Crime and violence are generally not fun topics to write about or read about. Discussing a bloody home invasion isn’t exactly inspiring, nor does it make good dinner time chat. Events like these are only “entertaining” when fictionalized in TV and movies and make for a gripping arms length “who dunnit”. However the fact is…
“Spear phishing” refers to phishing scams that are directed at a specific target. Like when Tom Hanks was stranded on the island in the movie Cast Away. He whittled a spear and targeted specific fish, rather than dropping a line with bait and catching whatever came by. When phishing attacks are directed at company officers…
#1 Nigerian Scams: According to a Dutch study, victims of advanced-fee scams, which are also known as 419 scams or Nigerian scams, lost more than $9 billion in 2009, almost 50% more than the previous year. (This PDF contains the statistics from the study.) While these types of scams are generally understood to be Nigerian…
What’s the point in even knowing what the most 25 dangerous neighborhoods are? For one thing, if you live in one, you may already have a sense of it, but it would be good to know you’re considered high risk and might want to take the extra precautions and batten down the hatches. Plus for…
#1 Publically available information is not valuable to an identity thief. If I was an identity thief I’d start with the phone book. All information about you is of value to an identity thief. The bad guy gathers as much intelligence about you as possible. Once they get enough data to become you they are…
#1 You can’t protect yourself from identity theft. Some, not all Identity theft is preventable. There are many things people can do to minimize their risk, both online and offline. Shred anything that has names and account numbers or any other data that can be used to con someone else into divulging even more information.…
The first decade of the new millennium is almost over, another year has passed and by my estimates identity theft as we know it is not getting any better, it is getting worse. I’m a big believer in the fundamentals and some things just can’t be said any other way, and to remind you I’m…
Universities/Colleges are the Riskiest Research conducted by Robert Siciliano, Identity Theft expert, on behalf of McAfee Cases of identity theft are skyrocketing, and 32% of all ID theft victims had their social security number compromised according to Javelin’s 2010 Identity Fraud Survey Report. In honor of National Identity Protection week, McAfee set out to reveal the…
As mobile Internet usage continues its rapid growth, cyber criminals are expected to pay more attention to this sector. Mobile device platforms compete for content creators’ latest innovations, which often require more and more device access. As applications and other content are more widely distributed, security breaches will be inevitable. The speed of technological advancement…
#1 Phone Fraud. The phone rings, a scammer poses as your banks fraud department. They may have your entire card number stolen from another source. They ask about a charge made and you deny the charge, but in order for the charge to be removed, they need your 3-4 digits CVV number off the front…
