Every year at the Siciliano household, we have a holiday tradition based on the Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes, which is, as you probably guessed, a meal consisting entirely of fish. There’s lobster, mussels, clams, scallops, shrimp, smelt, and cod, all either fried or cooked in red sauce, spicy sauce, or white sauce. This…
Burglars are opportunists looking for a score. They case a neighborhood looking for homes that look unoccupied, mailboxes stuffed, news papers piled up, lights off, shades up with a Christmas tree in the window inside with lots of gifts under the tree. They prefer homes with no signage outside says “This House Is Alarmed” or…
Fresh off the most successful Cyber Monday, which turned into a Cyber Week or even a Cyber Month, spanning from mid-November into December, marketers and advertisers are now positioning themselves for a 2012 Mobile Tuesday. Forbes reports, “Consumers are going mobile in large numbers, and the 2011 holiday season proved it. IBM Coremetrics recently reported that consumers…
A Florida County Sheriff via The Recorder issued the following tips to prevent holiday crime. I’m going to break them down and shorten them up to keep it concise. “We are coming up on one of the most festive times of the year for families with the celebration of several holidays. However, joy and fun…
A common holiday shipping phishing scam is a phony notice from UPS, saying you have a package and need to fill out an attached form to get it delivered. The form may ask for personal or financial details that will go straight into the hands of the cyberscammer. Often the email asks to download a…
The Washington Post reports that this holiday season, Cyber Monday expanded into an entire week of record-breaking online shopping. From Sunday, November 27 through Saturday, December 3, consumers spent nearly $6 billion over the Internet, a 15% increase over the same week in 2010. During the first 32 days of the November-December holiday season, online…
Auction fraud refers to fraudulent transactions that take place through auction and classifieds websites. Either a product advertised may be misrepresented by the seller or the items sold are never delivered at all. This holiday season, as you seek out hard-to-find gifts and look for the best prices, keep in mind that not everyone out…
Hackers, scammers, cons and thieves take advantage of citizens’ generosity by sending e-mails, making phone calls or even setting up shop on a street corner and try to appear to be legitimate charitable organizations. Do not donate cash: Anyone asking to come to your home or office and pick up cash is a scammer. Any…
The Smart Card Alliance has put together a list of frequently asked questions about how smart cards work in a healthcare environment, and provided excellent answers. A smart card resembles a typical credit card, but is embedded with a small microprocessor chip, which makes it “smart.” That chip is a powerful minicomputer that can be…
In May 2009, the President’s Cyberspace Policy Review called for the development of “a cybersecurity-based identity management vision and strategy that addresses privacy and civil liberties interests, leveraging privacy-enhancing technologies for the Nation.” That “vision and strategy” came to fruition in the form of the “National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace” (NSTIC), which calls…
