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Background Checks Don’t Tell the Whole Story

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When it comes to background checks, the National Crime Information Center is the gold standard. It is only available to law enforcement agencies and is the most accurate and complete database tracking convictions and arrests in the US. That sounds pretty great, right? Unfortunately, it’s not all as it seems.

The Department of Justice

The Department of Justice recently released a report based on a two-year study of convictions and arrests from 2016. The report shows that a very low percentage of convictions and arrests actually make it to the National Crime Information Center. What does this mean? It means that even if a commercial background check company is using the best information, it’s only able to get information on about 13% of all crimes. On top of that, there is a pretty standard 30% error rate on background checks based on factors such as typos, misspellings, and data entry errors. Yikes.

The Reliance of Background Checks

It doesn’t matter if you are an employer, a landlord, or even a private citizen hiring a babysitter or contractor, odds are good that you think a criminal background check is a good idea. But, the fact that we not only rely on these checks, but also believe that they are fool-proof, is quite problematic.

Other Implications of Background Checks

The inaccuracy of background checks is only one of the issues associated with them. Another issue is that there is a big possibility that these commercial background checks could violate the Fair Housing Act because it might be seen as intentional discrimination. Additionally, though people with criminal records are not protected under the Fair Housing Act, statistically, this creates a disproportionate impact on minorities. According to the Fair Housing Act, minorities are protected.

Though it seems like a great idea to run a criminal background check, as you can see, it’s not always a black and white result. Criminal history databases are not complete, there are high rates of errors, and these background checks might be violations of the Fair Housing Act. At the very least, someone could have a good case against it if you use a criminal background check as a basis for a housing decision. When thinking about if a background check is worth it or not, it probably is, but you also have to be aware of the possibility that you are not going to get the entire story.

Robert Siciliano personal security and identity theft expert and speaker is the author of Identity Theft Privacy: Security Protection and Fraud Prevention: Your Guide to Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft and Computer Fraud. See him knock’em dead in this Security Awareness Training video.

Sociopath: Someone who breaks into your Home

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What is a Sociopath?

A sociopath, technically, is not a psychopath. These are actual psychiatric terms, and to say they’re one and the same is like saying that eczema and psoriasis are one and the same.

2BThough a sociopath and psychopath will often commit the same crimes, like breaking into a home, these are two different psychiatric conditions. Both fall under the category of antisocial personality disorder. They have in common the propensity for violence, lack of conscience and disregard towards ethics and laws.

The psychopath is clean cut, dresses impeccably, drives a Jaguar, is well-read and knows his wines, and is married with children. The sociopath is a drifter, disheveled, with needle marks up his arms, can’t hold a job and never graduated from high school. Both, generally speaking of course. Both these individuals are capable of the same heious crimes, but for different reasons. Example: A woman is assaulted; the first guy did it for fun after breaking into her home. The second guy broke in and did it as punishment after she refused to give him money.

Sociopathy

  • Obvious issues interacting with people; shows anger management problems and edginess.
  • People think he or she “has problems”; they lack cunning and charm.
  • People aren’t surprised when he’s arrested for murder.
  • Capable of emotionally bonding with humans, but this is limited.
  • Capture by the police is easy; they’re sloppy with their crimes.

Psychopathy

  • Calm, cool, collected, suave, may even be the life of the party, well-respected in the community.
  • Carefully plans crimes and when caught, it’s usually after they got away with many crimes.
  • Despite often having a spouse and kids, the psychopath is not capable of emotionally bonding with humans.
  • Skilled at manipulating and tricking people with their charm and high intelligence.
  • Capture by the police is difficult.

The psychiatric establishment’s position is that sociopathy is the result of childhood environment, whereas psychopathy is primarily the result of faulty brain wiring. If you had to be stuck on a dark island with a sociopath or psychopath—opt for the sociopath. You have a small chance of tapping into what little empathy he’s capable of.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to BestHomeSecurityCompanys.com discussing burglar proofing your home on Fox Boston. Disclosures.

