A Safe Alternative to Theft and Fire

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People steal. Therefore, safes exist. There has always been a need for a place to hide, store, and lock away valuables in order to protect them from thieves.

Hundreds or even thousands of years ago, safes were constructed from materials such as wood, granite, cement, brick, and even clay. Today, safes are made with some type of metal, combined with other materials. Safes have basically always incorporated a lock of some kind, and, to make things more difficult for criminals, have often been built to be either intentionally heavy or permanently installed.

Throughout the 19th century, as cities were developed and more and more houses were built, fires became an issue in overcrowded areas. Fire codes as we know them today didn’t exist. This created a need to protect valuables from more than thieves. New technologies were added to protect safes from fire damage. It wasn’t unusual for a safe to be lined with brick, asbestos, or plaster to slow down a fire.

Once high-quality, fire-resistant metal safes were introduced, banks and wealthy people snapped them up. But it wasn’t until the early 1930’s that SentrySafe introduced and perfected the fire-resistant safe as an affordable alternative for average people’s home security needs. Today, millions of SentrySafes like the Big Bolt Fire Safe are being deployed in homes and small businesses worldwide. Having a safe is just smart. Go to SentrySafe to learn more.

Robert Siciliano is a Personal and Home Security Expert for SentrySafe discussing home security and identity theft on TBS Movie and a Makeover. Disclosures.

How the Cloud Will Change Technology

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You may have noticed that over the last decade, computers have grown faster and more powerful, with more RAM, bigger hard drives, and improved processors. This is made possible by the development of better, cheaper technology, coupled with a corresponding need on the part of consumers and corporations. It has also come in response to software developers, who have continued to introduce more complex and demanding programs.

Then, “the cloud” came along, and software such as office programs, contact managers, editing programs, and data storage went virtual, no longer requiring local computer space and speed.

As a result, old, slower PCs have a new life, and new devices like mobile phones, netbooks, e-readers, and tablets rely on the cloud to function as fully portable productivity tools and entertainment centers.

One of the cloud’s most significant impacts so far has been in music. Since the digitization of songs, we have seen dramatic changes in devices and hardware for music consumption, as well as in distribution mediums.

Last year, a Gartner report predicted that cloud-related spending would reach $258 billion by 2020. It accounted for $28 billion in 2010. This rapid increase should prompt investments in related technologies, applications, and services to account for 45% of all IT spending.

In the short term, as the cloud grows, more jobs will be created. In the long term, however, it is likely that many of the smaller administrative tasks that are currently performed on local PCs will take place in the cloud, managed by big companies along the lines of Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and even AT&T and Verizon.

The cloud will encourage the development of identification technologies designed to authenticate individuals online and via mobile and card technologies. The advantages and sheer connectedness facilitated by the cloud and our complimentary devices will ultimately allow for a more seamless and secure digital life.

Robert Siciliano, personal security expert contributor to Just Ask Gemalto. Disclosures

How Is All This Hacking Affecting My Identity?

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Without question, 2011 is the year for hackers of all kinds to get their 15 minutes of fame. But it feels like it’s lasting a lot longer than 15 minutes. With so many different breeds of hackers, each with their own agenda and an endless supply of potential targets, the media has certainly been more than willing to give them all the attention they could possibly want.

Major publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Forbes, seem to have journalists working fulltime to cover the hacker chronicles. Significant players and events like Wikileaks, HB Gary, Anonymous, Lulz, IMF, Sony, RSA, Epsilon, the News of The World voicemail hacking scandal in Britain, and so many others have helped bring data security and identity theft issues to the forefront of the public’s attention. Much of the coverage has been sensationalist, but the reality is that we are indeed hemorrhaging information all over the place.

Initially, hackers went after sensitive personal data like Social Security numbers. Then they moved on to credit card numbers and bank account numbers, and then usernames and passwords. Military records have been breached, corporate emails have been exposed, and there have been targeted attacks on government records. At one point last year, the total number of records breached hovered around half a billion. But if we were to broaden the definition of what counts as a breached record, I’d guess that number would have to quadruple, at least.

No matter how you slice it, your information is at risk, whether it’s on your own PC or some other computer or database somewhere. It isn’t a matter of if but when you’ll receive a letter from some company saying they were breached and you are at risk.

In security, as in sports, is the best defense is a good offense. The worst thing you can do now is nothing.

To ensure peace of mind, subscribe to an identity theft protection service, such as McAfee Identity Protection, which offers proactive identity surveillance and lost wallet protection. If your credit or debit cards are ever lost, stolen or misused without your authorization, you can call McAfee Identity Protection and they’ll help you cancel them and order new ones. If their product fails, you’ll be reimbursed for any stolen funds not covered by your bank or credit card company. (See Guarantee for details.) For additional tips, please visit CounterIdentityTheft.com.

Robert Siciliano is a McAfee consultant and identity theft expert. See him discuss the Epsilon breach on Fox News. (Disclosures)

What is Gold Farming and How Can MMOs Fight Back?

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If someone asked me to go “gold farming,” I’d probably assume we were going to grab a couple pans and head north to a stream in New Hampshire, and with any luck, strike it rich.

But gold farming doesn’t refer to literal gold. Rather, gold farmers accumulate virtual currency by playing massive multiplayer online games. That virtual currency, or “gold,” is then sold to other players, despite the fact that most game operators explicitly ban the exchange of in-game currency for cash. Gold farming is so lucrative, people in China and other developing nations can support themselves as full-time gold farming ring operators.

The Washington Post recently reported, “Low-educated laborers in Asia spend hours each day advancing through levels of an online game, picking up gold, swords and gems that enhance a player’s status. Then gaming studios, which employ the players, sell those virtual goods to online retailers. Finally, the retailers sell those items to more than 120 million players worldwide, many of them in North America and Europe, who are unwilling to play the games all day to gather the items on their own.”

Some argue that in certain developing countries, gold farming is tantamount to slave labor. The New York Times reports that in China, gold farmers often work twelve hours a night, seven nights a week, with only two or three nights off per month. “For every 100 gold coins farmers gather they make about $1.25, earning an effective wage of 30 cents an hour, more or less. The boss, in turn, receives $3 or more when he sells those same coins to an online retailer, who will sell them to the final customer (an American or European player) for as much as $20.”

Meanwhile, a recent report by the World Bank suggests that online gaming has a positive impact in Asia because 70% of the industry’s revenue remains in the gaming countries, with most of that money going to studios.

I don’t know. 12-hour days, for 30 cents an hour? What do you think?

The bottom line is that gold farming negatively affects game play in that legitimate players are now unable to enjoy the full game experience. Being unsatisfied, they leave for other games (and often take their friends with them) and this damages the brand reputation and reduces the gaming publisher’s profits.

Many leading MMOs are finding it increasingly necessary to deploy a layered defense to protect against gold farming, chargebacks and increasingly, account takeovers within gaming environments.  By leveraging the power of device reputation, which looks at the computer, smart phone or tablet connecting to the games, the gaming publisher can easily connect together players working together and shut down entire rings in one sweep.  In one case, a major gaming publisher saw the marvel of Oregon-based iovation’s fraud protection service and took action against 1,000 fraudulent accounts shortly after implementing the SaaS-based service.

Robert Siciliano, personal security and identity theft expert contributor to iovation, discusses another databreach on Good Morning America. (Disclosures)