Zeus is no longer a god of malware; he’s been taken down by law enforcement agencies spanning six European nations. Five people were recently arrested—believed to have infected tens of thousands of computers across the globe. There have been 60 total arrests pertaining to this ... Views: 791
Do we really get wiser with old age, or just more vulnerable to all the scammers out there? Here are the top scams directed towards senior citizens.
IRS
The phone rings; it’s from the IRS, claiming you owe money.
Caller ID says IRS (spoof technology).
Caller says if you don’t ... Views: 797
UL in this case stands for Underwriters Laboratories. An article on darkreading.com notes that a UL official, Maarten Bron, says that they are taking part in the U.S. government’s plan to promote security certification standards.
The U.S. government is interested in developing a UL-type ... Views: 868
Just what kind of punishment should a 17-year-old get for making fraudulent 911 calls (a crime known as swatting)?
This happens more than you think. What’s outright astounding is how these teens could think they won’t be discovered. Have they been living in a cave all their lives, ... Views: 830
Cybersecurity professionals are always in demand[i]. Threats to intellectual property and sensitive data constantly evolve with technology, which means a security professional’s job is never done. There’s always another security problem to solve.
Consider the recent proliferation ... Views: 811
Maybe you don’t mind the ads for that bicycle rack following you around in cyberspace after you visited a site for all things bike, but browser trackers (“cookies”) also create a profile of you that gets sold to other advertisers and third parties.
Are you doomed to be ... Views: 987
People who don’t believe they have been brainwashed by the film industry, which repeatedly shows men in a brawl who are still standing after each have received a dozen punches to the head and face.
Sometimes it takes five full minutes to just daze a man, after he’s been hit in the ... Views: 762
If you reach your hand to a strange dog loose on the street to pet it on top of the head, and it mauls your hand, whose fault is this? One camp would put most of the blame on the dog owner. But most people would blame the victim.
But everyone with half an ounce of sense would agree on one ... Views: 753
When you subscribe to an online service, be careful of how much information you give out about yourself.
Most businesses in their terms and conditions, say they “respect your privacy.” But what if these companies go under or are sold? An article from the online New York Times ... Views: 831
Burglars get burgled, muggers get mugged, and hackers get hacked. This includes a sophisticated ring of hackers: Hacking Team, hailing from Italy, specializing in selling hacking software to major governments.
An article on wired.com describes how a “400 gigabyte trove” went ... Views: 821
Let’s look at the top 10 scams (random order).
Charity
A fraudster claims to represent a charitable organization.
Such scams can operate ring-style, such as one out in Colorado some years ago in which women wearing crisp white dresses that resembled the dresses nurses used to wear, ... Views: 1011
Did you know that the original meaning of hacker, as far as computers, was that of a person who built codes into computers? In fact, the bad guy was called a “cracker.” Somehow, “cracker” didn’t catch on. But the mainstream folk out there hears “hacker,” ... Views: 817
It’s been said that nobody can make you feel bad about yourself without your permission. Well bah! Some people don’t wait for your permission to denigrate you. They are toxic. Lifehacker.com offers some ways to deal with such people.
Love Yourself
If someone’s words have ... Views: 726
It’s tough being responsible sometimes. And managing responsibilities for what is precious in your life usually takes a little extra thought. Let’s say you’ve just welcomed a beautiful set of triplets into the world. Lucky you . . . and lots to managed! But, you ... Views: 755
So, when you think about summer travel safety, what comes to mind? Which beach you’ll be lounging on? Sunburns? Shark attacks? While sunburns and vacation plans are rational concerns most have when traveling during the summer, shark attacks are a new one.
With all of the news of recent ... Views: 899
What a disgrace: A private investigator, Eric Saldarriaga, 41, got nailed for hacking into peoples’ e-mails. He may get six months in the can. Is six months reasonable for this, though?
A recent online New York Times article quotes a prosecutor who points out that hackers could be ... Views: 814
Remember the good ‘ol days when you thought of a finger pushing a button that launched a Russian missile that then sped at seven miles per second towards the U.S. to blow it up?