Man beheaded in break-in, missing Wife’s Body found

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In Putnam County, Georgia, a crazed killer may be on the loose (if he’s not already in another state by now). He (and maybe he had an accomplice) beheaded Russell Dermond, 88. Nobody knows why. At the time his decapitated body was found, his wife, Shirley, 87, was missing. But two weeks later her body was found near a dam, dead from blunt force trauma.5H

Dermond’s head has not been located.

Dennis Higgs is the fisherman who discovered Shirley’s body in the water. He first believed it was a buoy, but as he approached, he realized it was something to back away from, and called 9-1-1.

The body was five to six miles from the Dermond home. Gary McElhenney, the Putnam coroner, announced that the completion of a toxicology report on the body will take two or three weeks, possibly three months. Meanwhile, dental records will verify the identity of the woman’s body. Until then, the sheriff and McElhenney are “pretty certain” that the body is that of Shirley’s, due to the general appearance and some tell-tale surgical scars.

It is believed that the murder of Russell Dermond occurred between 4:30 p.m. on May 2 and 4 p.m. on May 3. Oddly, there are no signs of any forced entry or even a struggle inside the house. Authorities are vexed over who could have done this. It may have been the work of one person, maybe a group, maybe even involving a female accomplice.

No clues have been turned up in the area or at the lake vicinity. No leads exist.

If this act was random, just for some psychopath’s kicks, the killer will likely strike again. A crime like this can’t be a singular event—someone with this kind of evil will surely develop another fix to satisfy.

On the other hand, if this was a personal attack, this still shows a derangement that indicates that the killer will strike again anyways—either choosing a victim he knows or a random victim. When one gets this savage, anything goes.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to BestHomeSecurityCompanys.com discussing burglar proofing your home on Fox Boston. Disclosures.

15 tips to Spring Clean Your Digital Security

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As a security analyst for both off-line and online activity, which is personal protection and information security, I’m constantly analyzing my own security situation. This means paying attention to my surroundings, systems in place, the security of my hardware, software and data. One way to get a closer look at all of this and to get refocused, is to remove the clutter, upgrade technologies, and do a Spring Clean. I heavily recommend that you perform the following 15 tasks for tightening up your digital security affecting your overall security position.

7WClean up and secure your digital life:

1. Do away with useless files. Go through all folders, including the recycle bin, and discard files that you no longer use.

2. Organize media. Put music, photos, etc., in appropriately labeled folders. Maybe create a master folder for different kinds of related media.

3. Consolidate desktop icons. Perhaps you can put a few icons into another one if the topic is related: Put the “Muffin” and “Rover” files in one file labeled “Pets.” A desktop cluttered with icons will slow boot-up time. Consider “removing” an icon you hardly use; this won’t delete the program, but will get rid of the shortcut.

4. Uninstall programs you’ll never use. This will speed things up and reduce potential malware targeted software.

5. Review passwords. Update as necessary, making them unique, never the same, and use different characters upper/lower case and numbers. Install a “password manager”. Google it.

6. Make backups of important data on a flash drive or use online storage. Ideally, make a backup of your prized data that exists outside your house. I backup on 3 local drives and in the cloud in two places.

7. Consider reinstalling your operating system. This means gathering all your software and backing up all your data. Do a search on your devices OS and seek out “How to reinstall operating system Windows/Mac (your version)”

8. Mop up your system’s registry. This will clean out temporary files you do not need that have been picked up by your system over time. An accumulation of these files will slow your computer and make it prone to malware infections. CCleaner is a free tool that will do this job.

9. Update Internet security software. Use antivirus, antispyware, antiphishing and a firewall. Get a VPN for when using free wireless internet. Hotspot Shield is perfect. Google it.

10. Defragment your hard drive. For Windows 8 go to Files, then “defrag.” For older systems go to Program Files, Accessories, then System Tools. For the iOS, run its built-in Disk Utility app.

11. Install program updates. Updates include critical security parches: very important. For Windows go to Go to Start, Control Panel, All Programs and Windows Update. Click on “Check for updates” to see if you are up to date. For the iOS, go to the app store, then Updates.

