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Identity Theft Articles
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- How to Digitally Secure The Remote Teleworker - by Submitted on Mar 23, 2017 from Robert SicilianoIf you employ remote workers, your IT staff has a unique challenge keeping your organization safe. Fortunately, using a combination of best practices for cybersecurity, user awareness campaigns, and a strong policy will help to keep data safe. New advances in mobile technology and networking ...
Views: 791 - How to erase Yourself from your Job - by Submitted on Dec 20, 2016 from Robert SicilianoYou shouldn’t leave any digital trace of yourself after you leave a job. Hopefully, you’ll be leaving voluntarily and thus have the time to first make backups before you delete anything. This may seem easy, but you need to take inventory to make sure you get EVERYTHING. Note: make ...
Views: 812 - How to figure out Crime Statistics in a Town - by Submitted on Feb 19, 2016 from Robert SicilianoIf you want to get an idea of how safe or crime-ridden a town may be, do some casual observing including at night: Are women walking or jogging alone at night? Are people hanging out in the evening having a good time? Are children mysteriously absent on a sunny weekend afternoon? Are ...
Views: 817 - How to freeze your Child's Credit - by Submitted on Mar 08, 2016 from Robert SicilianoIdentity thieves are after children’s Social Security numbers. With this number, a thief can do so many things like open a credit card account and rent an apartment. Kids’ SSNs have great appeal to crooks because: A child’s record is usually very clean. This means fertile ...
Views: 886 - How to hide your Cash at Home - by Submitted on May 19, 2015 from Robert SicilianoIt’s good to have a stash of cash for emergencies. If the grid goes down and the power goes out, an ATM or bank does you no good. But there are security issues too. Where do you put it? A safe is certainly a smart idea. You can get creative too. What burglar would not think to look ...
Views: 935 - How to identify Tax Scams - by Submitted on Apr 14, 2015 from Robert SicilianoThe IRS isn’t your biggest enemy during tax season. It’s the criminals who pretend to be IRS reps and then con people out of their money. They contact potential victims chiefly through phone calls and text messages. Typically, the message is threatening in tone and/or content, ...
Views: 906 - How to keep a Clean Online Presence - by Submitted on Jun 11, 2015 from Robert SicilianoAt 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: 1052 - How To Keep Your Home Safe Over the Festive Period - by Submitted on Dec 31, 2021 from John DohertyWhile the holidays are a fun and festive time for most of us, for some with criminal intentions, it’s a time of endless opportunities for theft, intrusion and generally making innocent people’s lives a misery. Keeping your home safe over the festive period is doubtless your priority, and ...
Views: 599 - How to kick People off your Wi-Fi - by Submitted on Dec 08, 2015 from Robert SicilianoIf someone is “borrowing” your Wi-Fi service, there’s more to this than just the nerve of someone secretly mooching off of you. Their use of your service could interfere with bandwidth and mess up your connection. If they’re a bad guy hacker or even a skeevy child porn ...
Views: 1018 - How to Know Your Health Records are Safe - by Submitted on Jul 31, 2020 from Katie GordenAre you the owner of medical practice? One of your biggest sources of concern is sure to be the security of your health records. This is a vast mine of data that hackers, phishers, and cybercriminals of all types would love to get their hands on. It's more crucial than ever to keep these records ...
Views: 935 - How to Make $5 Million a Day in Cybercrime - by Submitted on Feb 08, 2017 from Robert SicilianoThis post isn’t exactly a “how to” but if your current employment isn’t bringing in the bacon, I’m sure your criminal mind can figure it out. In the biggest digital advertising fraud in the history of the U.S., it was recently found that a group of hackers is ...
Views: 795 - How to Monitor a Cell Phone - by Submitted on Feb 15, 2019 from Robert SicilianoDo you fancy yourself a spy and wondering how you can monitor someone else’s cell phone? You won’t get that information here, but there is some good info on cell phone monitoring if you keep reading: The Legalities of Tracking Cell Phones Generally, it is not legal to monitor a ...
