Here is why home security systems are absolutely essential. A homeowner in South Carolina is sleeping when he hears a loud banging noise. He gets out of bed to investigate and comes face to face with a man in his home wearing a ski mask. Question: Do they have snow in South Carolina? Do they…
Many years back I lived on a peninsula north of Boston in a small ocean view cottage. The band “Talking Heads” apparently lived there years earlier when they were starting out. There’s a song or two they wrote that references the area. It’s a very cool place. The kind of place people think you can…
Back in 2005, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) made security recommendations for banks and financial institutions in response to the increase of cybercrime. Since then, banks have implemented most, if not all, of these guidelines, and cyber criminals have responded by challenging each layer of security, by exploiting different technologies or coming up…
Home property deeds are documents showing home ownership and provided to home buyers and certified by county clerks or registrars after closing on a home purchase. Deeds are generally public records and available for free or a small fee at the state or country registrar’s office. There 2 types of deed scams. The first involves…
Approximately two million homes are burglarized every year. That’s one home every fifteen seconds or so. Police only catch one out of ten burglars, which means the bad guys do it over and over again. Burglaries result in over $4.5 billion in losses annually, or over $2000 for the average victim. A safe can be…
For any cave-dwelling, living-under-a-rock, head-in-the-sand, naïve, under-informed members of society who aren’t paying attention, we have serious cyber-security issues on our hands. Black hat hackers, who break into networks to steal for financial gain, are wreaking havoc on banks, retailers, online gaming websites, and social media. Black hats cost these companies and their clients billions of dollars every year.…
Mobile banking is on the rise for more reasons than convenience sake. In truth, it’s more secure than traditional online baking. Accessing your banks mobile website or using your banks mobile application is inherently more secure than using a computer. Why? Computers are big targets for thieves. PC’s mostly run on Microsoft’s most hacked operating…
“Simple device identification” relies on cookies or IP addresses to confirm that a customer is logging in from the same PC that was used to create the account. The Financial Federal Institutions Examination Council has explained the fallibility of this system: “Experience has shown this type of cookie may be copied and moved to a fraudster’s…
Home security in the physical world is locks, cameras and a home security system. In the virtual world home security is protecting your homes wireless internet connection. I’ve spoke many times of how hackers can invade your wireless internet and steal your identity by getting onto your computer. We’ve also touched on how pedophiles can…
I’m a big fan of the trade and recommend everyone engage their local locksmith for a review of your hardware to determine if yours is adequate for your home security. Chances are at some point in your life you will need a locksmith in an emergency situation whether for your car, home or place of…
