Robert Siciliano Security Analyst at Safr.me
Every U.S.-based credit card has a magnetic stripe on the back. This stripe can be read and rewritten like a rewritable burnable CD, using card burners that are easily available online. The simplicity of the magstripe’s design, coupled with the availability of card reading and writing technology, results in billions of dollars in theft and fraud. E...
06 December 2010 /security /regulation
Most major websites now install cookies on your computer, which track what you do online. Over time, these cookies develop a profile, which becomes your digital fingerprint, to a certain extent. You may have noticed after searching for a specific product, advertisements for that particular product or brand appearing on various other websites you v...
01 December 2010 /security /regulation
First thing I tell my seminar attendees is “The chances of anything bad ever happening to you is very slim. So don’t worry about. However you should still put these systems in place.” Are you a helicopter parent? An “alarmist”? Or Chicken Little: The sky is falling, the sky is falling! I heard somewhere along the line that 90% of what we worry abou...
22 November 2010 /security /regulation
I feel like my head is going to explode. The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled “that using someone else’s Social Security number is not identity theft as long as you use your own name with it.” The defendant in this particular case had admitted to using a false Social Security number on an application for a car loan, and to find employment. The cour...
16 November 2010 /security /regulation
Living in the Northeast has its pros and cons. We have the four seasons, great food, entertainment, sports, everything is at your fingertips, and for me it’s where business gets done. Drawbacks include lots of congestions, crime, traffic, bad attitudes and nasty neighbors. Most people I know have a neighbor they are in some kind of entanglement wit...
15 November 2010 /security /regulation
Today’s criminal hackers are very different than those who hacked for fun and fame a decade ago. Every week, I see stories about more criminals in faraway lands, making millions from various scams, emptying the bank accounts of small businesses or draining the financial reserves of entire towns. High-tech crimes can be committed by lone individual...
11 November 2010 /security /regulation
A botnet is a group of Internet-connected personal computers that have been infected by a malicious application, which allows a hacker to control the infected computers without alerting the computer owners. Since the infected PCs are controlled remotely by a single hacker, they are known as bots, robots, or zombies. Consumers’ and small businesses...
06 November 2010 /security /regulation
“Spear phishing” refers to phishing scams that are directed at a specific target. Like when Tom Hanks was stranded on the island in the movie Cast Away. He whittled a spear and targeted specific fish, rather than dropping a line with bait and catching whatever came by. When phishing attacks are directed at company officers or senior executives, it...
05 November 2010 /security /regulation
#1 Publically available information is not valuable to an identity thief. If I was an identity thief I’d start with the phone book. All information about you is of value to an identity thief. The bad guy gathers as much intelligence about you as possible. Once they get enough data to become you they are off and running. The breadcrumbs we leave be...
03 November 2010 /security /regulation
#1 You can’t protect yourself from identity theft. Some, not all Identity theft is preventable. There are many things people can do to minimize their risk, both online and offline. Shred anything that has names and account numbers or any other data that can be used to con someone else into divulging even more information. Keep financial records p...
01 November 2010 /security /regulation
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