Browse Identity Theft

Two Factor authentication is the latest advancement in information security systems. It works on the phenomenon of presenting two or more authentication factors or essentials to gain access into a secured system such as a web portal, computer device or online transaction. The different factors involved in 2FA are: - Knowledge factor such as a password, PIN or pattern) - Possession factor (ATM card, Hard Token, USB Token, mobile phone , smart card etc) - Inheritance factor (

Increasing use of Internet and social networking sites affecting the privacy and hence identity like SSI, personal information and other important data can be tracked from cookies and social networks that lead to identity thefts, misuse of login details etc. A cookie is text file which a web-server can store on your hard disk drive which is designed to on where you go on the web. It can simplify your web-browsing experience by storing your location for local searches, but you

What do incoming mail and outgoing trash have in common? Both are attractive to the identity thieves. Mail scams happen all the time; your trash is also a great risk to your identity.nOne of the most notorious cases of identity theft prosecuted was a case of dumpster diving. Dumpster diving is when someone goes through other people’s trash looking for items they can use or sell. nnIn most cases, the dumpster diver is looking for clothing or household items, discarded by

Many credit cards, drivers' licenses, corporate and college ids, speed passes and passports now contain RFID tags. nnWhy should you care? nnBecause criminals have discovered that electronic devices known as Radio Frequency Readers (or Remote Frequency Readers), readily available on the web for less than $100, can scan and "skim" your personal information from you – without your knowledge. nnNot too long ago, my local ABC station (WPLG, Miami) aired a disturbing, eye-ope

In every online factor involving a server, there is usually a risk of hacking. The Internet includes a user sending and receiving of information to a server. As a result, most of the web development focuses on the user and not the stability of the system. For this reason, people create an e-commerce website which can only perform these tasks in an exemplary manner, ignoring the fact that individuals with ill intentions can also use this chance. As a result, the security of yo

Cyber Warefare – Safeguard Your Electronic Devices. When employees travel abroad here are ten electronic devices security tips I pulled from a recent New York Times article, “Traveling Light in a Time of Digital Thievery” by Nicole Perlroth. Nicole discusses electronic devices security policies and practices of the State Department, Google, Bookings Institution, and McAfee executives when traveling to China and Russia.

Lifehacker recently posted a great article called The Stupid Things You Do Online (and How to Fix Them). Here are some of additional comments that may also be helpful. Stupid Thing #1: You Undervalue Your Personal Data Did you know that when a company goes through valuation by a venture capitalist the number of email accounts is reviewed? So while you might not value your information, corporate America does. Stupid Thing #2: You Submit Sensitive Information Over an Insecure Connection

We all know that by adding an alarm and window locks to our houses we protect them from being burgled, we all know that if we park our car we should make sure the windows are closed and the doors locked – but how do we protect ourselves from identity theft?nOf all crimes, identity fraud is mushrooming with the Home Office estimating that it costs the UK economy in excess of £1.7 billion every year.nAs a company specialising in IT support to small businesses and hom

Power LogOn® Authenticates User into Dameware™ Access Smart® Announces the Interoperability of their Power LogOn Password Manager with DameWare Development’s Mini Remote Control (DMRC) product.

With all the news articles about China hacking into American companies, India breaking into the US Government, Wikileaks, data breaches, cyber-attacks, Pentagon elevation that cyber-attacks could be regarded as an act of war, etc., I thought I had better educate myself and make the leap from identity theft protector to cyber warrior.

Technology infrastructure is today a critical asset with all of its digital business information being the new currency. What are the risks to sensitive business information and the associated vital assets? What are your security blind spots? Cyber security is about applying the appropriate defense to protect your critical business assets. Businesses today are highly dependent on technology to deliver services, interact with customers and manage a supply chain. What is your c

Identity theft continues to rise annually. The Federal Trade Commission predicts that nearly 9,000,000 of the general public will get their identity stolen this year. You should be aware that ID theft can adopt numerous forms. The usual things that we often hear about is identity thieves getting fraudulent credit cards, or getting some sort of utility service in your name. Those who were not wise enough to sign up for some form of credit monitoring service never know about th

Just say no when pushy sales clerks ask for TOO MUCH personal information.Well the Christmas season is upon us and we’re all out there shopping for presents for our loved ones. Just recently I was shopping at Best Buy to purchase some computer components, but when I got home I found that one items was broken.

