As I have witnessed throughout the many years I have worked with victims, each type of identity theft can have a devastating impact. Victims with whom I have worked are taxpaying citizens who do the right thing and work hard to earn honest livings. When their personal information was compromised, thieves opened up financial accounts…
A new report by BillGuard examines the problems credit and debit cardholders are having with grey charges. Every year, millions of American consumers are forced or misled into paying fees and charges they never wanted or intended to pay. These charges, called ‘grey charges’, are typically small in nature, buried in terms of service agreements,…
Your digital life and your physical life coexist like land and sky which meet at the horizon all day and night. This means while you are present here on the ground, you also exist online. Coming to terms with this reality will help you make better decisions about securing that online self. Get device proficient:…
Ever heard of mobile snoopware? For those affected, it’s unnerving and creates a sense of paranoia. I’ve worked with families that found spyware on their phones designed to watch their every move. The hacker, they say, turned their mobiles on and off, used the phone’s camera to take pictures, and use the speakerphone as a…
Criminal hackers are targeting large enterprises and breaching millions of records every year. They are also targeting small mom-and-pop operations that don’t have the security budgets the big companies do. But you and I, the lowly consumer, are also being targeted because many of us are clueless when it comes to information security. Some unfortunate…
A wise man once said, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” The wolf in sheep’s clothing refers to someone in a role contrary to his or her character and with whom contact is dangerous. In other words, sometimes it’s the people we trust the…
There have multiple revelations about government agencies spying on their citizens, which, frankly, should come as no surprise. But there are also several others who are also spying on you, and often you’ve given them permission to do so. Hackers: Routers can be hacked if not properly secured. Spyware can be installed if your PC…
There at least 99 things to know about how to prevent identity theft. Below is a good starting point. Tips: Watch your bank accounts online and examine your statements frequently. Opt out of preapproved credit cards. Go to https://www.optoutprescreen.com/?rf=t to get started. Check your credit for free at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp. You can do this up to…
“Wealthy,” by some standards, might mean being in the top one percent of earners today in the US, which is $370,000 a year. Otherwise, the “bottom” 95 percent is making less than $150,000 a year, and then 75 percent of the population makes less than $66,000 a year. Depressed? Sorry; the point of this post…
The Gemalto Contactless Challenge kicked off in the United States June 10th, with two bloggers from Austin, Texas and Salt Lake City, Utah, respectively, putting contactless payment infrastructure to the test. The Isis Consortium of AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless chose Austin and Salt Lake City to pilot its mobile wallet using near field communication…
