Cybercrime

We are constantly connected to the online world, but unfortunately this new age of digital freedom also brings a new risk of falling prey to online scams.

Global cybercrime has become a billion dollar industry and a new study conducted by PC Tools in collaboration with the Ponemon Institute has found many of us are susceptible.

Online security expert, Richard Clooke reveals how to avoid being scammed online:

1. ASK – is this too good to be true?
$50 here, a holiday there, unlimited online offers from the world's biggest brands – if you're tempted by any of these free offers, then the answer is probably yes.

Many online scams trick us into revealing our personal information to secure something in return. It's important to be aware of 'fake offers' to avoid being lured by savvy scammers.

2. DON'T – dish your details unless the site is secure.
Never provide personal or financial information in exchange for online offers. Details such as your mobile number, address, and credit card or banking details should never be entered on a non-secure site.Read more

...but Consumers, Retailers

"I told you- good day I'm okay, bad day I'm okay. Stop bugging me on my feelings. They're irrelevant." – Lewis Zabel, "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," 20th Century Fox, 2010

Joe Corzine, former head of MF Global, "misplaced" $1.2B of investors' money but was certain it would show up.

The EU stress tested a bunch of banks (to see if they could withstand a financial fiscal shock attack), a lot failed.

Talk about stress testing U.S. banks is avoided because…

Banks, credit card companies and digital site folks (Google, PayPal, Apple, etc) want to make life easier for you – they want to eliminate the need to handle all that dirty, filthy money and hauling out your plastic every time you want to buy something.

Face it, money - dollars, rubles, pounds, francs, yen, Yuan, etc. – doesn't really exist. It's just a bunch of ones and zeros flying from cloud to cloud.

To save yourself from carrying all that junk, you can do it all with your feature/smartphone.

Your phone is always with you anyway for playing your music, showing you your videos, sending you the latest news, giving you your exercise plan, keeping your appointments, showing you how to get from home to office.

So, it's the logical place for your money.Read more

While Cyber Monday is the biggest online shopping day of the year, it is also a time when consumers can be careless and open themselves up to the risk of identity theft. This online shopping bonanza marks the start of the holiday season, and IdentityHawk wants to remind consumers to take precautions to protect their identities online and offline.

According to Jeff Paradise, executive director of IdentityHawk, "Cyber Monday kicks off the holiday shopping season and the season of being extra vigilant with online identity protection. Identity fraud can be detected online, but it doesn't necessarily start there."

Results from the 2011 Identity Fraud Survey Report conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research indicate that of all identity theft victims, 40% had their information misused while making an online purchase, compared to 13% for purchases made over the phone or through the mail.

"Consumers need to be aware that personal information is compromised in a wide variety of ways – ranging from stolen wallets, mail theft, purchases and financial transactions to computer hacking and large scale data base breaches," explained Karen Barney, director of programs for the Identity Theft Resource Center. "During the holidays it is important to remember to be especially vigilant in safeguarding your personal information."

In light of Cyber Monday and the start of the holiday shopping season, IdentityHawk provides the following protection tips for staying safe both online and offline. Read more

"Of course, the whole point of a Doomsday Machine is lost, if you *keep* it a *secret*!" – Dr. Strangelove in "Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb," Columbia Pictures (1964)

At last month's Black Hat, DefCon events…you could almost smell the cyber napalm in the morning.

While there are a lot of good things about Las Vegas (business-friendly policies), it's a logical location for a hacking, malware, cyber penetration convention. After all, it was founded on a fundamental human frailty … personal greed, beating the odds.

HINT: It's impossible to beat the odds!

Unfortunately, you also can't beat the odds when it comes to protecting personal, corporate and government secrets. Malicious and pain-in-the-behind bad guy hacking, hacktivism wins more often than the good guys. It's why no one with half a brain uses any of the ATM machines when the nearly 9,000 "attendees" are in town. They're hacked just for the heckovit!

It was here that Aruba wanted to demonstrate the strength of their cryptographic technology and wireless technology by provisioning the two events.

Now that takes … well, you know!Read more

"That's the second biggest... I've ever seen." – Maxwell Smart, "Get Smart," Talent Assoc., (1965 – 1970)

Anonymous and LulzSec made themselves infamous by hacking highly visible organizations.

They thought it was cool to disclose information from private/protected databases. They outed millions of people's very personal/private data, making them prime identity theft targets.