Dealing with a collection agency can be a stressful experience. Not only are some debt collectors rude, but endless demanding telephone calls and letters can shake even the toughest individual. The stress and confusion that debt collectors can cause often results in consumers making mistakes that can result in future financial or legal difficulties. Here are 5 mistakes to avoid when dealing with a debt collector; 1. Conducting Business over the Telephoner

Physical identity theft occurs when thieves come in close contact with their victims or the information they’re stealing. for example, Thieves may engage in dumpster diving, where they look through garbage, or literally dumpsters. to find papers with account numbers, addresses, name of family members, Social Security Numbers, drivers license numbers, or anything else that identified an individual.

It looks like having to pay by check is about to go the route of the analog TV. For many years check fraud was rampant and an issue police officials had a tough time dealing with. It is now on the decline as reported by the Financial Crime Enforcement Network. Why is it on the decline? Evidently consumers are beginning to make use of fewer checks. Unfortunately the same thing cannot be said for debit cards. As their use has gone up so too has the number of criminal activities

Children are increasingly falling victim to the identity theft epidemic (78% increase rate) and families are largely unaware their children have been offended. Children continue to be victimized for years until as a young adult, they are denied services when seeking credit to pay for college or a car loan, applying for a job, or trying to get a drivers’ license.rn rnAsurency conducted a study of parents with children under the age of 16 and found that out of the 500 familie

This week the press is all agog about how Windows 8 is going to “securely” manage passwords. Win 8 will do this with LiveID, syncing passwords across multiple computer platforms, using “TrustedID” to authenticate the computer, and storing all your long complex passwords in the cloud or on your device. But the sense of security is still misplaced. When it comes to security, multi-authentication is the first topic that comes up, and these are: 1. Something you have. (Smart Card, token, etc.) 2. Something you know. (Password, PIN or pattern)r

Security Software is really a general term explaining any program that prevents unauthorized activity using the pc, a network or perhaps a computing atmosphere. The two primary risks to some computer are unauthorized access by humans or damage triggered by malicious programs. A lot of computers or systems require customers to register using a username and password. This technique of identifying a person has two benefits. First, it blocks unauthorized customers from being able

There are two facets to medical identity theft; one is financial and the other involves your health care. Medical identity theft happens when a thief uses your social security number or health insurance to obtain medical services and health care benefits –including prescriptions, without your knowledge. Medical identity theft can carry with it damaging, far-reaching effects. Not only is medical id theft hard to detect, it is even more difficult to correct than the more

A November 2010 study revealed that 79% of Americans are at least somewhat concerned about identity theft, with 42% being very or extremely concerned. Yet, only 12% are enrolled in an identity theft protection program. Further analysis revealed that identity theft costs about $4865 per person violated, yet identity protection services cost around $250 per year. The results are part of the 2010 U.S. Consumer Study which surveyed 1,000 Americans on Identity Theft, commissioned

Java is known as a programming language that quiet efficiently runs on many computers and it runs even in some mobile phones too. One must not confuse this program with the JavaScript as that is a scripting language that is commonly used by the web browsers. Java can be considered as an important part of the computer programming. It allows the user to chat with various other online users from across the world. It also helps in playing lots of online games and even view images

Microsoft®’s Forefront Needs More Than Identity Management for Cyber Attack Prevention

Lucian Constantin’s recent article “Expect more cyber-espionage, sophisticated malware in ’12, experts say” states that cyber-attacks in 2012 will increase with more sophisticated malware. Certainly companies like MicroTrend, Symantec and others have their work cut out for them to eradicate these attacks once they are launched. But taking a step back, the question arises as to how malware is first getting into the networks. Answer: employee’s carelessness.

Online shoe and apparel shop Zappos, now owned by Amazon, reported earlier this week that 24 million users names, e-mail addresses, billing and shipping addresses, phone numbers, and the last four digits of credit card numbers may have been illegally accessed. In response to this breach, Zappos has expired and reset all passwords. They have also temporarily foregone using their 800 number phone service in an effort to redeploy customer-service representatives to respond to customer email.

