Companies Combine Efforts to Secure Data on USBs - 06/27/10 08:54 PM
Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced that it will partner with security company BlockMaster and provide greater availability of centrally managed USB drives, which makes it easier to protect information on-the-move.
BlockMaster® is well known for its USB security solutions, including the centralized USB management software, SafeConsole®, which offers organizations the ability to remotely manage USB drives by resetting passwords, configuring password policy and activating audit for compliance procedures. With this partnership, Kingston will be offering its customers a centrally manageable version of its DataTraveler Vault … (0 comments)

Safety Tips: Home Burglary Prevention - 06/27/10 06:08 PM
My AC is on, that means it’s summer time. It also means that occasionally the windows may be open, and because we are in the yard the doors sometimes are unlocked. As a result we are slightly more vulnerable to the bad guy. But this doesn’t mean that your guard should be down.
The FBI reports that more burglaries occur during the summer months than any other time of year and that every home is a potential target. According to U.S. Department of Justice statistics, an American home is broken into about every 15 seconds. The best defense against burglary is … (2 comments)

My Mexican Travel Security Ordeal - 06/26/10 06:28 PM
Mexico has made the news over and over due to their “Narco Wars”. 10’s of thousands have been murdered and kidnapped in many of the border towns all the way down to Acapulco. So where do I vacation? Mexico. It’s an easy trip, its economically smart, it’s usually warm and sunny, the foods good, the people are great, and there’s always a good story to tell. I do my homework and understand where the risks are and aren’t.
I don’t stay in the border towns. That’s where a lot of the bad stuff is happening. Border towns are mostly landlocked, … (2 comments)

Burglary Raises Fears; Is It Safe to Leave Home? - 06/25/10 03:36 AM
This is so awfully crazy that I just have a hard time believing someone can be so deceitful and so stupid at the same time.
“A one-time Royal Caribbean sales staffer, who used information about clients’ trips to burglarize their homes while they were cruising, is definitely fodder for chatter. And nothing’s more on topic today than this debate: Should we worry that information about our own travels away from home could fall into the wrong hands? While today’s consumers are well versed in the dangers of “virtual” robberies — identity, credit card numbers — this situation reveals the possibility … (3 comments)

Woman Suspect in Pot Stealing Home Invasion - 06/20/10 10:12 PM
It’s not often that I see “woman suspect” and “home invasion” in the same sentence. Home invasions are mostly done by Cro-Magnon men who are one step out of a cave and temporarily in society until they go back to jail. Police released a sketch of an armed woman accused of stealing two medicinal marijuana plants while a 19-year-old woman was home.
The report goes on to say it was two woman and two men, which makes a little more sense. All is right with the world again. The Mercury News reports the teen was in the bathroom at the time … (5 comments)

Chicago: Homicides up, Citywide Crime Down 5.8 Percent - 06/20/10 09:46 PM
Thanks to Al Capone the infamous gangster, The Windy City has long been known for organized crime dating back to the 30’s. In concentrated areas like big cities, crime is often a factor. But as proven in New York City, effective policing can reduce crime. Chicago seems to be making positive strides in managing its crime climate as well.
Law enforcement in Chicago just announced there was an 11.2 percent drop in violent offenses and 4.2 percent decrease in property crimes. However the 164 recorded homicides in 2010 are six more than last year at this time, an increase of … (0 comments)

Brazen Burglars Broke into the Same House Three Times in a Week - 06/17/10 03:17 AM
In the first hit they made off with a television and four-figure sum of cash, plus a key to the garden shed.
They came back, let themselves into the shed, and took garden tools but were spotted by the returning home owners.
The GazzetteNews reported the homeowner investigated after noticing the shed door was open, and saw four people in the park behind the house, two of them were holding the tools stolen from the shed and the group ran off.
The burglars then made a third attempt on the house and caused damage to the property.
Local law enforcement well … (2 comments)