Little did we know back then what would one day be a way for the Superpowers to war on each other: cyber ... Views: 881
There are enough tips on how to protect your home to make a professional burglar dizzy. In no particular order, check them out:
Get a peephole.
If you don’t have a large dog, make it look like you do, but don’t be obvious. A worn, large leash draped over an outdoor chair would ... Views: 910
Did you know that sometimes, the apps you use for your smartphone have access to your personal information and are capable of sharing it? Are you aware that your privacy can be invaded across the network board? That includes Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+ and more.
And how ... Views: 756
Those were the days when all parents had to worry about was the creepy guy lurking near the playground. Now parents have to worry about creeps all over the world reaching their kids via computer. And there’s more to worry about. Here’s what to teach your kids:
Screen names ... Views: 829
Foreign hackers, look out: Uncle Sam is out to get you. President Obama has issued an order that allows the State Department and Treasury Departments to immobilize the financial assets of anyone out-of country suspected of committing or otherwise being involved in cyber crimes against the ... Views: 760
Let’s cut to the chase (never mind how you misplaced your phone): There are several ways to sign out of your Google accounts remotely. It takes three steps, and you’ll need the desktop version of Google.
On a mobile use a browser opposed to the Gmail/Google app and sign in at ... Views: 1007
To help keep your home and property safe from crime, the New Castle County Police Department provides the following guidelines:
Sounds like a no-brainer, but so many people do otherwise: Keep your doors locked at all times. People will actually go to sleep with the front door ... Views: 807
Think about your keychain. It probably holds the necessities: car keys, home keys, work keys, miscellaneous keychains you bought on your previous vacations. Now, imagine you have a keychain full of these keys that all look the same, but each only opens a specific door.
Sounds kind of like ... Views: 822
You’ve been “Googled.” No matter how small a speck you think you are in this universe, you have without a doubt created an online footprint that is attached to your name. Chances are high that someone out there has followed this footprint of yours via a Google ... Views: 816
So someone comes up to you in a restaurant—a complete stranger—and asks to look at your driver’s license. What do you do? Show it to that person? You’d have to be one loony tune to do that.
However, this same blindness to security occurs all the time when a person is ... Views: 876
Recently I got a puppy for my child. We decided to name the puppy 4wgu23x5#9. My wife,8yysH3m, thought we should name the dog 0x2%#b5. But I’m sure she’ll get over it. Meanwhile, I’m helping my older child with setting up a few social media accounts, and I suggested the two ... Views: 928
At least one woman is happy that her driver drove like a drunk. That’s because his erratic driving caught the attention of troopers who pulled him over. They then heard a woman calling for help—from the backseat. She was bound and gagged with a bag over her head.
The 41-year-old ... Views: 800
When someone online presents as a different person than their true self, this is called catphishing, and it occurs on online dating sites.
Google the name of the object of your interest. Obviously, “Kelly Smith” and “John Miller” won’t get you far, but ... Views: 929
Talk about getting taken to the cleaners: Imagine you spot a great summer rental property advertised online. Looks wonderful. The deal sounds too good to be true, but the owner tells you (via e-mail or even phone) that the fee is correct. You apply for the rent and send in the required upfront ... Views: 802
According to a recent report from Pew Research, many Americans take privacy seriously—as in the cyber kind, but also offline.
9% of survey respondents thought they had strong control over how much of their personal information was collected and shared.
38% thought they had moderate ... Views: 939
Do you know what ATM stands for? For crooks, it stands for A Thief’s Moneymaker.
A new report from FICO says that “skimming” crimes have made their biggest spike in the past 20 years. This includes ATMs on bank premises, but of course, public ATM kiosks have seen the biggest ... Views: 808
Cyber crooks have phony websites that masquerade as the legitimate site you want to log onto. They’ve spun their web and are just waiting for you to fly into it. Google now has Password Alert, which will tell you if you’ve landed into such a non-Google web.
For the Chrome browser, ... Views: 846
Of all the weird things that can happen to your iOS device, the latest is a relatively benign situation in which a string of text is sent to the phone…and it causes the phone to crash.