While the Internet has made it easier to grow a business, it has also introduced new security challenges for small and big businesses alike. As the techniques of fraudsters grow more sophisticated so must the solutions businesses use to detect and prevent fraud from occurring.

Identity thieves have gotten quite sophisticated over the years. According to IBM's X-Force Trend and Risk Report bogus e-mails sending you to a bogus website also known as phishing is growing. It does not stop there unfortunately. There have been a rise in net server breaches. Not surprisingly the same is true for cellular phones given that a lot of people have given up the home phone line and are now using their cell exclusively. Regardless of what kind of phone people use

On December 21, 2011 the Wall Street journal reported that U.S. Chamber of Commerce was hacked. Many of the major media outlets are all re-publishing the report. But, if you look at the fine print you will discover that the attack occurred back in November 2009 and was discovered in May 2010. That left the Chamber’s 3 million company members uninformed and their information vulnerable for two years as the FBI and cyber investigators analyzed the attack.

The Smart Card Alliance offers platitudes but don’t identify the culprits! The Smart Card Alliance released their weak response to the recent Sykipot Tojan attack which hijacked the Department of Defense authentication smartcards. Unlike hypothetical attacks on smartcards (the Chinese Remainder Theorem Attack comes to mind with the use of a microwave oven and a calculator) this is a real threat to the security of one’s network and data but not so much to the smartcard itself.

In todays business environment, it is not uncommon to come across fraud. The fraudsters are always one step ahead of you in the game too, no matter how hard you try to protect your business. This means that sometimes, a business will employ a company to investigate. You can see below the best places to find efficient fraud investigation services. Although there are many companies in the market, finding a good one need not be as daunting as you think. The first step is to ask

Cases of Internet domain name theft has swept the World Wide Web. This upsurge in domain theft news has proven that your domain name is not as safe as you expected it to be. There are a number of common mistakes that we do and as a result domain theft takes place. However, there are some safety measures, which if followed prudently, can help you keep your domain name safe and secure. You must be wondering about the reason for the reducing list of your web visitors and the low

It was just a few months back that the United State Government led by the Justice Department instituted a nationwide sweep in order to clamp down on identity fraud. Little coincidence that it was conducted as tax time gets going. This time of year has been a boon to fraudsters in years past. While it may or may not sharply reduce the amount of information stolen the effort needs to be a year round one. Identity theft at present is simply not going away. It continues to top th

The RapidSSL Wildcard Certificate is a 128/256-bit SSL Certificate. RapidSSL.com owns the root to issue its RapidSSL Certificate, making it a stable SSL offering. RapidSSL is already present in the IE 5.01+, Netscape 4.7+ and Monzila1+ browsers, along with many other Windows and Mac browsers. Secure an unlimited number of sub domains on the same domain name. With a Wildcard SSL certificate issued to *.yourdomain.com you could protect: www.yourdomain.com secure.yourdomain.com

IC cards are used in all the industries and the common applications for the cards include access control, hotel locks, staff attendance and salary management, school campus access/ payment control and so on. These technologies are developed by the semi-conductor technologies and IT technologies. It enables the processor to be embedded with a large capacity memory IC chip into plastic bases to make the cards. Basically there are two types of cards that include IC cards, contac

In Justine Rivero’s latest article “Three New Ways to Protect Your Identity in 2012” she is absolutely correct that smartcards for secure payment is needed because it is better to use security upfront than rely on identity theft protection after the fact. But why stop at payment? Smartcards offer secure data access to medical records, corporate networks, online commerce sites, computer logons, applications, and anything else where user authentication is required.

