B.J. Ostergren is a proud Virginian. She’s known as “The Virginia Watchdog,” but I like to call her “The Pit Bull of Personal Privacy.” She is relentless in her efforts to protect citizens’ privacy, and her primary concern is the posting of personal information online. To make this point, she finds politicians’ personal information, usually…
Years ago my childhood hero was this Chicago cop named JJ Bittenbinder. He would say “If all else fails, let them kiss you, then bite down on their lips until your teeth meet.” The Boston Globe reports a woman was attacked in an alley and her attacker lost a big chunk of his tongue. The…
According to a recent report from Verizon, data breaches are on the rise. There were 760 data breaches recorded in 2010, compared to 140 breaches in 2009. However, there were approximately four million records stolen in 2010, as opposed to 144 million stolen in 2009. This means there were fewer large-scale data breaches compromised of…
McAfee’s most unwanted criminals have included pickpockets, Trojan viruses, and ATM skimmers, dumpster divers, spies, and wireless hackers and now phishers, shoulder surfers, and keyloggers. Identity theft can happen online or on the ground to anyone with a pulse, and even to the deceased. The key is awareness, vigilance, and investing in products and services…
All my life, I’ve been waiting for someone to give me a million dollars in diamonds, which have been willed to me by my long-lost Somalian stepfather, who’s supposedly the third generation dictator under the humble Mr. George Kinneus the Third. Or something like that. If you receive an offer resembling that one, run for…
We’ve gone over this at least a thousand times, lock your doors at night while you sleep, lock your windows and install a home security alarm. Why? Because strange men who have murdered in the past and have been incarcerated as a teenager eventually get out of jail and then invade a person’s home at…
The depth, breadth, creativity, and depravity of scams and the scammers that perpetrate them no longer shock or offend. From grandmother scams to online dating scams, identity theft, data breaches, and any form of phishing or advanced fee scams, when you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. But the bad guys continue to find new…
You’re probably familiar with the comments sections of blogs and online newspapers. It’s where people write nice, harmonious, agreeable comments about the article, the article’s author, and the President. No, wait that must have been a dream I had. I have always felt that a lack of accountability in the commenting process unfortunately brings out…
The ADT Pulse alarm system I have has a “Panic” button in case we are in an emergency situation where we need help. I’ve always visualized situations such as home invasion or maybe medical or fire emergency as its intended function. Well one ADT customer Jarod Stice and his fiancé Jessica Bennett — along with…
Online classified advertising site scams are typically conducted by scammers in countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Romania, Korea, Israel, Columbia, Argentina, the Philippines, or Malaysia, who spend their days targeting consumers in the developed world. Scammer grammar and general awkwardness make these scams relatively easy to detect. But when a scammer is local, the ruse…