Data Breaches Persist In Health Care - 06/17/10 02:57 AM
In September 2009, the Obama administration’s Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act went into effect, requiring hospitals and other health care organization to beef up client data protections. Despite this, a recent study found that health care data is still hemorrhaging from peer to peer networks.
A peer-to-peer, commonly abbreviated to P2P, is any distributed network architecture composed of participants that make a portion of their resources (such as processing power, disk storage or network bandwidth) directly available to other network participants, without the need for central coordination instances (such as servers or stable hosts).
In simple … (0 comments)

Phishing Scam: Using the U.S. General Commander in Iraq as Phish Food - 06/16/10 12:35 AM
Fishing of course is the sport of tossing a tasty wormy baited hook connected to a fishing line and patiently waiting for a fish to take the bait.
Phishing is the sport of tossing a wormy baited tasty lie connected to a wormy human and the degenerate patiently waits for a naïve victim to take the bait.
A phisher can send thousands of phish emails a day and eventually someone will get hooked.
Phishing is a $9 billion business. Unlike the ongoing depleting of the ocean’s fisheries, there are PLENTY of people out there to phish. Many of … (2 comments)

Youngsters Put Art into Crime Fight - 06/15/10 03:19 AM
We’ve heard it a thousand times, “Children are the future.” “If we hope to solve the world’s major problems — achieving world peace, healthy lives, economic development, and global sustainability — we must provide richer learning opportunities for the world’s children. An educated and creative population is, without a doubt, the best path to global health, wealth, and peace.” MIT.
Children have been learning about crime prevention by taking part in a police poster competition. A neighborhood police team fostered an anti-burglary message that will be on display in their community.
Their Sergeant stated: “We launched this competition at the … (1 comments)

Online Dating Liar Liar is 5’4, not 5’10 - 06/15/10 03:12 AM
But who cares? Apparently the dude with the 6 inch height difference did. And he figured the lady he was about to meet via chatting in an online dating service cared as well. Maybe she did, maybe she didn’t. Either way he started out in the relationship lying.
Many single people have been turning to the Internet for dating services. You can meet someone with the same interests, hobbies, and lifestyle. Dating services allow you to browse profile pages to shop for a potential mate while chatting it up with potential dates. In the process you are selling yourself as … (3 comments)

Summer Heat: Online Dating Scams - 06/15/10 03:03 AM
Love online. 20 years ago it wasn’t even a thought. 10 years ago it was weird. 5 years ago it was new and exciting. Today it’s as normal as milk and bread. If you are looking for a mate online you will eventually hit pay dirt. Most of my friends who tried it, succeeded at it.
When anything technology gets to the “normal stage” that’s also when scammers are well dug in. Scammers are usually much more ahead of the curve. When it was weird, they paid attention and the ones that had the foresight scammed, but when it was … (0 comments)

Sex Offender Sets Up Facebook Page Looking For Love - 06/11/10 02:36 AM
A sex offender, who spent 11 years in a court-ordered treatment program to rehabilitate him, is looking for a relationship via Facebook.
Facebook is approaching the 500 million member mark worldwide. Chances are there are a few sex offenders in there somewhere. I’d guess anywhere between 1 and 3 percent have a penchant for violating another persons sanctity. Statistically out of the 300 million people in the U.S., there are 500,000 registered sex offenders. Of those registered, thousands more aren’t and many haven’t been caught. You do the math.
He’s 29, so he was in detention since he was 18. His … (4 comments)

Crime Prevention: Sheriff Offers Variety of Security Programs - 06/11/10 02:27 AM
Talk about proactive law enforcement. “The Clay County Sheriff’s Office in Jacksonville Florida area will help residents “burglar proof” their homes, offers a vacation house watch program and will make presentations on a variety of crime prevention topics. The Sheriff’s Office Community Relations Section will send a deputy sheriff to your home at a specified date and time to conduct a burglary prevention survey. These deputies have been specially trained to assist residents in making their homes much safer places to live, according to the release.”
Now that’s exactly what every municipality on the planet should require of their law enforcement. … (0 comments)

