Entries by Robert Siciliano

The TSA confiscated 2,653 Guns in 2015

How dumb can air travelers be, trying to get guns past the TSA? Duhh, don’t they know that the X-ray equipment or pat-downs will detect them? Just last year, over 2,600 guns were detected. More than 80 percent of these guns were loaded. Talk about the world’s dumbest criminals. It gets better: People have also…

Hacker for hire a rising Trend

Hackers and wannabe hackers can easily purchase cheap tools of the trade online. The security firm Dell SecureWorks Inc. confirms this in their latest report and adds that underground markets for hackers, including those from Russia, is thriving. The “Dark Web” is the go-to place for hackers looking for guidance and tools like malware. Yes,…

Should you take active Shooter Training?

Gunman Storms Building, Shot Dead by Receptionist Wouldn’t it be great to see a headline like this for once? More than ever, employees are being trained to react tactically should a gunman go on a rampage. There has to be a better way, for instance, to protect children in a classroom than the teacher diving…

Don’t pick up that USB Drive!

What a very interesting experiment: Researches randomly deposited 297 USB drives (aka USB stick, flash drive, thumb drive) around the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus. They wanted to see just how many, and how soon after dropping them off, they’d be collected by people. Turns out that 48 percent of the drives were taken and…

Remove your Home from Google maps

If it unsettles you to see your home displayed on Google Maps, there’s something you can do about this. Why might this be a concern? Information is “intelligence”. Information to some is power. The logistics of your home may empower certain people, like burglars. Example; if you’re in a residentially cluttered area vs. a remote…

Woman Drives her Sleeping Assailant to Police Station

You don’t always have to outmuscle a assailant to beat him at his game. This is what a New Zealand woman learned after Vipul Romik Sharma abducted her. At first, things seemed fine; she exited a bar in Otahuhu with the 22-year-old and another man. Then they kidnapped and raped her. Sharma then told her…

Google Alert Scams

If you want to know the latest on “any topic”, just sign up for Google Alerts. Google will e-mail you notifications of new information coming online. I have Google Alerts for “Home Invasion” “Identity Theft” “Burglary” “Computer Security” and many more. So what could be so harmful about receiving alerts about topics or people who…

Beware of the Jury Duty Scam

Imagine getting a call from someone identifying themselves as a federal court official or U.S. Marshal, informing you that your arrest is imminent unless you pay a cost—all because you failed to respond to a jury summons (which you don’t remember getting). I’d like to think that you’d immediately smell the rotten scam here and…

Beware of the CEO E-mail Scam

Beware of the B.E.C. scam, says a report at fbi.gov. The hackers target businesses and are good at getting what they want. The hackers first learn the name of a company’s CEO or other key figure such as the company’s lawyer or a vendor. They then figure out a way to make an e-mail, coming…