Views: 721 - How to Phish Google and Facebook and Make Millions - by Submitted on Apr 05, 2019 from Robert SicilianoEvaldas Rimasauskas, a Lithuanian man, became very rich. How? He is a criminal who used his lying skills to get more than $100 million from companies such as Facebook and Google between 2013 and 2015. He’s now in jail, but during his trial, Rimasauskas admitted that he was guilty of ...
Views: 593 - How to plan for Digital Disasters - by Submitted on Jun 16, 2015 from Robert SicilianoIn 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: 919 - How to prepare for Digital Disasters - by Submitted on Sep 21, 2015 from Robert SicilianoEditor’s Note: In this week’s guest blog security expert Robert Siciliano explains how to protect your IT systems and your business from hardware failure. To learn more, download our new e-book, “5 Things Small Businesses Need to Know about Disaster Recovery.” It is ...
Views: 986 - How to prevent being tracked - by Submitted on Jun 25, 2015 from Robert SicilianoYou 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: 1164 - How to prevent IRS scams - by Submitted on Mar 09, 2016 from Robert SicilianoOnce a thief knows your Social Security number…you’re at very high risk for having your identity stolen. A report on bankrate.com says that the IRS is warning of a cyber attack on its electronic filing PIN application. Thieves infiltrated it with malware in an attempt to claim ...
Views: 851 - How to Prevent your Devices From Spying on You - by Submitted on Feb 27, 2020 from Robert SicilianoYou might not realize it, but your electronic devices may be tracking you. They know what you are doing, what you are reading, and the things you like to do. In almost every case, you give these devices permission to collect this info when you start using them. Here are some tips to help you ...
Views: 880 - How to prevent your Pics from being lifted: Part 1 of 2 - by Submitted on Oct 13, 2015 from Robert SicilianoYou need not be a celebrity or some big wig to suffer the devastating fallout of your online images (and videos) being stolen or used without your permission. So how does someone steal your image or use it without your permission? Hacking Hacking is one way, especially if passwords are ...
Views: 925 - How to prevent your Pics from being lifted: Part 2 of 2 - by Submitted on Oct 25, 2015 from Robert SicilianoThere are many reasons someone might right-click on your image and “Save image as…” Porn, Sex and Dating Sites A woman might steal your blog headshot and use it for her dating site profile. A perv might take the picture of your child off your Facebook page and put it on ...
Views: 890 - How to protect against Tax Identity Theft - by Submitted on Feb 16, 2016 from Robert SicilianoWhat are you doing to prevent tax identity theft? Do you even know what steps to take? You’d better, because this crime has tripled since 2010, says the FTC. A report on foxbusiness.com describes tax identity theft as the act of stealing someone’s personal information, ...
Views: 822 - How to Protect You Frequent Flier Miles NOW - by Submitted on Nov 29, 2018 from Robert SicilianoSocial Security numbers and credit card numbers are not the only types of data that hackers are after. Now, they are looking at frequent flyer accounts, and they are stealing reward miles, and then selling them online. How do Hackers Steal Frequent Flyer Miles? As with other types of ID ...
Views: 824 - How to Protect Your Business from Cyber Crime - by Submitted on Aug 08, 2017 from Susan FriesenIs your business secure? It may not be. Many unscrupulous individuals are operating online looking for new ways to exploit honest people. I was recently pulled into a scam enacted by someone yet to be identified via a freelance work website. Because of how personally this affected me and my ...
Views: 1346 - How to Protect Your Business From Fraud and Identity Theft - by Submitted on May 15, 2012 from Jodi FlorenceWhile the Internet has made it easier to grow a business, it has also introduced new security challenges for small and big businesses alike. As the techniques of fraudsters grow more sophisticated so must the solutions businesses use to detect and prevent fraud from occurring. The heart of ...
Views: 1835 - How To Protect Your Entire Company From Phishing, Malware, Spam and Spoofing - by Submitted on Sep 09, 2018 from Misty JhonesThe competition among the numerous companies that make up the notch of every business endeavor calls for a mechanism that will protect the interests of the company from predators that are out to steal valuable information from their rivals. There should be as a matter of fact the availability of ...
