South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi), March 9-13, 2012 in Austin, Texas is an incubator of cutting-edge technologies. The event features five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leaders, and an unbeatable line up of special programs showcasing the best new websites, video…
Over the past 15 years, the increasingly rapid evolution of technology has resulted in new computers or mobile phones becoming outdated in a matter of one or two years. Chances are, you’ve gone through no less than ten digital devices in the past decade, if not more. It has become standard practice to upgrade to…
A German “computer whizz-kid” was arrested recently while attempting to transport the latest bank scamming technology into Britain. The 26-year-old married father of two worked at various software companies worldwide, gathering the necessary technologies and components to create a card skimming device designed to replace the real point of sale devices at restaurants or other…
mCommerce, or mobile commerce, refers to financial transactions conducted via smartphones or other mobile devices. But are mobiles really meant for financial transactions? While about a third of mobile phone users remain unwilling to dabble in mCommerce due to identity theft concerns, the majority of users are apparently comfortable making purchases with their phones, just…
A colleague with a small business was cleaning out his warehouse of tools and supplies and decided to list many items on Craigslist. I have lots of experience in this process and I can tell you “It’s always something”. An application called “CraigsPro” allows you to go through your items snapping pictures and creates a…
Some people can’t help bragging and babbling about themselves online. Whether in a blog post, tweet, Facebook status update, or YouTube video, chances are if it happened, it’s going to come out online. The Internet is making it much easier for fraud investigators to learn everything they need to know about their subjects. Teenagers and…
It’s Tuesday morning after a long weekend, the bookkeeper comes in a little late but hits the books right away. She comes into your office and asks you about a series of wire transfers you made over the holiday weekend to new employees who apparently live overseas. And then your heart sinks. Because you have…
Insurance fraud has been around since the dawn of the insurance policy, largely due to its reliance on the honor system. It’s fairly easy to file and process a fabricated claim—just a matter of filling out paperwork online, really. While there are certainly some checks and balances in the claim investigation process, there are often…
As consumers have overwhelmingly flocked to purchase smartphones—149 million were shipping in Q4…a 37% increase over Q4 2010—mobile operating systems from the likes of Apple, Google, and Microsoft are becoming big targets. Malware, which consists of viruses, spyware, scareware, and other digital infections designed to steal data, is known to be a serious issue for PCs. And in response,…
Do you backup data? One would hope you do, and can’t imagine you don’t, but sad to say, many find data backup overwhelming and tedious so they nix it. One of the problems with getting a small businesses to secure data is they think they need to load up thumbdrives, DVDs or tape devices manually.…