12. Do not forget your mobile device. Update your smartphone, including weeding out unneeded apps. Update your mobile OS to the latest version. Several companies offer security apps that will scan a mobile’s apps. Some apps have features like a remote lock/locate/wipe that will prevent a thief from using your device should you lose it.

13. Social setting cleanup. Have you locked down how your private information on Facebook can be shared? If not, go to Privacy Settings, then Apps, then click “edit” which is next to “Apps others use.” Delete all your “friends” who really aren’t your friends.

14. Home security system. Upgrade this if it is old technology. New wireless home alarms connect to your network and include home automation features too. This includes surveillance cameras, motion detectors, glass break sensors and controlling lights and temperature. Opt for remote monitoring from any device using apps on mobiles and tablets.

15. Declutter your e-mail files. These can get very messy over time. First start with your in-box. What’s been sitting there for ages that you’ll never open? Delete it. Next go to the sent/trash folders and weed out no-longer-needed emails. Also scour through any other e-mail folders. Delete folders you no longer need, and/or trim down ones you still use but contain messages that are now meaningless.

Follow these 15 tips to spring clean your digital security. A freshly cleaned-out digital life will give you peace of mind and enhance your personal security. Taking the time to clean up your digital life will be well-worth it, so do not put it off any longer!

Robert Siciliano is a personal security expert to SecurityOptions.com discussing home security and identity theft on TBS Movie and a Makeover. Disclosures.

Dumb and Dead Criminals making news

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Crime doesn’t pay—especially when you can’t read. A man in Chicago spent seven minutes disabling a lock on a local bars door, then kept trying to pull the door open even though a sticker on it said “PUSH.” Now that’s a dumb criminal, because even if he couldn’t read or didn’t notice the sticker, you’d think he’d try pushing at some point, no?

1GThe dumb crook was concealed by a temporary cover that was in front of the bar for cold weather. Even people jogging by didn’t notice the brilliant work in progress.

But video surveillance picked everything up. He even got as far as removing the door stopper. Unfortunately, something stopped his brain from working at that point and he didn’t think to push the door open. There was damage done to the door, and apparently, the would-be burglar is still at large.

Sometimes, the stupidity of criminals can be fatal, not just funny as in the case above. In San Francisco, a 16-year-old robbery suspect was killed accidentally by his accomplice’s ricocheting bullet. Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing about a 16 year old dying that makes me happy. But here we have two 16 year olds who would shoot someone to death for an iPhone. Somehow the world seems less violent for the moment.

The teen and other thugs had surrounded a victim at night, demanding his cellphone. One of the hoods pulled out a gun, while the others ransacked the victim’s belongings. Nevertheless, the kid with the gun fired a shot at him anyways. Incredibly, the bullet bounced off the victim’s face and struck one of the other muggers, killing him onsite.

The tough guys immediately fled, leaving behind the wounded mugging victim and dying thug.

Fortunately, the suspected shooter, also 16, has been arrested.

This story sounds like good karma, but it would have been sweeter had the deflected bullet struck the shooter, don’t you think?

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to BestHomeSecurityCompanys.com discussing burglar proofing your home on Fox Boston. Disclosures.

Using your Mobile to protect you from criminals

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The Good:

5WYour mobile phone number is almost as good as your fingerprint: very unique to you, and as a second factor authentication device via text message, acts as access control through which to access certain web sites.

SMS two factor authentication as it’s know is the sending of unique one time pass codes that turns your mobile phone into a recipient of a onetime password or “OTP”. Generally there’s no software to install and it’s just a matter of registering your device with the website. OTPs are sent to smartphones upon entering your username, than a password or after you click a button on the site requesting the SMS OTP

A fraudster trying to infiltrate your account would need not only your password and user name, but would also need to physically have your phone. This is a great layer of security. SMS two factor authentication can be used with site like Facebook, Twitter, your bank, Gmail, Paypal and others.

