Entries by Robert Siciliano

3 Year Old’s Identity Stolen To Buy Porn

A thief hacked into a woman’s checking account and used her daughter’s name on an electronic check to pay for an online porn subscription. The FBI believes this is a relatively new scam, with reports coming in from across the country. The little girl isn’t a signer on the account, but the bank cashed the…

Android Apps Infected With A Virus

Are you one off the 33% of all mobile phones running the Android operating system?  The official Android Market is run by Google and there are over 150,000 applications with an estimated 3.7 billion downloads. More than 250,000 applications have been downloaded with a malicious virus. The LA Times reports “Google is remotely removing virus-infected…

Managing a Digital Life: Snooping on a Spouse’s Email

Your spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, or partner just headed out to do errands without logging out of his or her email account. The computer’s sitting right there. Would you feel compelled to check it out? According to a recent study, there’s a good chance that you will eavesdrop on your significant other’s cell phone and email…

Identity Thief Steals Identity For 17 Years

This mess Joseph Kidd stole Larry Smith’s identity 17 years ago, when Smith was 50 years old. While operating under Smith’s identity, Kidd “spent time in jail, as sent to prison, paroled, obtained welfare and Medicare benefits, and got married.” He did all this using Smith’s name, which means that Smith has had to deal…

Software Makes Dumbphones Smart for Facebook

Facebook for SIM, from Gemalto enables anyone to enjoy Facebook on all handsets, even if without a data connection or data subscription. With this technology, Gemalto brings Facebook to millions of mobile phone users regardless of their handset type. “Increasingly people want to be able to stay connected and communicate with their friends on Facebook…

Search Engine Doesn’t Need Kids SSN

When Google launched Doodle-4-Google, in which children can compete to design Google’s homepage logo, they requested contestants’ Social Security numbers in an effort to prevent duplicate entries. Americans have become accustomed to handing over the last four digits of their Social Security number as a password or identifier for various accounts and applications. But with…

Identity Theft Ring Operates From Federal Prison

For nearly a year, a prisoner at Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution operated an identity theft ring from his jail cell. “Federal prosecutors say the man was able to get personal information communicated to him while in the prison, including names, addresses, and Social Security numbers of credit card holders at various department stores. He…

Black Money Washing Scam Plagues Naïve

Get ready to cringe. The Nigerians really have cornered the market on scamming the unsuspecting. In business, if they were to have a niche’ their clientele are the extremely naïve, very gullible and stupidly vulnerable. Florida seems to be their stop off point in the US as many “419” scams begin and end in Florida.…

Creepy iPhone App Invites Security Risks

This is just nuts: “Situationist is an iPhone app that makes your everyday life more thrilling and unpredictable. It alerts members to each other’s proximity and gets them to interact in random “situations”. These situations vary from the friendly “Hug me for 5 seconds exactly” or “Compliment me on my haircut”, to the subversive e.g.…

Identity Theft Victim Held Hostage By Bank

The Huffington Post reports, “The Identity Theft Resource Center says Ty Powell is a victim of identity theft. Freddie Mac says he hasn’t paid his mortgage in two years. The local paper says he’s dead. Powell says, ‘I don’t know what to say.’” Powell bought a house in Arizona from a builder, paying $217,000 in…