When you meet new people, how well do you know them before you invite them into your home?  Today, when most people hear about identity theft, they think of hackers stealing personal information over the Internet.  Sure, you have to protect yourself on-line, but you also must be careful of new acquaintances and friends that you meet in the real world.  How trusting are you?  Here is a scenario that was relayed to me recently:

My friend Pam had always wanted to take a class in pottery but there was never anything offered in her area.  One day, she received a class schedule from her local community college and saw the perfect class for her:  Pottery 101.  It was a 10 week course, close to home and the price was right, so she signed up.   The first day of class, she was early and chose a seat towards the back of the room.  Tony came in the room shortly after and sat next to her.  They had some time to talk before class started and found conversation very easy.  There was no romantic interest, but Pam thought that Tony would make a great friend.

Pam and Tony would go out for coffee every night after class, sometimes with a group and sometimes alone.  Either way, they really enjoyed each other’s company, so they started making plans to go out on weekends.  The first time Tony picked Pam up at her apartment, she gave him the grand tour, which included her home office.  Tony admired the antique safe that was in a prominent position.  Pam told him that she bought it at an estate sale and it was where she kept all her important papers.  She said she never had a combination for it, and jokingly added that she felt that it looked impressive enough to deter any burglar.  Because of this, she felt it didn’t need to be locked.

For months, they hung out together.  Pam talked about her family that was living in another state and how difficult it was sometimes to live so far from them.  Tony could sympathize since he had recently become a US citizen, but his girlfriend wasn’t yet able to come over from their native country.  Time went on and they became almost inseparable friends and confidants.

After knowing each other for a little over a year, Tony announced that he was going to visit his family and girlfriend overseas.  Pam was so happy for him because she knew how much he missed them all.  She drove him to the airport and saw him off.  She didn’t expect to hear from him during his trip, but she was to pick him up in two weeks.  Pam had all of Tony’s flight information and got to the airport a few minutes before the plane landed.     

This time each year we look forward to the holidays; the closeness with family, hot apple cider, decorating the house are all things we love.  A part of the holidays that most of us truly hate is the annual greed-fest at the malls.  People are pushing and shoving to be the first to get the latest hot toy or video game.  Television commercials are telling us that we must spend money on cars, diamonds and furs for our spouses…the more the better, according to them.  Years ago, it was a simpler time when the best present was a Tonka truck or a baby doll, but lately, the greed has taken over.  Unfortunately, scammers are feeding on this greed to steal from the holiday shoppers.

Each year, the crooks are finding new ways to scam people out of their hard-earned money.  This year, they are using cell phones as their weapon of choice.  This is a typical scam:    Random cell phone numbers are dialed and a text will be sent that appears to be from a well-known store.   This text will tell the person that they have been chosen to receive a gift card worth at least $500, and all they have to do to claim it is to verify their identity.  For verification, the person is asked for either their Social Security Number and/or the number of the credit card that was last used at the store.

Many of you reading this may be amazed that this actually works; that people are really willing to give up this information through a text.  Well, apparently there are enough people sending the information that it makes it worth the time and effort to text all those cell phones.  The scammers are hoping that an extra $500 or $1,000 will look very tempting.

You don’t text?  No problem!  The scammers are also calling unsuspecting victims and speaking to them about their “win”.  Caller-ID won’t stop them because they use pre-paid cell phones and can enter their identity as “Customer Service” of any store.  Before you know it, the scammer has your information, makes a few purchases using your credit card, then moves on to the next victim.  By the time anyone realizes they’ve been scammed, the crook has also moved on to a new pre-paid cell phone.

Don’t be so quick to give out your personal information.  If you get a call or a text telling you that you “won” something, sit back and ask yourself these two questions:

1. Did I enter a contest to win a free gift card?   If the answer is “No”, then this is a scam. If you give your information, the only “winner” will be the scammer, who will have a very happy holiday thanks to your credit card.
2. Is there any reputable business that would ask you to give sensitive, personal information to an unknown “representative” through a text or over the phone?

