about someone than it is to say it to them personally. Words hurt. Vicious words have led to kids committing suicide. Friend your kids and see what their online dialogue looks like.

4. Online reputation management (or lack thereof). I’ve seen teachers, professors, students, officials, police, and others from just about every walk of life get fired because of words or pictures they posted on Facebook. Remember, if what you post wouldn’t pass the potential employer test, don’t do it.

5. Social media identity theft. When someone snags your name, posts a photo as you, and begins to communicate while impersonating you, the effects can be devastating. Grab your name on as many sites as possible, including Facebook. Knowem.com can help speed up this process.

6. Financial identity theft. Bad guys use Facebook to crack your passwords. Most online accounts use “qualifying questions” to verify your identity. These questions tend to involve personal information, such as your kids’, other relatives’, or pets’ names or birthdays. When the bad guys find this information on your Facebook page, they can reset your passwords and steal your identity. So limit what you post, and lock down your privacy settings.

7. Burglaries. Criminals have been known to check Facebook statuses to determine if potential victims are home or not. Publicly declaring that you’re not home creates an opportune time for burglars to ransack your house. Never post this information on Facebook.

8. Geo-stalking. Location-based GPS technologies incorporated into social media are perfect tools for stalkers to hone in on their target. Please just turn these settings off.

9. Corporate spying. By posing as an employee, setting up a Facebook group, and inviting all the company’s employees to join, the bad guy gathers intelligence that enables him to commit espionage from within the organization.

10. Harassment. This goes beyond bullying. In one example, a woman was on a camping trip and unreachable by phone when her Facebook account was taken over. The “harasser” wrote all kinds of desperate status updates posing as the woman, leading concerned friends and law enforcement to her house, where they broke down her door.

11. Government spying. Who is that new friend? The AP reports, “U.S. law enforcement agents are following the rest of the Internet world into popular social-networking services, going undercover with false online profiles to communicate with suspects.” Just don’t be a “suspect.”

12. Sex offenders. Facebook is perfect for sex offenders, who pose as real nice people until they gain their victims’ trust. Always be on guard, and do background checks, at least.

13. Scams. It’s just a matter of setting up a fake Facebook page and marketing it to a few people, who then send it to their friends, who send it to their friends. An Ikea scam hooked 40,000 unsuspecting victims with the promise of a $1,000 gift card. Like mom said, if it sounds too good to be true, it’s probably not true.

14. Legal liabilities. In New York, a judge recently ruled that material posted on Facebook and other social networking websites can be used as evidence in court, regardless of whether the posts were hidden by privacy settings.

15. Zero privacy. If you think for one second that what you post on Facebook is for you and your friends’ eyes only, you simply don’t understand how the Internet works. Many sites are capable of pulling data from the bowels of Facebook, despite any privacy settings you may have in place. And that data can be stored forever, which means that it can come back to bite you long after you’ve forgotten you ever posted it.

Robert Siciliano, personal security expert contributor to Just Ask Gemalto, discusses hackers on social media on CNN. Disclosures

Home Security Has Never Been Easier

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Home is where you look forward to towards the end of a vacation. Home is where you rush to at the end of a work day. Home is where you’d rather be when you are somewhere else. After all, as Dorothy said tapping her ruby red slippers, “there’s no place like home”.

Our homes become a place of comfort unlike any other worldly possession. It’s where all our stuff is, in all the places we put it, in the order (or disorder) we create. It’s where our kids sleep, dog naps and where we eat.

Most people take for granted the feeling of safety and security in their home. They expect it as a given. Like a sense of entitlement.

I’ve always believed this is a mistake.  Because when one takes security for granted, they completely have their guard down. This means they are vulnerable to any whacko who jiggles a doorknob looking for the path of least resistance.

If a person’s home is invaded or burglarized, they quickly lose that sense of security and never feel the same way again. Some people even quickly sell below market value just to get out from what has become a perceived black cloud over their property.

Simply locking your doors is a start and taking control like this doesn’t mean you are “paranoid”. Then taking the next steps and installing a home security system is the smartest thing you can do.

Your home is your castle. And it should be treated as such.

Be proactive with the help of ADT Pulse, a new interactive smart home solution that goes beyond traditional home security to provide a new level of control, accessibility and connection with the home.

Connectivity and interactivity are driving the way people live and manage their homes. ADT Pulse provides customers with anywhere, anytime access to their home via smart phones or personal computers, including an iPhone application to:

• Arm and disarm their home security system.

• Get notified of alarms and selected events via email and text messages as well as video clips.

• View their home through cameras and watch secure real-time video or stored video clips of events from monitored areas of the home.

• Access lights and appliances or set schedules to automate them.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing Home Security on NBC Boston. Disclosures.