May 02
It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, rich or poor, if you have good credit or bad credit, pay with cash or credit card, whether or not you use the Internet, or even own a computer. You can be a maintenance worker or a scientist. It doesn’t matter.
Whether you are alive or even if you are dead, as long as you have a Social Security number, you are a potential identity theft victim.
Reporters tend to be fairly savvy and well informed. Identity theft, however, is a complicated issue, and anyone can be stumped, regardless of your level of security intelligence.
One reporter received an alert about “irregular check card activity.” It was sent late one weeknight, and she didn’t see the email until the following night. At first, she couldn’t believe her bank account could have been compromised, and suspected it was a phishing email designed to trick her into disclosing her account information.
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May 01
Its a pretty big deal when Congress calls you up to testify at a hearing especially when its regarding something bad you did. Most companies drop everything they are doing, increase their lobbyists monthly retainers, craft talking points and prepare for the PR assault that is coming. Oh and hope that the members of Congress are gentle on them. Or, well, if you are Sony Corporation, you can simply decline the invitation.
This is precisely what will happen when Sony does not show up for a House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade hearing tomorrow about the threat of data breaches after hackers stole personal information from 77 million Sony PlayStation Network accounts. Wait, so the hearing is actually about Sonyso this is essentially a party is being thrown and the guest of honor refuses to show up? At least the folks at Sony were kind enough to provide answers written questions from the subcommittee on the data breach.
And, some members of Congress are a pretty miffed about Sony declining to testify.
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Apr 27
An ex-con picked the wrong home to invade.
Imagine you’re in bed counting sheep dreaming of clouds and flying unicorns. Suddenly there is a knock on the door, which is startling to most people who wake up to the presence of noise and especially that of a knock at 3am.
In your discombobulated state you shuffle over to the door and open it to see who it is, they give you some song and dance and you open the door. Next, a hand wrapped over your face nose and mouth.
In my world this would never happen as previously described. In my world when the door is knocked on or the bell is rung a ferocious toothy German shepherd would lose her mind trying to get through the door, while I’m looking at my security cameras to see who is at the front door. At the same time I’m accessing an intercom to begin dialog all the while ready to press a panic button on my home security alarm.
If the person at the door is in uniform I’m calling the police to determine if they are supposed to be there.
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Apr 27
It seems that major data breaches are happening on a daily basis these days. Just recently we had the much covered Epsilon breach, as well as the recent attack on security provider Barracuda Networks – just to name a few.
Today we are speaking with Greg Reber, founder and CEO of AsTech Consulting.
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Apr 22
If there were a criminal hall of fame with an award for the coolest criminal, it would have to go to the pickpocket. Pickpockets are sneaky creatures who manage to function exactly one degree below the radar.
Pickpockets whisper through society, undetected and undeterred. They are subtle and brazen at the same time. They are like bed bugs, crawling on you and injecting numbing venom that prevents you from detecting their bite until it’s much too late. They aren’t violent like a drug-crazed mugger, or confrontational like a stick-up robber. They have more gumption than criminal hackers, since they don’t hide behind the anonymity of the Internet.
NPR reports that nowadays, picking pockets has become a rare and increasingly difficult crime, thanks to “stepped-up surveillance in most public places,” the dismantling of systems of apprenticeship, heftier sentences, and the widespread use of debit cards.
One pickpocket is quoted as saying, “When people stopped carrying money, that was the beginning of the end of pickpocketing…Pickpockets have no respect for thugs or robbers.
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Apr 20
Remember the 1970s classic TV show The Six Million Dollar Man? Back then, six million dollars seemed like a boatload of money and it was. Of course, we would not turn away a winning lottery ticket for $6 million, though this is chump change compared to what one cybercriminal netted throughout his time stealing identities and credit card numbers.
We are talking about Rogelio Hackett Jr., the notorious criminal who stole more than 676,000 credit card numbers that were tied to tens of thousands of fraudulent transactions, with a total of more than $36.6 million. Thankfully U.S. Secret Service busted Hackett in 2009 and he faces up to 10 years in prison on an access device charge and another two years on an dentity theft charge. And, we guess there was no getting around the hard evidence that the Secre Service found because Hackett just plead guilty to these charges.
Since 2002, Hackett hacked into businesses computer networks or by purchased stolen credit card numbers through online carding forums.
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