The answer to question 2 will always be “No”, but what about question 1?  There are contests offered by many stores.  If you did happen to enter a contest of this sort, please refer to question 2.  No reputable business will ever ask for this information over the phone.  Simply tell the person on the phone that you will visit the store location closest to your home and verify your identity in person.  Then hang up.

Obituaries are published daily in every newspaper in the United States and every day, people look through them to see if anyone they may have known recently died.  An obituary is a good way for friends of the recently deceased to know of any funeral arrangements so they could pay their respects.   It’s also a good way for identity thieves, known as “ghosters” to gather information in order to resurrect that person; or, at least that person’s identity.  Think of all the information held in one, small obituary.  The name and age of the deceased, spouse’s name, number of children and their ages, home towns of everyone and close relatives who pre-deceased them all help a ghoster to rebuild a life.  The obituary is also helpful in letting the ghoster know when those closest to the deceased will not be at home so the houses could be invaded to gather yet more information.  After all, aren’t the times of viewings and funerals listed in these obituaries?

There are many people willing to pay for new identities for a number of reasons.  An experienced ghoster will find a wide variety of potential identities by looking through many different newspapers.  No one is safe.  What if a whole family wants to begin a new life?  Identities will be needed for a man, a woman and however many children they have.  Knowing what times a house will probably be empty, the ghoster will make an unannounced visit.  Neighbors will probably also be at the viewing or funeral, so there’s a good chance the ghoster will never be seen.  Going through the house of the deceased person could turn up a birth certificate, driver’s license and Social Security card.  In fact, if the ghoster plans things out ahead of time, he could get to quite a few houses in one day, gathering information from each.  The information doesn’t have to be used immediately; the ghoster has all the time in the world to wait for the need to arise.

Any information found can be used for anything from simple credit card fraud to something as involved as taking on that person’s full identity.  If Stella Oldman needs some new furniture, but doesn’t have the money, no problem!  With the Social Security number and driver’s license in the name of Carolyn Baines, she can apply for credit and never have to pay a dime.  Or, Stella could want to escape a criminal warrant, so with a Social Security card, driver’s license and birth certificate, she can assume Carolyn’s identity and start life over as an innocent woman.

In this age of cyber-crime, you would be surprised at how many people still use the same password for everything.  What makes this practice an even bigger threat to security is when that password is something like “abcd1234”.  I don’t know if it is laziness or forgetfulness, but this dangerous practice has been going on since the beginning of the Internet, and it seems as if it’s here to stay.  If you are one of those people that use the same password over and over again, or if you know someone who does, please read on.

The password is a valuable security mechanism.  Every website you register to asks you to make up a password, usually consisting of at least eight characters, both alpha and numeric that is case sensitive.  That means that if you choose the password “sEcUrItY65”, you will not be allowed access to the site if you type in “security65” or any other combination of upper and lower case letters.  It must match exactly.  It gets tedious and confusing when you must think up a unique password for everything from on-line newspapers to banking sites.

Another mistake people make when making up passwords is to use easily discovered children’s names combined with birthdates.  Some even use their pet’s name.  If a hacker should break into your line of communication while you are using a public hotspot and gets the password for your Facebook account, he just about has it made.  From Facebook, he can see your kids’ names and birthdates, your pets’ names, your birthdate, your spouse’s name and birthdate and your e-mail address.  The hacker can even try using your Facebook password on your e-mail account and banking sites.

What do your insoles say about you?

A Canadian company, Autonomous ID, working with Pedo-Biometrics Lab in Pittsburgh, is in the development stage of a new security tool:  an insole security device.  It is an engineered insole placed in shoes that will screen employees to determine if they have access to high security locations, such as military bases and power plants.

Pedo-Biometrics Lab is a new department at Carnegie Mellon University.  Autonomous ID has given the lab a fund of $1.5 million to start working on this concept.   Todd Gray, President of Autonomous has stated that he thought of this idea when he visited his daughter after giving birth.  The walls of the maternity ward were covered with footprints of the babies born there.  Seeing these made him realize that no one walks exactly the same way.

