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Browse every published article connected to Robert Siciliano, with exact attribution and full-archive search.
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Browse every published article connected to Robert Siciliano, or search within this exact expert archive.
In 2015, depending on the kind and type of identity theft we are talking about, identity thieves impacted 1.5 million people or more, says the Javelin Strategy & Research report. That's more than double than for 2014.
Cybercriminals know that the best way to get their claws on the next victim is to appeal to their emotions, not logic. There's lots of scary things in life, and one is learning that your computer has been infected with a virus. If this happens, you're now vulnerable to spending money on getting rid of the malware. The tactic of scaring users is called scareware.
There will always be the person who lives on the Equator to whom you can sell an electric heater. As they say, there is a sucker born every minute. This is why cyber criminals will always have a field day, like the crook who posed as a tax man who got an elderly couple to send $100,000 to an offshore bank account after he tricked them.
This week I worked with Gemalto, as part of Gemalto's #ChipAwayAtFraud campaign. I was tasked with using my "chip" card when making a bunch of every day purchases like getting coffee and shopping. Gemalto, one of the world's leaders in digital security, wanted a real-world take on the EMV card experience, which includes the security benefits EMV cards presents. You know EMV; it's the "chip" credit card that, by now, you should have.
Apparently there are people who take pictures of their airplane boarding pass…and post it online. I'm dead serious. I've heard of toddlers getting excited over scraps of paper, but full-grown adults posting images of their boarding pass online? Don't get me started.
10 years ago, many of us were hearing about social media for the first time. Now, social media plays a giant role in our lives, allowing us to share pictures, connect with family and friends, and get updated news. Through social media, we can express ourselves to our inner circle and the world. So how devastating would it be if someone got a hold of your social media accounts?
Danny Wheeler was alerted by his smartphone that had a home security app and a do it yourself camera/home security system that his home was being robbed. He was at work and could do nothing but send the real time video to New York City police, reports a story on abcnews.go.com. The burglars got away, however, by the time the place was swarming with police.
Before buying a security camera, ask yourself: - Where do you intend on placing it? - How well-hidden can/will the unit be? - Are you familiar with laws pertaining to surveillance of people without them knowing about it and the associated audio recordings?
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 SSNs were involved, and over 100,000 of them enabled the hackers to access an E-file PIN.
One of the reasons you—and many others—don't have your alarm on during the day is because you know you'll keep forgetting to turn it off every time you want to step into the garage or go outside. So you just keep it off. And that's not smart because many home invasions and burglaries occur during daylight hours. Typically, home security systems require you to push buttons.
To help keep your home and property safe from crime, the New Castle County Police Department provides the following guidelines:
When someone online presents as a different person than their true self, this is called catphishing, and it occurs on online dating sites.
As the holiday season creeps upon us, research shows that an astonishing 24% people who are buying online have been duped by scammers. Whether you are buying shoes, electronics or the latest fashions and accessories, research companies are showing that you are at risk of being duped.
As much as you try, the unfortunate truth is that hackers are going to try to attack and access your WordPress website or blog, whether you like it or not. So, it is up to you to make sure you make the hacker's job as difficult as possible. Here are some tips: 1. Use Plugins
The Identity Protection PIN tool on the IRS.gov site has been temporarily suspended—because it was recently hacked into. The tool provides retrieval of forgotten or lost IP PINs to users who want an extra layer of protection against identity theft. But some users who received the IP PINs recently via the online tool learned that a thief had used their IP PIN to file tax returns in their name.
So someone comes up to you in a restaurant—a complete stranger—and asks to look at your driver's license. What do you do? Show it to that person? You'd have to be one loony tune to do that.
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.
Hackers know small companies are more vulnerable to data breaches due to limited resources. Cybersecurity should always be a high priority. But when a company's IT staff consists of maybe 1-2 people who are provided limited budgets and are constantly solving other tech problems, the focus on security suffers. And hackers aren't the only problem. One significantly overlooked part of the security process "cleaning" the IT infrastructure.
Define Pwn: Pwn is a slang term derived from the verb own, as meaning to appropriate or to conquer to gain ownership. The term implies domination or humiliation of a rival. And when it's done by hacking email, the person is effectively pwned. No matter how "private" you are on the Internet, no matter how infrequently you post on your Facebook page—even if you don't have a Facebook account—your life can be hacked into as long as you own just one password—and the ability to be tricked.
Studies across the board indicate that weak use ames and passwords are one of the top causes of data breaches, and I find that information to be unfortunate, because it is preventable. According to a recently concluded survey conducted by uSamp and sponsored by Siber Systems, creators of the RoboForm Password Manager: 70% reported forgetting a password, or had a password become compromised, in their professional life in the US.
If you reach your hand to a strange dog loose on the street to pet it on top of the head, and it mauls your hand, whose fault is this? One camp would put most of the blame on the dog owner. But most people would blame the victim. But everyone with half an ounce of sense would agree on one thing: Whose fault it is has NOTHING to do with the importance of doing whatever it takes to prevent a dog attack.
Billions and billions—it's only a matter of time before this becomes the number of hacking incidents in a single year, because just in 2014, over one billion records were hacked out of 1,500 different hacking incidents, says a recent report. Some other findings from the report:
Are you a shredder? I hope so. No identity thief on this planet is going to want to attempt to reconstruct cross-shredded documents. So what, then, should you make a habit of shredding?
You just learned you have a new credit card account by checking your credit or because a bill collector called you. Problem is that you don't remember ever applying for it. You must find out what's behind this new account and how it got there.
Burglars get burgled, muggers get mugged, and hackers get hacked. This includes a sophisticated ring of hackers: Hacking Team, hailing from Italy, specializing in selling hacking software to major governments.