Web sites link your mobile number with your account for your protection. So next time an online company wants to send you a “code” via your smartphone, don’t get annoyed; feel secure instead, because that’s how the company knows you are you. In fact, companies will likely brand you as a highly suspicious user if you refuse to include your mobile device’s number as part of your registration.

The Bad:

Keep your guard up because fraudsters won’t be stopped from trying to succeed at their plans, however, and they know that the smartphone poses unique vulnerabilities to the user. For instance, people are more likely to click on a malicious e-mail link because the phone’s small screen makes it harder to detect suspicious web site addresses. Criminals are forever trying to get passwords and hack into accounts and wreak havoc. As technology continues to evolve in favor of the honest user, so does the technology of crime.

Your role is to always try to stay one step ahead of the criminals. There are ways you can protect yourself and never let crooks get ahead of you:

  • Never use the same password for more than one account or web site, even though it’s more convenient to have one password for multiple sites. Every app and web site should have a unique password.
  • Every access point you encounter should be safeguarded with a WiFi VPN service such as Hotspot Shield VPN that encrypts your wireless internet and surfing activities. This way, when you peruse cyberspace at hotels, airports and coffee houses, all of your activities are protected from hijackers.
  • Ignore password request e-mails or security alerts, especially on your smartphone, as they are almost always fraudulent.
  • Do you know if your phone (or iPad) is uploading your private data to cyberspace? Find out by installing an app security scanner.
  • Never use third-party apps on your device (or “jailbreak” it). Never let your kids use your phone, either.
  • Your device should be kept up to date with the latest operating system. System updates usually include security enhancements.
  • When installing Android apps, read their security notices. Understand how your sensitive data will be exposed with these apps—before you hit “Okay.”

Robert Siciliano is an Identity Theft Expert to Hotspot Shield VPN. He is the author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Identity Was Stolen See him discussing internet and wireless security on Good Morning America. Disclosures.

10 Things Burglars Don’t Want you to Know

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Burglars would rather keep their dirty little secrets to themselves. But today, Schlage, makers of the grade one Touchscreen Deadbolt, and I are revealing what they don’t want you to know.
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  1. Burglars have jobs too. Your burglar was already in your house. He was there recently to repair the furnace, deliver the new flat screen TV or pick up old furniture you wanted to donate.
  2. Attractive ornaments or pricey “kids’ things” outside your home can indicate to a potential intruder that your house is full of valuables.
  3. Don’t let a service person use your bathroom. This may seem rude, but burglars have been known to visit the john so they could unlock or disable its window for future entrance into your house.
  4. Make sure your house alarm’s control panel is not visible through glass to someone loitering outside.
  5. Always have your newspaper and mail delivery put on hold when you’re away. And if you notice a flyer on your doorknob, immediately remove it so that the burglar who put it there doesn’t think you’re on vacation.
  6. Would you ever exit your house wearing only socks because you forgot to put your shoes on? Absolutely never! So make it a point to also never forget to lock your door after leaving.
  7. If someone is at your door, and you’re not expecting anyone, it’s not a crime to ignore them. That person on the other side may be a burglar casing your house (“Do you know where Clover Street is?”) and your demeanor to see if you’re easy prey.
  8. Hot spots for a burglar’s entrance include the window above the kitchen sink and the upper level windows. Have these spots set with alarms, and install motion detectors upstairs.
  9. Even a half-witted burglar knows to check medicine bottles for those diamond earrings, and scour through the sock and underwear drawer for more valuables. But he just might not bother going into the children’s bedrooms.
  10. Even though the sun’s beginning to set, you insist on keeping your blinds up or curtains open to milk what little daylight is left to lighten up the room. Meanwhile, a savvy burglar is strolling about the neighborhood, catching glimpses through windows that he can see through because it’s dusk (let alone night time). This way he can pick easy looking targets or ones with visible valuables.

Robert Siciliano home security expert to Schlage discussing home security and identity theft on TBS Movie and a Makeover. Disclosures. For Roberts FREE ebook text- SECURE Your@emailaddress -to 411247.