I hate to say this, but…any dummy can learn to pick a lock. This means that the locks on your house’s doors are probably very “pickable” unless you have a top-flight lock system—which few homes actually have. An article on lifehacker.com describes how easy it was for the writer to pick a lock from a…
Once a thief knows your Social Security number…you’re at very high risk for having your identity stolen. A report on bankrate.com says that the IRS is warning of a cyber attack on its electronic filing PIN application. Thieves infiltrated it with malware in an attempt to claim other people’s refunds as their own. Over 450,000…
Identity thieves are after children’s Social Security numbers. With this number, a thief can do so many things like open a credit card account and rent an apartment. Kids’ SSNs have great appeal to crooks because: A child’s record is usually very clean. This means fertile opportunities for new credit lines. Kids usually don’t check…
You may be putting your company at risk simply by hiring a new employee. Why? Because that person could have a hidden, malicious agenda. This is known as an inside threat, and it means that someone within your organization is planning or conducting activities meant to harm the company. There is a pattern that most…
If you’re using the app Strava for example, your bike could get stolen, says a report on the manchestereveningnews site. Strava, like many other location apps, isn’t the badguy here. Bicyclists in Greater Manchester are being warned that Strava’s tracking could lead thieves to their bikes and even homes. That’s because it’s already happened. One…
If you are concerned how long any negative information will remain on your credit report, it takes seven years from the Date of the Last Activity (DLA) before the item is deleted from your records (and seven to 10 years for bankruptcies). This is a very common question posed to credit reporting agencies. Credit reporting…
Do you shop at Amazon.com? Are you aware they have a back door through which hackers can slip in? Let’s look at Eric’s experience with hackers and Amazon, as he recounts at medium.com/@espringe. He received an e-mail from Amazon and contacted them to see what it was about. Amazon informed him that he had had…
Your account passwords should be as unique as your fingerprint—to make them less hackable by crooks using password-guessing software that can run through millions of possible combinations in just minutes. And if you have an easy password, there may be a hit within 10 seconds. Think this software can figure out your password of “password1”…
Ever consider the possibility that a person gets a job as a bank teller…for the sole purpose of stealing a patron’s identity? Do you realize how easy this would be? No techy hacking skills required. No gun required. So we’ve all been instilled with fear of our bank getting data breached by Russian hacking rings,…
Companies have been struggling for years to keep cyber-attacks at bay. Cyberthieves are working faster than ever before to send out their malicious attacks, and it’s become increasingly difficult for companies to keep up. CNN reports that almost one million malware strains are released every day. In 2014, more than 300 million new types of…