Whether you're an animal person or not, you have to admit that puppies are pretty darn cute. So cute that there are YouTube Channels, Facebook accounts, and Buzzfeed newsletters devoted to the subject. Unfortunately, there's a not so cute PUP out in the world, and it wants access to your device. What I'm talking about is a potentially unwanted program (PUP). What is an unwanted program? It's software or an app that you don't explicitly want on your device. PUPs usually are bundled with freeware and often installs without your permission.
Ever wonder just what happens to the data in a data breach incident? Does it go into some kind of wormhole in cyberspace, out through the other end? Well, the answer is pretty much so, when you consider that hacked data makes its rounds on a global scale, taking only 14 days to land in 22 countries spanning five continents—according to an experiment by Bitglass.
This application for your mobile device will change things in a huge way: - Locks down smartphones with a finger-based biometric password - Multi-factor authentication all-in-one - It's called BioTect-ID And why should you consider the world's first biometric password for your mobile device? Because most smartphone security devices have been cracked by cyber thieves.
Foreign hackers, look out: Uncle Sam is out to get you. President Obama has issued an order that allows the State Department and Treasury Departments to immobilize the financial assets of anyone out-of country suspected of committing or otherwise being involved in cyber crimes against the U.S.
Wow, it's true: The monster under the bed really does exist! Recently in New Jersey a man broke into a home and hid under a bed in a spare room for possibly five days before being arrested. Margaret Adamcewicz reportedly stated that the man, Jason Hubbard, had dated her daughter five years ago, and it didn't end well, and he decided to live under her bed.
There are tried and true ways to protect yourself from identity theft—ways that you may not have even considered. Check them out (no specific order):
$200 million: The amount people were ripped off by online dating scams in a year. DUI: dating while under the influence…of the quest for love…is costly to countless people. A nytimes.com article notes that this quest impairs judgment, making it easy for con artists to bilk lonely people. Or are some people just plain stupid? But many victims are highly educated.
In a recent Wired.com expose', they expose how the FBI has been secretly hacking civilian computers for about 20 years, but thanks to Rule 41, their ability to hack has been expanded.
Imagine the effectiveness of the following sign at your front door when a would-be intruder reads it: WARNING: This house is protected by a remote monitoring service; if you break in while the homeowner is away, he'll be instantly alerted and the police will be automatically dispatched. And if you break in while he's home, well heck, you're still screwed.
Cyber crooks have phony websites that masquerade as the legitimate site you want to log onto. They've spun their web and are just waiting for you to fly into it. Google now has Password Alert, which will tell you if you've landed into such a non-Google web. For the Chrome browser, this extension will prompt the user to change their password.
The Angee home security system is the only one with a video camera that rotates 360 degrees as it detects motion. And this high definition camera has smart zones; you can set up specific zones for monitoring. But Angee is more than just a video surveillance setup. It's a self-monitored home security system, points out an article on securitygem.com.
Editor's Note: In this week's guest blog security expert Robert Siciliano explains how to protect your IT systems and your business from hardware failure.
LinkedIn is a free service that allows professional people to network with each other. Often, a LinkedIn member will receive an e-mail from another LinkedIn member "inviting" them to join their network. Sometimes, the inviter is someone the recipient doesn't know, but the recipient will link up anyways. And that's the problem.
Have you ever tried to take a picture or video of someone with your phone without them knowing? Sometimes it's possible, but sometimes it's not. Well, maybe you knew it was coming: "Ghost apps" are available that let you take images and videos without the target's knowledge. You can then hide the images and videos in secret folders.
According to a new Intel Security study, more than 2,000 American parents and kids ages 8-16 were surveyed to unveil some interesting things.
As the holiday shopping season quickly approaches, identity thieves are quickly looking for their next victims. In Indiana, government officials are taking steps to stop these thieves in their tracks. Just recently, the state's Atto ey General Greg Zoeller was in Fort Wayne to announce the launch of "Freeze Identity Thieves."
In France, anything is possible. Like getting tossed in jail for posting your children's photos on Facebook. Yes indeed, it's true. People in France might be put behind bars for putting their kids' pictures on Facebook. Or, they may face heavy fines. This is because the French authorities deem posting kids' photos online threatens their security.
At any given time, someone, somewhere, is probably googling you. This could be a former classmate, a neighbor, someone you're trying to do business with, a relative, who knows?
Cyber crime sure does pay, according to a report at Intel Security blogs.mcafee.com. There's a boom in cyber stores that specialize in selling stolen data. In fact, this is getting so big that different kinds of hot data are being packaged—kind of like going to the supermarket and seeing how different meats or cheeses are in their own separate packages. Here are some packages available on the Dark Net:
Did you know that sometimes, the apps you use for your smartphone have access to your personal information and are capable of sharing it? Are you aware that your privacy can be invaded across the network board? That includes Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+ and more.
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:
The FBI says that in the U.S., one out of every 36 homes will be raided by thieves in any given year. Often, the burglars were able to get in due to the residents' carelessness.
Yes, 25 tips, because that's how we roll. No home security tip is too trite. They are all important, especially when used all at once, all the time.
Unfortunately, cyberbullying is prevalent, and a growing threat in today's always-connected world. Cyberbullying refers to bullying done via computers, or similar technologies, such as cell phones. This kind of bullying usually includes mean or threatening comments, or public posts through texts, emails, voice mails, social media posts, all intended to embarrass the victim.
It's been stated more than once that WWIII will most likely be cyber-based, such as dismantling a country's entire infrastructure via cyber weapons. And don't think for a moment this doesn't mean murdering people.