Views: 1023 - How to Protect Your identity When Buying or Selling a Home - by Submitted on May 24, 2019 from Robert SicilianoIf you are in the process of buying or selling a home, at some point, you are going to have to disclose personal information when you go through the process. Because of this, a home buyer, especially, is much more likely to become a victim of identity theft. Here are some ways to protect your ...
Views: 651 - How to protect your Mobile Phone from Hackers and Thieves - by Submitted on Sep 01, 2016 from Robert SicilianoLet’s cut to the chase: Regularly back up the phone’s data! If this is done every day, you won’t have to worry much about losing important information if something happens to the phone—such as a ransomware attack. Keep the phone’s software and applications ...
Views: 866 - How to protect your network from malicious insiders - by Submitted on Mar 07, 2016 from Robert SicilianoYou may be putting your company at risk simply by hiring a new employee. Why? Because that person could have a hidden, malicious agenda. This is known as an inside threat, and it means that someone within your organization is planning or conducting activities meant to harm the company. There ...
Views: 793 - How To Protect Your Retail Business from A Robbery - by Submitted on Dec 31, 2021 from John DohertyThroughout the US, a recent spate of smash-and-grab robberies have been affecting many retail businesses and other smaller commercial enterprises; depriving them of the sense of security they may once have had. The financial and emotional impact this has, and continues to have on small ...
Views: 591 - How To Protect Yourself Against Internet Phishing - by Submitted on Jul 16, 2020 from Misty JhonesWhen have you checked your email, how often have you received an alarming message from your bank or other company saying that your account is in danger of being closed? E-mails, text messages and payment requests, they may just contain bad links. These messages often seem reliable, but are ...
Views: 745 - How to pwn Anyone - by Submitted on Nov 28, 2015 from Robert SicilianoDefine Pwn: Pwn is a slang term derived from the verb own, as meaning to appropriate or to conquer to gain ownership. The term implies domination or humiliation of a rival. And when it’s done by hacking email, the person is effectively pwned. No matter how “private” you ...
Views: 943 - How to Recognize a Phishing Scam - by Submitted on Jul 16, 2015 from Robert SicilianoSo 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: 1000 - How to recognize and avoid affinity fraud amongst your friends - by Submitted on Nov 12, 2015 from Kevin RobertsonAffinity fraud is a common form of investment fraud. It almost always involves either a fake investment or one where the scammer lies about the critical details, such as the risk of losing money, past investment results, or information about the people running the scheme. Unfortunately, many ...
Views: 989 - How to recognize Online Risks - by Submitted on Apr 07, 2015 from Robert SicilianoWould you give up your bank account and credit card numbers to a stranger on the street after he approaches and asks for them? Of course not. But that’s essentially what people do when they’re tricked by online crooksters into revealing sensitive personal information, including their ...
Views: 938 - How to recycle Old Devices - by Submitted on Jan 21, 2016 from Robert SicilianoWhen it comes to tossing into the rubbish your old computer device, out of sight means out of mind, right? Well yeah, maybe to the user. But let’s tack something onto that well-known mantra: Out of site, out of mind, into criminal’s hands. Your discarded smartphone, laptop or ...
Views: 845 - How to Remove Fraudulent Lines of Credit - by Submitted on Jan 22, 2016 from Robert SicilianoYou just learned you have a new credit card account by checking your credit or because a bill collector called you. Problem is that you don’t remember ever applying for it. You must find out what’s behind this new account and how it got there. Call the corresponding phone number ...
Views: 946 - How to Rock the Room as a Professional Speaker - by Submitted on Jan 19, 2016 from Robert SicilianoFor those of you who want to knock your presentations out of the park and be the speaker everyone raves about, Victoria LaBalme is leading an unbelievably unique workshop titled Rock the Room LIVE. If you create and deliver keynotes, trainings, breakouts, podcasts, videos, webinars or ...