How Secure Are You And That ATM Transaction? - 06/09/10 10:22 PM
ATM fraud is more common and likely than a crime committed directly against customers who are in the process of attempting to withdraw cash from the machines, according to NetworkWorld.
When studying “emergency PIN technologies” they state fraud was one of the few concrete conclusions from a report about the use of emergency technology at ATMs issued by the Federal Trade Commission.
Meanwhile reports indicate that thieves used “skimmer” devices to steal $217,000 from Long Island Banks between April and the end of May 2010. Banking information was then re-encoded onto the magnetic strips of blank gift cards. Investigators report … (4 comments)

Replacing Stolen Passports and Credit Cards - 06/09/10 10:14 PM
Travel season is upon us. Summertime is all about exploring new and exciting places. It’s the season of planes, trains, automobiles and…criminals. When you are out of your element and unsure of your surroundings, you are at a higher degree of risk. Travelers need to be on high alert for property crimes and identity theft.
Years ago, before my wife was my wife, she was traveling in Spain. She got off the plane, headed for the rental car terminal, rented her car, and drove off the lot. At the first stop sign, a man knocked on her passenger window and pointed, … (1 comments)

Burglary Deterred with DNA Technology - 06/09/10 10:05 PM
This is very cool. In the UK in a town called Halton, break-ins have dropped dramatically.
Burglaries in homes and businesses are down by almost 70 percent, compared with the same time last year. That’s an incredible reduction in crime.
People are feeling safer and local law enforcement and the citizens are taking back control of their neighborhoods. It all began with a concerted effort and an “I’m not going to take it any more” attitude.
The effort became a success when home security training along with special DNA water was distributed to more than 4,000 homes and … (2 comments)

Facebook + Hackers – Privacy = You Lose - 06/04/10 11:56 PM
I’m as sick of writing about it as you are sick of reading about it. But because Facebook has become a societal juggernaut: a massive inexorable force that seems to crush everything in its way, we need to discuss it because it’s messing with lots of functions of society.
We should all now know that whatever you post on Facebook is not private. You may think it is, but it isn’t. Even though you may have gone through all kinds of privacy settings and locked down your profile, Facebook has changed them up internally so many times that they may have … (6 comments)

Summertime Scams Are Coming - 06/04/10 12:19 AM
As the spring rolls through and the summer heats up, the bad guy is planning his next seasonal scams. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has on average over 15,000 complaints a year related to travel, vacation or timeshare scams. It’s important to have summer safety in mind when planning your next summer vacations.
OK, I’ll admit it. I got scammed in a timeshare deal, kind of. I got what I paid for, but many lies were told to get me to sign on the dotted line. Whenever someone offers you money or dinner or tickets to anything in exchange for your … (3 comments)

Renting and Securing an Apartment - 06/03/10 02:16 AM
The time has come to leave the nest. The little birdie has to spread its wings and fly on their own whether they like it or not. The process is often overwhelming and difficult and the results can end up being great or awful. But knowing what you’re getting yourself into ahead of time can save you all kinds of headaches down the road.
Check the crime climate of the city/town/neighborhood you are considering moving to. Often we make moving decisions based on convenience and price. However consider spending a little more (or even less) if another location is safer … (2 comments)

Police Seek 2 Men, Woman in Stun-gun Robberies - 06/03/10 01:57 AM
A Stun gun or electromuscular incapacitation device when pressed against a human’s body causes a disruption in the electrical impulses of the nervous system. When someone is “shocked” in the upper chest area where the arms meet the chest or the lower abdomen on the left or right sides and in the upper thighs, they may lose the ability to walk, talk or function normally. Stun guns are considered non-lethal, which means they aren’t supposed to kill. However there have been situations where people have died when a stun gun was involved in subduing them.
Seattle police are searching for … (0 comments)

 

Find MA real estate agents and Boston real estate on ActiveRain.