Identity Theft Myths Part 3of3 During PYIW - 10/25/09 05:29 PM
Identity Theft Expert Robert Siciliano
The National Foundation for Credit Counselors, which sponsors Protect Your Identity Week, has compiled a number of identity theft myths. To support their efforts, the Santa Fe Group Vendor Council Awareness and Education Subcommittee has helped to clarify some common misinformation with regards to this increasingly common crime. We’ve already discussed a few of these myths.
• I don’t use the Internet, so my personal information is not exposed online. Your personal information is in more places than you think, whether it’s your medical records, a job application, or a school emergency contact form. Many … (0 comments)

Identity Theft Myths Part 2of3 During PYIW - 10/21/09 10:48 PM
Identity Theft Expert Robert Siciliano
The National Foundation for Credit Counselors, which sponsors Protect Your Identity Week, has compiled a number of identity theft myths. To support their efforts, the Santa Fe Group Vendor Council Awareness and Education Subcommittee has helped to clarify some common misinformation with regards to this increasingly common crime. We’ve already discussed a few of these myths, and will continue to do so throughout this week.
Myth #5: Checking your credit report periodically or using a credit monitoring service is all you need to do to protect yourself from identity theft.
There are many useful and effective … (0 comments)

Identity Theft Myths Part 1of3 During PYIW - 10/20/09 09:56 PM
Identity Theft Expert Robert Siciliano
During National Protect Your Identity Week we will be taking a fundamental approach to the issues. In the next 3 posts we’ll look at myths, compiled by the National Foundation for Credit Counselors (NFCC) who is sponsoring a “Protect Your Identity Week” October 17 – 24. To help support their efforts, The Santa Fe Group Vendor Council Awareness and Education Subcommittee helped create these tips.
Identity theft is preventable. Like any other kind of crime, there’s always a risk of becoming a victim of identity crime. But there are many things people can do to minimize … (1 comments)

12 Awful Reasons Why Impostors Commit Social Media Identity Theft - 10/19/09 09:35 PM
Identity Theft Expert Robert Siciliano
Imagine if someone used your name and image, or the name and logo of a business you own, to create a profile on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social networking website. Then they start posting blogs and sending out links while pretending to be you. They may contact your acquaintances, colleagues, or clients, or they may simply show up when others search for your name. Either way, their intentions are fraudulent. Establishing an online presence using someone else’s identity creates unlimited opportunities for a scammer.
Traditional phishing, in which scammers send a fake email that appears … (2 comments)

Email Addresses Hacked via a Botnet or Phished? - 10/15/09 10:55 PM
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 based on their level of security. For example some of the passwords were very weak “111111” “123456” “1234567” “12345678” “123456789” made the top list. Many of the stolen passwords were people’s first names which of course could be kids, spouse etc. Obviously anyone who uses an … (2 comments)

Identity Theft Is Really No Big Deal. Idiot. - 10/14/09 10:08 PM
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 jobs to protect you from bad guys.
I talk about this issue all day, every day to whoever will listen. I’m obsessed with this and all issues regarding personal security. It’s what I do, and it seems to be “my purpose.” I may sometimes go a … (0 comments)

How to Prevent Phishing Scams - 10/14/09 11:30 AM
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
Phishing is a criminal mechanism employing both social engineering and technical subterfuge to steal consumers’ personal identity data and financial account credentials. Social‐engineering schemes use spoofed e‐mails purporting to be from legitimate businesses and agencies to lead consumers to counterfeit websites designed to trick recipients into … (26 comments)

Operation Phish Phry Nabs 100 Identity Thieves - 10/10/09 11:13 AM
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 another 47 people.
Egyptian criminals phished account numbers and accessed bank accounts. The Egyptians and the US phishers transferred money into mules accounts.
This is an example of the sophistication of criminal identity theft rings and organized global web mobs fully ramped up and knocking off … (3 comments)

Up to 1 Million email Accounts Phished for Identity Theft - 10/08/09 09:45 PM
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 on pastebin.com. Internet users are urged to change their passwords regularly and ensure anti-virus software is up to date to protect themselves from fraudsters.
While phishing emails keep pouring in, their methods are changing rapidly. Posing as a Nigerian prince is still common, but not … (1 comments)

I Want to Punch Passwords in The Face - 10/07/09 08:15 PM
Robert Siciliano identity theft expert
Passwords and forms harass and mock me every day of my life. Everywhere I go there is a big burly bouncer who is the password gatekeeper and he needs a beating. He won’t let me in or by the velvet ropes unless I know the secret code. Most of the time I know what he wants, but because I have so many passwords to remember (last count is 456, but less than 200 active/weekly sites), I sometimes forget. Then I try 2-3 other passwords that I think will work before I get locked out. I can’t … (2 comments)

Obama; Cybersecurity and Identity Theft Protection Starts at Home - 10/06/09 12:13 PM
Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
Whether you realize it or not one of the biggest threats to your personal security is your computer. And the Obama administration is bringing to light the fact that they believe, and you should too, that one of the biggest security threats to national security is also your computer.
The message is “Think before you click. Know who’s on the other side of that instant message. What you say or do in cyberspace stays in cyberspace — for many to see, steal and use against you or your government.”
The Internet, and the power it has … (0 comments)

Government Tries to Thwart P2P Identity Theft - 10/05/09 05:30 PM
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 how their files will be made available for sharing with others on a P2P network.
The bill would make it illegal for P2P developers to make software that causes files from a computer to be inadvertently shared over a P2P network without a user’s … (0 comments)

70 Million Veterans at Possible Risk For Identity Theft - 10/04/09 07:31 PM
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 was diagnosed and found to be faulty, it was sent out for recycling. With millions of records still on it.
A NARA IT manager says 70 million veterans are at risk for identity theft, and that NARA’s practice of returning hard drives unsanitized was symptomatic … (1 comments)

Invest in Identity Theft Protection and a Credit Freeze - 10/04/09 12:58 PM
Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
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 accounts in their victim’s name. A security freeze gives consumers the choice to “freeze” or lock access to their credit file against anyone trying to open up a new account or to get new credit in their name.”
When a security … (0 comments)

 

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