Views: 773 - How to safely travel in a Car - by Submitted on Apr 18, 2016 from Robert SicilianoBefore embarking on a road trip with a car full of kids, make sure everything about the vehicle is in top working condition, including the windshield wipers, A/C, heat, fluid levels, seatbelts and lights (exterior and interior). Hopefully you’ll have a GPS; make sure that works, too; ...
Views: 808 - How to save money by using a VPN: the things you have never heard about - by Submitted on Nov 18, 2019 from Dean ChesterHow to save money by using a VPN: the things you have never heard about "Big Brother is watching you" is not just a motto from the Orwell's book but an everyday reality. Nowadays even a teenager knows that our online activity is far from being private. What sites we visit, what people we talk ...
Views: 855 - How to secure your Apartment - by Submitted on Feb 27, 2016 from Robert SicilianoI love that show, “Forensic Files.” Every so often there’s the case of a person who was found murdered in their apartment due to some forced entry. Which brings me to the topic of apartment security. New Apartment Don’t delay in doing a walk-through of the entire ...
Views: 861 - How to Secure Your Home or Business On the Cheap - by Submitted on Feb 17, 2017 from Robert SicilianoIt doesn’t matter who you are or where you live, your home is at risk of being burglarized. According to numerous studies, in the US alone, a burglary occurs about once every 18 seconds, which equates to about 5,000 a day. Fortunately, you can secure your home or business against ...
Views: 817 - How to Set Up a Password Manager - by Submitted on Oct 24, 2015 from Robert SicilianoIf you have made the decision to use a password manager for your personal cybersecurity, which I highly recommend, you will quickly find that you online world is safer, easier and more secure than ever before. According to a recently concluded survey conducted by uSamp and sponsored by Siber ...
Views: 805 - How To Set Your Privacy On Facebook To Prevent Identity Theft - by Submitted on Oct 07, 2011 from Joy MaliFacebook privacy appears to be the latest demand for every user now, as almost all net savvy individuals are addicted to Facebook and its attractive features. Every day, millions of users sign onto the site to communicate easily and interact with friends and colleagues. As such, you really need ...
Views: 1300 - How to shop securely with a Mobile Phone - by Submitted on Jan 15, 2016 from Robert Siciliano“You can buy things with your phone!” No kidding! But imagine what the response would have been had you made this statement in 1984: “Off your meds, eh?” Purchasing via the smartphone may very well eclipse the popularity of shopping via laptop. And cyber thieves ...
Views: 943 - How to sign out of all Google Accounts - by Submitted on Jul 28, 2015 from Robert SicilianoLet’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: 1148 - How to Spot a Splog - by Submitted on Feb 08, 2015 from Robert SicilianoI really enjoy reading blogs. And since you are here, reading my blog post, I’m guessing you do too. Blogs are a great way of gaining information and learning about different perspectives on a wide variety of topics. Unfortunately, spammers have tainted this medium with splogs. The word ...
Views: 1064 - How to stop Browser Tracking - by Submitted on Aug 18, 2015 from Robert SicilianoMaybe 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: 1110 - How to stop Teenage Sexting - by Submitted on Dec 15, 2015 from Robert SicilianoSexting is the act of sending images of a sexual nature via cell phone, often naked pictures. Because texting technology is so readily available and easy to understand, parents should be quite leery of telling themselves, “Oh, MY kid would never do that!” Studies showy your kid ...
Views: 889 - How to unsend or cancel an E-mail - by Submitted on Dec 28, 2015 from Robert SicilianoIf the person you are sending an e-mail to pretty much instantaneously receives it, how on earth can you unsend or cancel it? Well, you have several options. Criptext This is a browser plug-in that works for Chrome and Safari. Your message including attachments will be encrypted. You ...
Views: 893 - How to use two-factor authentication for critical accounts - by Submitted on Oct 12, 2015 from Robert SicilianoHave a small business? Great. Have two-factor authentication for your accounts? If you’re not sure of the answer to that question, you could be in trouble. October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month, the perfect time to learn more about cyber security. As a small business owner, ...
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