Entries by Robert Siciliano

International Credit Card Hackers Hammered

Retailers can temporarily rejoice (for about a minute) now that six cyber villains have been caught in two different international credit card fraud rings. The Register reports, “After investigations that began in 2009, the police executed three search warrants in metropolitan Sydney, retrieving EFTPOS terminals, computers, cash, mobile phones, skimming devices, and several Canadian credit…

Back to College Campus Security

Whether getting out of high school and entering college, or if you’re a veteran starting another year of college, there are 2 absolutes remain true: 1. You will more than likely get into a situation where your security will be at risk and 2. You aren’t fully prepared to react or respond to the situation.…

In Hurricane Season Get the Facts

Hurricane Irene killed over 40 people, did millions to billions of dollars in damage and left millions without power for over a week. I live on the east coast, right on the coast, and battened down in anticipation of getting whacked. Well that day never came because the storm missed us. The local and national…

Psychic and Fortune Tellers Are Scammers

A quick break here from security and security solutions to include you in on a little secret. People all over the world, in addition to people I know and love spend money (sometimes mine) on “readings” thinking they are getting inside information on something such as an unforeseen life event or drummed up answers to…

Username and Passwords Are Facilitating Fraud

In 2005, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council stated: “The agencies consider single-factor authentication, as the only control mechanism, to be inadequate for high-risk transactions involving access to customer information or the movement of funds to other parties. Account fraud and identity theft are frequently the result of single-factor (e.g., ID/password) authentication exploitation.  Where risk…

What Apple’s iCloud Means for All of Us

If you use Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo, you know your email is accessible from any computer or smartphone. That’s because your messages are stored “in the cloud.” What is iCloud? Apple puts it like this: “iCloud stores your music, photos, apps, calendars, documents, and more. And wirelessly pushes them to all your devices — automatically.…

Hackers Target Small Business

Big companies and big government get big press when their data is breached. And when a big company is hit, those whose accounts have been compromised are often notified. With smaller businesses, however, victims are often left in the dark, regardless of the various state laws requiring notification. One reason for this is that smaller…

10 Things To Put In A Fire-Resistant Safe

Your house isn’t going to catch on fire, right? Well, you hope not, so maybe you even fool yourself into believing it can’t happen. But I’ll bet you have fire insurance, and maybe a collapsible escape ladder, and a fire extinguisher or two. I have all this, and I also back up all my digital…

A Safe Alternative to Theft and Fire

People steal. Therefore, safes exist. There has always been a need for a place to hide, store, and lock away valuables in order to protect them from thieves. Hundreds or even thousands of years ago, safes were constructed from materials such as wood, granite, cement, brick, and even clay. Today, safes are made with some…

How the Cloud Will Change Technology

You may have noticed that over the last decade, computers have grown faster and more powerful, with more RAM, bigger hard drives, and improved processors. This is made possible by the development of better, cheaper technology, coupled with a corresponding need on the part of consumers and corporations. It has also come in response to…