Entries by Robert Siciliano

email Addresses Hacked via a Botnet or Phished?

Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert Recently Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Comcast and Earthlink announced thousands of email addresses and their passwords were phished by identity thieves and posted in an online forum. One report suggests the emails phished could be up to a million victims. Researchers parsed the hacked passwords and broke them down into categories…

Identity Theft Is Really No Big Deal. Idiot.

Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert I make a portion of my living talking about identity theft. Admittedly, I profit from the crime. I don’t steal identities of course, but I get paid because others steal. I’m not FBI, CIA, Secret Service or a cop. But you wouldn’t disparage any of those entities for doing their…

How to Prevent Phishing Scams

Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert Recent reports abound of consumers email account being phished and American and Egyptian authorities arresting  dozens of people in an online fraud crackdown for phishing scams.  Its time to revisit the fundamentals of how to prevent phishing. Nobody can do this better than the Anti Phishing Work Group Phishing Defined…

Operation Phish Phry Nabs 100 Identity Thieves

Identity Theft Expert Robert Siciliano US and Egyptian officials have charged 100 people with orchestrating a phishing scam that robbed a$1.5m from Bank of America and Wells Fargo customers. 53 criminals from CA, NV and NC were named in an indictment. This is the largest ever charged in a cybercrime case. Officials in Egypt nabbed…

Up to 1 Million email Accounts Phished for Identity Theft

Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert Hotmail, Earthlink, Google, Yahoo, Comcast and other web-based email users have been giving up al their login details to phishers and current estimates are as many as 1 million accounts may have been compromised. News of the scam broke when technology blog neowin.net reported an anonymous user had published confidential details…

Obama; Cybersecurity and Identity Theft Protection Starts at Home

Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert Whether you realize it or not, your computer is one of the biggest threats to your personal security. The Obama administration believes that your computer is also one of the biggest threats to national security. The message is: Think before you click. Know who’s on the other side of that instant…

Government Tries to Thwart P2P Identity Theft

Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert Computerworld reports the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed the Informed P2P User Act, a law that supposedly makes it safer to use peer-to-peer, or P2P, file-sharing software. Yawn. The bill now goes to the House for one more round of  approval. If passed, the bill requires developers to explain to users…

70 Million Veterans at Possible Risk For Identity Theft

Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert Wired reports the inspector general of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is investigating a potential data breach affecting 70 million records of U.S. military veterans. The issue involves a defective hard drive the agency sent back to its vendor for repair without first destroying the data. Once the drive…

Invest in Identity Theft Protection and a Credit Freeze

ConsumersUnion provides a resource for consumers to learn what their options are in regards to a “security or credit freeze”. “There are more than eight million new victims of identity theft each year in the U.S. Many of these victims find that crooks have used stolen personal information like Social Security numbers to open new…