You know, the really bad guys (and gals) who make their living tapping into and "borrowing" your information to supplement their income.

For most folks, they were simply huge pains in the behind. But for a few… huge financial problems.

Of course, they got bolder and bolder and took their attacks to government data sites around the globe. In the U.S., the FBI, NSA, DOD; in the U.K., Scotland Yard, Defence Ministry, Parliament; in Germany the Federal Network Agency, Chancellery, Cabinet; in Russia the ministries of defense, justice, internal affairs.

You get the picture…all of 'em.Read more

Nearly every day consumers are hearing updates about the constant cyber war with hackers. Lately we've been hearing about reputable news outlets using hacking as a means of research. And most recently about how Anonymous and Lulz Security have called for a boycott of PayPal. In short, this is scary stuff. Major corporations have been attacked solely because they reported on or reacted to illegal modifications to products. And the most frightening part? These small, loosely knit hacker groups are able to pull it off quickly and easily.

So what do you do if you fear your information might be in danger? To help consumers determine some next steps, Alan Wlasuk, CEO of 403 Web Security, a web security company, has compiled a list of steps consumers can take if they fear their personal information might have been compromised by one of these attacks.Read more

"When two hunters go after the same prey, they usually end up shooting each other in the back. And we don't want to shoot each other in the back." – Col. Douglas Mortimer, "For a Few Dollars More (Per Qualche Dollaro I Piu)", Constantin Film (1965)

NY Times writer, John Markoff, had just finished his book on the exploits/capture of hacker Kevin Mitnick about the same time we received a call from our boss at CERFnet (one of the first three ISPs in the U.S.) telling us we had to change our password because the fledgling West Coast arm of the Internet had been hacked.

We had 10 minutes to give him our new password that would be part of our online identity to access, contact the world.

That sucked!

We had just gotten rid of the mind-boggling CompuServe numbers and…well, we really liked that password.

Monco's comment came to mind, "Think you people need a new sheriff," but kept our mouth shut and changed the password. Read more

Advancements in mobile computing and lower hardware costs have literally moved people out of their offices and into airports, remote offices, customer facilities, conference rooms, libraries and home offices. Because of the migration, people work differently than they did years ago and require increased data mobility. Today, users are more likely to have access to a variety of computers; and, like their mobile phones, they want to take their data with them wherever they go.

The Internet has been pivotal in the growth of solutions that enable mobile users to transfer and share any type of digital data. Many inexpensive file transfer solutions (some are even free) have given users the freedom of having access to their data without having to carry their laptop with them. Email, FTP sites, CDs/DVDs, USB drives and cloud-storage services can all be used to transfer and share files. However, as we hear almost daily, they all have security, privacy and other issues that need to be considered.

Their limitations have underscored the compelling need for a better, cost-effective solution that doesn't trade-off data security for simplicity of access, doesn't limit the capacity of file transfers and doesn't have hidden, long-term fees. Read more

"This thing doesn't want to show itself, it wants to hide inside an imitation. It'll fight if it has to, but it's vulnerable out in the open. If it takes us over, then it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it. And then it's won." – MacReady, “The Thing,” David Foster Prod (1982)

You can't flip a page, turn a virtual page, hear a newscast without a story of another attack and the growth of cyber mayhem. It's to the point where it ain't funny ... it ain't cute … it ain't nice!

It's not retaliation against the big "evil" companies/governments. It's putting millions of otherwise innocent people’s personal, private, financial information in harm's way--or worse.Read more

Don't let your curiosity destroy your PC or leave your bank account vulnerable to attack.

According to online security experts at PC Tools, the death of Osama bin Laden has led to one of the largest and fastest surges of cybercrime attacks in recent news. Almost immediately following President Obama's announcement, cybercriminals targeted people around the world, who were actively searching for news, photos, videos and information.

PC Tools expects increase in related malware and social engineered threats (found in popular online social, shopping and search sites) to appear, as more copycat hackers unleash their cyber attacks. The security company warns consumers to be careful where they click and which sites they visit in order to protect their personal data, privacy and financial information. Read on for five online security protection tips.

1. VISIT ONLY TRUSTED AND RELIABLE SITES

• Don't search for "Osama bin Laden" related news, photos or videos. If you do, go to trusted websites and type in the link. Avoid clicking on embedded news links, ads, fake search pages or web sites in foreign countries as it may attach malware or bots.