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Robert Siciliano

Security Analyst

Safr.me

Member since

04 Feb 2009

Location

Boston

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Robert's opinions

2017 Was the Worst Year for Identity Theft EVER!

Javelin Strategy & Research recently released its Identity Fraud Study, and it revealed that the number of identity theft victims rose by 8% in 2017 when compared to 2016. That’s almost 17 million people, which is a record high. Despite more information and industry efforts to make people aware of these practices, $16.8 billion was stolen due ...

27 September 2018 /security

Background Checks Don't Tell the Whole Story

When it comes to background checks, the National Crime Information Center is the gold standard. It is only available to law enforcement agencies and is the most accurate and complete database tracking convictions and arrests in the US. That sounds pretty great, right? Unfortunately, it’s not all as it seems. The Department of Justice The Departme...

14 September 2018 /security

A Credit Profile Number is a fake SSN, and it Works

Cyber criminals are constantly trying to stay one step ahead of the good guys, and there is now another scam out there that you should know about: synthetic identity theft. Basically, the criminals take information from someone, and then make up the rest. They also often use fake Social Security numbers, called CPNs, or “credit profile numbers,” o...

12 September 2018 /security

2017 Was the Worst year for Data Breaches EVER!

It seems like 2017 broke records for all the wrong reasons…one of them being the worst year for data breaches in history. According to reports, hacking was the most common way to collect this data, but almost 70% of exposures occurred due to accidental leaks or human error. This came down to more than 5 billion records. There were several well-kn...

07 September 2018 /security

Be aware of all these Confidence Crimes

Criminals have a reliance on tricking victims to get access to account information, like passwords. This is known as social engineering, and is also called a “confidence crime.” These come in many forms: Do Not Take the Bait of These Phishermen A phishing email that targets a specific person is known as spear-phishing. A spear-phishing email look...

27 July 2018 /security

Are Your Employees Putting Your Company at Risk? Here’s How to Find Out!

Even if you have the best security on your computer network, you might have noticed that you still seem to get hacked…or worse. Ask Equifax. Why is this happening? It’s probably because a member of your staff has made it easy for cyber criminals to get inside. It’s really important that you find out who this person is, and keep in mind…it might be...

18 May 2018 /security

10 Internet Security Myths that Small Businesses Should Be Aware Of

Most small businesses don’t put as much focus on internet security as they probably should. If you are a small business owner or manager, not focusing on internet security could put you in a bad spot. Are you believing the myths about internet security or are you already using best practices? Here’s a few of the most common myths…take a look to se...

11 May 2018 /security

Mobile Phone Numbers Are as Sensitive as Your Social Security Number

All of us have cell phones these days, and if you are like the vast majority of the population, you access everything from social media to banking information right from your mobile phone. However, if you do this, which everyone does, you are putting yourself in the position to get hacked. With only your mobile phone number and a couple other piec...

19 April 2018 /security

The Term Identity Theft Protection is Often a Lie

If you are working for an IT security company, I have a message for you: the term “identity theft protection” is way overused and even abused as a marketing term. We know that this term is used to sell services and products, but does it really protect a user from being the victim of identity theft? No. This is no different than labeling a food as...

06 April 2018 /security

Use a Password Manager Or You WILL Get Hacked

Do you ever use the same password over and over again for different accounts? If so, you are not alone. However, this is quite dangerous. It’s best to use a different, unique password for each account, and to make it easier, you should use a password manager. According to surveys, people understand that they should use unique passwords, and more th...

19 March 2018 /security

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