The insoles will have sensors that measure such things as pressure on specific areas of the insole and the employee’s gait based on height. Each employee will be asked to walk while the insoles are in place and a master file for each person will be kept in microcomputers.  Whenever an employee tries to access an area, the insole will scan the information and send it to the computers.  If the information matches with an employee who has access, he or she will be allowed entrance.  If that employee doesn’t have access, a silent alarm will ring.

Mr. Gray announced that tests on sample insoles have already been run and they are accurate to a little more than 99% after only three steps.    A wider range of tests will be made by the lab that will include things like if the person is dieting, if they are athletic, nationality and even testing on twins.  According to Gray, these insoles are less of a privacy risk than eye scans because the data collected stays in the insoles.

Even so, privacy may still be an issue.  Lee Tien, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) stated:  “Every biometric capture device is a potential tracking device, just like every iPhone is a potential tracking device.  That’s just the way things are.”  However, Tien agreed that the insoles “might make a person feel a little bit better” about security.  He also calls the declaration that these insoles could identify a specific person after only three steps is “pretty impressive”.

Are you safe from identity theft in your own home? Are you sure?

We all need to learn to be more careful when allowing people into our homes.  Identity theft is a growing concern, not only when using the Internet, but also in our daily lives.  Most of us are aware of the dangers of hacking, but how many of us are aware of how we can be scammed in real life?  Here is a possible scenario that could happen to your elderly uncle:

Sam is 80 years old and lived alone for years after his wife passed away.  He had owned a very lucrative business for years and he and his wife saved up a very good sum of money for their retirement.  The one thing he never had to worry about was money.

Recently, Sam slipped in his kitchen and broke his hip.  When he was released from the hospital, he had to spend some time in a nursing home.   This is where he met a very attentive volunteer, Tara.

Tara was in her early 20s and was studying to be a nurse’s aide.  She volunteered at the nursing home at least 5 days every week and she was very good with all the patients.  When Sam first came to the nursing home, he was depressed about his condition, so Tara was assigned to bring him his meals and sit with him to keep him company while he ate.  Even though there was a huge age difference, Sam realized that he had a lot in common with Tara.  They both had the same taste in movies and literature and Tara loved to listen to Sam’s stories about when he was a child.  In the next couple of months, they became very close.

When Sam was scheduled to be released from the nursing home, his doctors conferred with Sam’s children, who both lived out of state, and they decided that he should not be left alone.  He needed help with cooking, cleaning and grocery shopping because even though he was healing nicely, he still had a bit of trouble getting around.  When they approached Sam with the idea of getting him a live-in companion, he immediately thought to ask Tara if she would like the job.

A week later, Sam was brought back home and Tara moved into the guest bedroom.  Sam was so happy to have someone to talk to all day.  Tara was a great cook and kept his house immaculate.  When she went grocery shopping, she would sometimes stop at the library and bring home a movie or book she thought Sam would like.  She took him on short walks in the neighborhood to help get the strength back into his hip.  Within a few weeks, Tara was like family.  Sam trusted Tara so much that he decided to add her as a signatory on his bank accounts so he wouldn’t have to be bothered with paying bills.

Everything was going great.  Sam had a companion who loved to sit and talk with him for hours.  They had such a set routine that Sam never even noticed that Tara never seemed to go to class.  The one time he asked her about it, she told him that she was on a break between terms.

Did it ever occur to you that as more mobile apps are fed into the market, more new privacy concerns are raised? Those who have smartphones find it very easy to click on any application and download it without second thought. They simply accept all of what is contained in the fine print without paying attention to the app’s terms and conditions. They have no information about the privacy implications that go along with using those products.

Most service terms and security policies are written by lawyers, and that is why they seem to be meaningless to the lay man. Many users make the extra effort to read the fine print, but they eventually give up due to the lengthy litanies of legalese. The reason of course is clear; because they are hard for the lay man to comprehend. Consequently, as more users disregard the value of understanding those terms and conditions, more privacy concerns appear.

