Entries by Robert Siciliano

Cool Tools To Access Files Remotely

Whether you’re a road warrior or simply own multiple PCs and want access to all your data from anywhere, here are a few easy ways to do it, and one not so easy option. All of these options are secure, as long as you don’t leave a remote PC logged into your account, or log…

The Ever Present Credit Card Scam

The Ever Present Credit Card Scam When people ask me, “How do I protect myself from credit card fraud?” I tell them, “Cancel the card, or never use it.” Because that’s the only way. Otherwise, all you can do is hope the merchant has a sophisticated system in place to mitigate the fraud. The FBI’s…

Government Moves Away from SSN as Identifier

The Department of Defense proclaims, “The national security depends on our defense installations and facilities being in the right place, at the right time, with the right qualities and capacities to protect our national resources.” But by relying on Social Security numbers as primary identifiers, this same organization puts the identities of soldiers and their…

Snow Removal Scams Plague The Elderly

The lowest of low life scammers generally prey upon the weaker and often the frail. And all too often that is children or elderly. In this case, snow removal scams happen when we have winters like this one where snow is piling up 6-10 feet over the course of the season. Daily television news reports…

mCrime Perfectly Positioned to Pounce in 2011

The number of households in the United States that rely solely on wireless telephones continues increasing. More than one in four households had cell phones and no landlines in the first half of 2010, which is an increase of 2.1% since the second half of 2009. And almost one in six households uses cell phones…

Are Internet Cookies Good or Bad?

Neither, they are just a mechanism to how the Web works.  The bigger question is, are the uses thereof good or bad. Microsoft, Google, and Firefox are implementing do-not-track features into their browsers, giving consumers the option to block cookies that may track their surfing for advertising purposes. Most major websites now install cookies on your…

Digital Lifestyle: 4 Essential Mobile Travel Apps

You don’t reach Platinum Medallion status on Delta by sitting on your back porch. I got there by schlepping all over the country, from one airport and hotel to the next. And technology definitely plays a major role in making my trips more manageable. I swear by the following apps: Tripit is a free app…

Criminal Hackers Responsible For Most Data Breaches

According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, there were at least 662 data breaches in 2010, which exposed more than 16 million records. Nearly two-thirds of breaches exposed Social Security numbers, and 26% involved credit or debit card data. The ITRC elaborated, “Other than breaches reported by the media and a few progressive state websites,…

What It’s Like To Have Your Home Robbed

Recently, I worked with a Fox News reporter in Boston on a story about home burglaries and home security systems. The victim in our story states “I see the big smashed in window, glass everywhere,” says David Barstow of Methuen. While his family was gone for only a couple of hours, a group of teens…