Great information but forgot a key security component. User Authentication. On Wed 26th of October I attended the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) Security Symposium in Long Beach, Califo ia. Different security leaders discussed poignant topics like Ali Pabrai’s, CEO ecfirst.com, “Checklist for Addressing Breach Readiness” to the lighter hearted David Perry’s, Global Director Education Trend Micro, presentation “Security from the Cloud, for the Cloud, and by the Cloud”. There were also a number of vendor stations discussing a wide array of security products and services.r

Four years ago the card processor Heartland Payment experienced a database break in which subjected over financial risk. Just last year Sony Playstation Network was breached. One hundred million consumers had their card info exposed. This time internet thieves have gone back to one of the many sources. Spokespeople for the two major credit card companies announced that Atlanta base card processor Global Payments was broken into along with the organization only discovered it j

Major research company Gartner Inc estimates that only 1 in 700 identity thieves ever gets apprehended. It appears that in Oregon they found that one. The Associated Press reported one one identity theft criminal that arrived at a local bank to cash a check. What makes this story so bizarre is the thief was caught by the person he had been victimizing. It appears they were in the bank to dispute the bogus charges which were on their financial statement. Unfortunately for many

Proximity cards, if you already do not know about, are a type of smart cards; smart cards come with in-built chips that are capable of storing vital information. These smart cards have in fact become an integral part of our life; right from identifying ourselves and gaining access to our places of work to making payment while shopping, smart cards do it all. All these cards come with in-built chips (hence, they are also called chip cards) and help the people in so many differ

In a world where information about you is no more than a click away, privacy online has become one of the most essential requirements today. Most users prefer to have access to all the perks of the Internet without the hassle of being identified to ensure that they are able to get their jobs done faster. As such, privacy on the internet has become a universal requirement that is supported by the implementation of online privacy laws to ensure that any form of invasion of priv

Email communication has become one of the major means of interaction over the Internet today. Millions of people log into their email accounts and exchange personal and business communiqué daily. A person’s email address is also one of the most commonly required personal information in government forms, applications and surveys. It is one of the most important pieces of personal information that people use in a daily basis. Because of this, offenders take advantage of the

The good news is identity theft over the past few years has decreased. But the fact of the matter is it still tops the list as the number one consumer complaint. There's plenty of information going around with regards to this crime which includes plenty of myths which if you are not careful can have you moving in the wrong direction. 1. Guarding Your SSN Is All You Need You see this on the news quite a bit. Many professionals may tell you this is all you need to protect yours

Recently McAffe published a worldwide hacking report about what they are calling Shady RAT. The United Nations, Olympic committees, governments, U.S. real estate company, a major media organization based in New York, a satellite communications company and other companies around the world, totaling 72 organizations, have been hacked by a “state actor”.

I have been following a very disturbing trend for a couple of months now, and it is that of Medical Identity Theft. When we think of identity theft, we typically worry about credit cards or store credit being taken out in our name. Somebody attempting to purchase a vehicle or finance a mortgage using our personal identity. What we don’t really think about however is medical identity theft.

Be cautious of the footprints you leave online… nnBefore heading off to school, parents and college students alike should become aware of the dangers that lurk on social networking sites. Though these sites seem like harmless fun, they are growing in popularity, and not just for the young people who post information on them. These social networking sites are also favorite hangouts for all sorts of predators –including identity thieves. Without their knowledge, a s

A PAN card is a permanent account number with a ten-character alphanumeric identifier. It is issued by the Indian Income Tax Department, in the form of a laminated "PAN card", to any person who applies for it or to whom the department allots the number without an application. A PAN card is a unique identifier issued to all judicial entities that are identifiable under the Indian Income Tax Act, 1961. The income tax PAN and its linked card are issued under Section 139A of the

The power of the mouth has always been a powerful force in the matter of reputation management which will do the activities in quick successions. But with the advent of the Internet the things have changed considerably. It enhances the power of dissemination consumer views, opinions, reviews and rumors. Advancement of the search engine methodologies have routinely employed and made use of the opinions, views and criticism even more visible that is having a powerful impact on

Don’t you like to protect your money and keep your private information safe? Are you frightened by the possibility an Internet criminal will steal your credit card and do things with your name after stealing your identity? Guess what! You can prevent this mess from happening. Let’s go over the steps you can take to prevent identify theft and loss of your money while you are online. Take precaution with storing information and passwords on any computer you use. You might be t

Millions of people are reconnecting with old school friends and keeping up with current friends on various social media networks such as Facebook and MySpace. It’s a fun and easy way to upload pictures for your friends and followers to see, or send a quick update on what you’re doing right at this moment. It all seems harmless until you realize that almost 10 million Americans were victims of identity fraud in 2008, which is over a 20 percent increase since 2007. With ove