If you were hit by a bus, and passed on to whatever heaven might exist, would you care about your Facebook page? Probably not. But your loved ones more than likely would. Things like email, websites, and social media profiles are considered “digital assets,” which may have some monetary value, but for the most part…
Users of online and mobile banking know that financial institutions have a layered security approach in place. Those layers include multifactor-authentication, which may mean requiring users to punch in a second security code or carry a key fob, as well as due diligence in identifying customers as real people whose identities haven’t been stolen, and…
The 2012 Identity Fraud Report: Social Media and Mobile Forming the New Fraud Frontier, released by Javelin Strategy & Research reports that in 2011 identity fraud increased by 13 percent. More than 11.6 million adults became a victim of identity fraud in the United States, while the dollar amount stolen held steady. Identity theft occurs when…
Over the last decade many computing tasks that were developed to be performed locally on and office PC have now moved to the cloud such as contact managers, office documents, media editing programs, you name it: if there is a software version, there is probably a cloud-based version, and often for free. Just search for the…
The Federal Trade Commission today released its list of top consumer complaints received by the agency in 2011. For the 12th year in a row, identity theft complaints topped the list. Of more than 1.8 million complaints filed in 2011, 279,156 or 15 percent, were identity theft complaints. Nearly 25 percent of the identity theft complaints related…
The White House issued a statement in regards to our critical infrastructure – such as the electricity grid, financial sector, and transportation networks that sustain our way of life – have suffered repeated cyber intrusions, and cyber crime has increased dramatically over the last decade. The President has thus made cyber security an Administration priority.…
The Internal Revenue Service today issued its annual “Dirty Dozen” ranking of tax scams, reminding taxpayers to use caution during tax season to protect themselves against a wide range of schemes ranging from identity theft to return preparer fraud. Here are 4: Identity Theft Topping this year’s list Dirty Dozen list is identity theft. In…
Corporations know there are long-term marketing benefits of social media and they also know the security issues with employees continue to be a problem. Many companies restrict internal access. Others prevent employees from discussing or mentioning the company in social media during private time. Follow these social media security tips for small business to prevent security…
The Internal Revenue Service has issued its annual “Dirty Dozen” ranking of tax scams, reminding taxpayers to use caution during tax season to protect themselves against a wide range of schemes ranging from identity theft to return preparer fraud. An IRS notice informing a taxpayer that more than one return was filed in the taxpayer’s name…
Back in 2010, The Wall Street Journal was already warning us about app developers’ lack of transparency with regard to their intentions. “An examination of 101 popular smartphone “apps”—games and other software applications for iPhone and Android phones—showed that 56 transmitted the phone’s unique device ID to other companies without users’ awareness or consent. Forty-seven apps transmitted…
