Can you believe it? A man of the cloth was up to no good. What has the world come to? A pastor from Tennessee was caught on a security camera trying to break into the home of one of his parishioners. It’s not the prison-heading pastor’s first pass with the po-po; it seems he’s got…
Identity theft in the form of new account fraud can happen to anyone with a Social Security number, which includes virtually any American with a pulse…as well as some who no longer do. Identity theft can even happen to your newborn baby shortly after a Social Security number has been issued to him or her…
The old adage that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link rings true with home security too. A home is only as secure as its weakest door, window or lock. So in this post, I’ll address means of egress: doors. Front doors are often decorative and, most often, heavy with a solid…
Now that Apple has rolled out its new “Touch ID” fingerprint biometric technology, none of us ever has to enter a password ever again….NOT. While biometrics is certainly an option for authentication and a fingerprint is the most likely method of password deployment, it will be a long time until (if ever) a fingerprint is…
Identity theft is first and foremost a problem because we rely on numerical identifiers that attach humans to credit and a variety of services. Once a criminal gets hold of those identifiers, he can simply be you. But when that thief takes on those numerical identifiers and attaches another name or date of birth, he…
So a recent Bay Area home invasion ended in a gun battle. You know why? Because it’s a home invasion. That’s often what happens when a person’s home is invaded. If the homeowner has a gun and can get to it, he pulls it out and starts shooting. But chances are the home invader has…
Encryption is the science of encoding and decoding secret messages. It began as cryptography—the ancient Greeks used it to protect sensitive information that might fall into the hands of their enemies. More recently, governments have used encryption for military purposes, but these days the term if often used in reference to online security. Encryption is…
Medical identity theft is the deadliest form of identity theft—and I say this without hyperbole or exaggeration. When financial gain is the general motivation for stealing medical information, insurance cards, records, etc., the crime is a form of account takeover fraud. Medical identity theft—the real kind—occurs when the thief’s motivation is obtaining medical procedures or…
Grey charges: “Deceptive and unwanted credit and debit card charges that occur as a result of misleading sales and billing practices.” Technically, grey charges aren’t considered fraud because the legalese spells it all out, and trusting consumers sign on the dotted line. Merchants know levying grey charges is legal, but they also know it’s unethical,…
Security is one of those topics we’d rather not discuss because it requires us to acknowledge the fact that we are vulnerable to miscreants bent on doing harm. Sorry, but this is Real Life 101 here—which, unfortunately, means most people don’t do anything about their security proactively; hence, so many people are victimized and end…