The phone will reboot if the particular nonsensical text string is received while the phone is locked.
Data ... Views: 789
“Wes” is a professional man who, if you saw walking on the street, you‘d easily imagine being jumped by a few teen punks and getting beaten up for his wallet. Wes is nearing retirement age, has a potbelly, doesn‘t work out, has grey hair—hardly an imposing figure.
But ... Views: 781
Gone are the days of the fat wallet bursting at the seems, since smartphones can now contain most anything that a wallet does—except the driver‘s license. But don‘t write that possibility off just yet.
Forbes.com reports on a story from the Des Moines Register that the Iowa ... Views: 808
You worry about being hacked, but what about being tracked? Yes, there are hackers and then there are trackers.
Internet tracking namely refers to the user‘s browsing habits being followed. But there are ways to make the trackers harder to tag behind you.
Duhh, a fake name. What an ... Views: 1043
If you think there’s like a million apps out there, that’s not exactly an exaggeration. For sure, there are more than you can imagine, which makes it easy to conceive that many certainly come with security problems.
In fact, out of the top 25 most popular apps, 18 of them bombed on a security ... Views: 891
The proliferation of mobile devices means that we can work or play online from almost anywhere, so it’s no surprise that public Wi-Fi networks have become more common. From hotels and coffee shops, to universities and city centers, Wi-Fi is widely available, but is connecting to these networks ... Views: 960
Ever wonder just what happens to the data in a data breach incident? Does it go into some kind of wormhole in cyberspace, out through the other end? Well, the answer is pretty much so, when you consider that hacked data makes its rounds on a global scale, taking only 14 days to land in 22 ... Views: 713
One of mankind’s greatest inventions (besides the wheel) is the Internet.
Unfortunately, with this marvelous invention comes the drawback of privacy—or shall we say, lack of.
The Internet is a wonderful tool, but users must fight to remain as anonymous as possible, because ... Views: 821
Scamerama is here to stay! Scams are as old as time, and evolve as inventions and technology evolve. Top scams, according to a report on FraudAvengers.com, are as follows:
Scammer “accidentally” overpays you for an item you sold online; you cash the crook’s phony check and ... Views: 764
In this day and age, we should never hear someone proclaim, “Oh my God, my computer crashed! I lost everything!” You can’t lose something that’s been properly backed up.
So many people, including ones with businesses that rely upon cyber communication, continue to ... Views: 812
Perhaps someone has told you that you need to “clear your cache,” but what does this mean and why should you do it? A cache is a folder of recently visited webpages, which is stored on your computer’s hard drive, and maintained by your Internet browser.
The purpose of a ... Views: 852
According to a new Intel Security study, more than 2,000 American parents and kids ages 8-16 were surveyed to unveil some interesting things.
79% of the juvenile respondents learned online safety from their parents.
35% of them said they’ve been a cyberbully.
27% of them said they ... Views: 995
With all the increased news coverage of kids running off with adults they met online, and kids dying by suicide supposedly due to online bullying, many parents are wondering if their worries about their kids being online are justified.
We hardly hear about how social media has benefited kids. ... Views: 716
At any given time, someone, somewhere, is probably googling you. This could be a former classmate, a neighbor, someone you’re trying to do business with, a relative, who knows?
Are you confident that whatever they find will be information that’s truly representative of you? Maybe ... Views: 918
What would you rather have happen to you? A Russian ring of hackers has infiltrated your computer and smartphone and is hell-bent on taking control of your finances, social media life, even the smart gadgets in your house…OR…you’ve just been diagnosed with paranoid psychosis, ... Views: 809
You’d think that it would be as easy as pie to avoid getting reeled in by a phishing scam. After all, all you need to do is avoid clicking on a link inside an email or text message. How easy is that?
A phishing scam is a message sent by a cybercriminal to get you to click ... Views: 870
Yes, identity fraud is SO common that someone becomes a victim every two seconds. The 2014 Identity Fraud Study, as reported on javelinstrategy.com, turned up some alarming results.
Though the dollar amount stolen had decreased over the year preceding the study, the number of victims had ... Views: 778