The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council recently released a supplement to the guide it issued in 2005, on authentication in an Internet banking environment. One of the FFIEC’s key recommendations for eliminating fraud is consumer awareness and education. At some level, you may be aware that financial institutions have a layered security approach in place. Those layers…
Have you ever watched a flock of seagulls on the beach? I live in close proximity to the ocean, and I see them all day: fishing, eating, and ultimately stealing from each other. Usually a more aggressive seagull chases and screams at a gull that’s just cracked open a clam. Sometimes the aggressor will snatch…
For the uninitiated, per Wikipedia “DEF CON” (also written as DEFCON or Defcon) is one of the world’s largest annual hacker conventions, held every year in Las Vegas, Nevada. The first DEF CON took place in June 1993. Many of the attendees at DEFCON include computer security professionals, journalists, lawyers, federal government employees, crackers, cyber-criminals,…
Lost your iPad? Someone steal your iPhone? Can’t find your laptop? Misplaced your Android phone? You can call your phone and hope it rings, but maybe it’s on vibrate, or miles away. If your car gets broken into and your laptop goes missing, what do you do? There are plenty of software programs that can…
Colton Harris Moore was busted for committing over 100 burglaries in the Pacific Northwest. He stole cars, speedboats and airplanes (at least 3). He is known as the “Barefoot Burglar” because he kicked off his shoes running from the police through the woods. He was a “door knob jiggler”. Most of the homes didn’t have…
Phishing of course is when you receive a fraud based email designed to trick you into clicking links and entering your personal information. In some cases when clicking those links you may download a virus. Their intention is to bypass your computers security. Phishing is emerging as sophisticated due to ways in which the phish…
The Guardian reports, “South Korean police recently arrested five people who allegedly collaborated with North Korean hackers to steal millions of dollars in points from online gaming sites. Members of the gang, which included North Korea’s technological elite, worked in China and shared profits after they sold programs that allowed users to rack up points…
This title of this post is a security industry axiom. In other words, we can strive for security, and by making this effort we put ourselves on a path to security. But while we may achieve a relative degree of security, we can never be 100% secure. Even Fort Knox is vulnerable. We can, however,…
I know the last four letter word you want to hear is SNOW. But everyone needs to know the Snow Shovel Bandit has been sentenced to 6 years in prison!! This guy generally broke into homes without home security alarms occupied by single women. For a small time crook, this guy had a pretty solid…
More than ten years ago, when I began speaking to organizations about personal security and identity theft, headlines often read “Utility Worker Steals Identities” or “Human Resource Officers Steal Identities” and even “Police Officer Steals Identities.” Back then the primary concern was insider identity theft, perpetrated by those who had direct access to victims’ data.…
