Entries by Robert Siciliano

Will The Rise Of Tablets Affect Security Measures In The Workplace?

With unit sales of smartphones and tablets eclipsing those of desktop and notebook PCs, cybercriminals will continue setting their sights on mobile, and increased mobile Internet use will continue exacerbating security and data breach issues in the workplace. The issues of “BYOD” or Bring Your Own Device to work is plaguing IT managers everywhere. While…

One-Third of Banking Account Takeover Attempts Successful

The Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), which works with the Department of Homeland Security, has released a study indicating that attacks on customer bank accounts have increased considerably in recent years. The FS-ISAC, in collaboration with the American Bankers Association, surveyed large financial institutions to collect data on fraud attempts. The responding…

The Role Of The CIO: What’s Really at Stake

The Chief Information Officer (CIO) has become as important as the CEO. It’s a pivotal position that often can make or break the success of a corporation. As criminal hackers have launched various campaigns against numerous organizations, the CIO has become much more than an information officer. They are the guardian of corporate secrets, instrument…

Do You Know What Your Teens Are Doing Online?

A new study called “The Digital Divide: How the Online Behavior of Teens is Getting Past Parents” (conducted by Tru Research and commissioned by McAfee) shows an alarming 70% of teens have hidden their online behavior from their parents, up from 45% in 2010. And yet half of parents live under the assumption that their teen tells them everything he/she does…

Protect Your Gaming Account As You Would Your Bank Account

Most people are aware of the need to protect their financial accounts, and generally take at least some degree of care to prevent criminals from accessing their money. Protecting your online game account, on the other hand, might not be such an obvious priority, but when accounts created for playing massively multiplayer online games are…

Ode to the Nigerian Scammer

Most of us would never fall for a Nigerian email scam. The obvious “scammer grammar” and outlandish requests would tip us off, as would the supposed Nigerian origin of the message, since we’re probably familiar with the typical claims about Nigerian royalty. So you might wonder why these scammers persist in such an obvious ruse,…

Mobile Security Apps and Tips

Nearly three-quarters of Americans have never installed any type of data protection or security software on their mobile devices, leaving themselves completely open to data loss, viruses, and malware. 72% of us, to be exact, have unsecured smartphones, even as they take on an increasingly important role in our digital lives. Update your OS: The…

Dutch Hacker Extradited From Romania, Charged With Credit Card Fraud

A 21-year-old Dutch hacker known within the online hacking community as “Fortezza” was arrested in Romania in March, and extradited to the United States in June. U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan, who chairs the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee on Cybercrime and Intellectual Property Enforcement, said, “This defendant has wrought havoc on victims and financial institutions…

June Was National Internet Safety Month

The Internet is an indispensable tool that citizens, corporations and governments all over the world have come to rely on. There are tremendous benefits to the World Wide Web including: having the information highway at your fingertips, being able to find and purchase products and services from anywhere, working from home, connecting with distant friends…