After a period of time, the so-called “Do Not Track” idea is still interpreted differently by two different groups of people. Companies limit their interpretation so that it would apply to targeted ads only. Consumers see a wider scope, that is, to be totally free from being watched in everything they do online. Discussions are still going on about the “Do Not Track” scope and are still on the battlefield of ideas. Internet companies believe that consumers need to understand what they would lose if they are totally not tracked.

Support to “Do Not Track” has been announced by Google and online advertisers. The internet giant made it clear that the support was only for targeted advertisements. Considering this standpoint, people are not very happy, especially those who expected something wider in scope. It can be inferred that Google will still gather consumer data and sell it for a particular purpose.

Hindi maipagkakailang lalong nagiging tanyag ang pag gamit ng mga mobile devices. Sa kabila nito, lalo din namang nadadagdagan ang bilang ng mga cyber crimes. Sa ngayon, ang internet ay accessible o bukas halos sa lahat, gamit ang smartphones at iba pang digital devices. Ito ang isa sa malalaking dahilan upang ang mga maykapangyarihan ay maghanap ng makabagong paraan upang labanan ang ganitong uri ng mga krimen. Hindi na umuubra ang mga nakagawiang paraan; kailangan ang maparaang pagharap dito, gamit din ang teknolohiyang gamit ng mga cyber criminals.

Sa state ng California sa United States of America, itinatag ang bagong eCrime Unit upang manghuli at maglitis ng mga internet crooks. Ang team na ito ay binuo ng isang state attorney general at kinabibilangan ng dalawampung abogado at imbestigador. Bihasa sila sa mga makabagong paraan upang matunton at matukoy ang mga maysala. Kabilang sa mga tinututukan ng team na ito ay mga email scams, piracy, child pornography, online fraud, at marami pang iba. Kawawa lamang ang mga taong nabiktima at patuloy na nabibiktima mapa-offline man o mapa-online.

Naipakulong na ng team ang isang lalaking nahatulan ng guilty sa kasong hacking ng mga email at Facebook accounts. Marami nang nabiktima ang lalaking ito na ang karaniwang modus ay pasukin ang account ng ibang user. Pagkatapos ay maghahanap siya ng mga kontrobersiyal na larawan ng may-ari ng account. Tatakutin niya ito na ikakalat sa internet ang mga larawan kapag hindi sinunod ang gusto niya.

Ang internet ay napakahalaga sa ekonomiya, sa mga tao, at sa mga negosyo. Dahil dito, hindi na kailangang maghanap ng biktima ang mga cyber criminals. Napakaraming maaaring maging biktima ng pagnanakaw ng mga impormasyon. Ang taong 2012 ay nakikinikinitang magiging taon ng matinding pakikipaglaban sa online crimes. Naranasan noong isang taon ang napakaraming mga scams at inaasahang marami pang darating ngayong taon.

Ito naman ang dahilan ng pagpapaigting ng kampanya laban sa ecrime. Ang bagong eCrime Unit ay naglalayong makagawa ng isang bagong trend ng pakikipaglaban sa online crimes. Sinabi ng attorney general mula California na gusto nilang manguna sa makabagong paraan sa paghahanap at paglilitis ng mga maysala. Gamit ang internet technology na siya ring gamit ng mga criminal, mapatutunayang ang batas ay mangingibabaw sa lahat ng oras.

There are many names to call it, but all in all, a natural disaster is one that comes with or without warning. The past year was overloaded with natural catastrophes that cost billions of dollars. People in the United States alone suffered from several hurricanes and tornadoes. There were many areas that were rocked and destroyed by earthquakes, like the East Coast, Colorado and Peru. Japan had her share of tsunami, and Queensland, Australia, Bangkok and most recently, the Philippines suffered from destructive floods. These events tend to send a lesson across – that natural disasters should be put in the top risk concern.

Today, businesses and government agencies should prepare for all of these looming disasters. Each should have an individual plan for disaster recovery. In today’s information-driven world, further disasters can result from power outages and network failures. There should still be time for every business to adjust and respond to risks. In any possible event, there should be uninterrupted and continuous access to either personal or corporate data.