Zero Fraud Liability

Posted on Friday, 10th February 2012 by Archie Norton

Bank of America customers were sent letters and issued new debit and credit cards after a third-party breach possibly compromised their personal information.

The letters sent by Bank of America inform customers of a possible breach that may have exposed their account information. The bank’s spokeswoman did not reveal how many accountholders were affected, but she stated the institution is taking necessary steps to address known security gaps.

“As part of our routine fraud monitoring, if we believe a customer’s card may have been compromised at a third-party location, we will notify the customer and block and reissue the card, which is what happened in this case,” says Bank of America spokeswoman Betty Riess. “Security for our customers is a top priority, and we take proactive steps like this to protect our customers from fraud.”

“We take these proactive steps to protect our customers and minimize any occurrence of fraud,” Riess says. “It doesn’t nec

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Tags: Breach, Cards Breach
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Posted on Monday, 6th February 2012 by Archie Norton

Being a victim of identity theft is no fun. If you dont have identity protection in place already then you’re probably frustrated and at a loss of what to do – especially if you just found out about the crime. Feeling a sense of unease or even despair is not uncommon. Someone completely took advantage of your personal information – and perhaps of your trusting nature.

If your identity theft involved finances, as many identity thefts do, then dont waste any time in working to recover your funds, and sign up for an identity theft protection service before the opportunity arises for this to happen again. LifeLock Ultimate will even monitor your savings and checking accounts. After this, place a fraud alert on your credit file at the three credit bureaus then make a list of all the companies related to the theft that will have to be notified: the bank, the credit card company, the mortgage company, the retail store, etc. And t

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Tags: Identity Theft, Theft
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Posted on Wednesday, 18th January 2012 by Archie Norton

Q: I’m afraid that if I were to loose my hard drive completely, I wouldn’t be able to find and load all the programs I use. I’d like to know what service to purchase so that my backup includes a “mirror image” of my hard drive?

A: Online Backup services work hard to save all of your important files, making sure that you will never lose them permanently. In the event of a data loss catastrophe such as a computer crash, these services will help you restore all of your files with ease.

Though all of the online backup services we review keep your files safe and can restore everything back to normal, we  recommend the Carbonite HomePlus plan and HomePremier plan if you specifically want a “mirror image” taken of your hard drive. This feature creates a mirror image of your PC every 24 hours, which includes your operating system, settings, programs, files, and folders as of a specific date.  Th

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Tags: Drive, Hard Drive
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Posted on Tuesday, 17th January 2012 by Archie Norton

By the AllClearID Team

Jamie here, Chief Investigator at AllClear ID. Recently, I had the opportunity to speak at the Jump$tart National Educator Conference in Washington, DC. Jump$tart is a national organization “dedicated to improving the financial literacy of pre-kindergarten through college-age youth by providing advocacy, research, standards, and educational resources.”

In the presentation I discussed our research on Child Identity Theft alongside the FTC who issued some tips on limiting the risks of Identity Theft. These pointers revolved around sharing information with an entity you likely regard as safe: your child’s school. Here’s an overview of the FTC’s tips:

• Contact the school: Find out who has access to your child’s personal information, and ensure that the records are stored safely.
• Think twice before filling out forms with personal information: Before you fill forms out consider how the information will be used, whether or not it will be shared, and who will have access. Then decide

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Posted on Monday, 9th January 2012 by Archie Norton

When it comes to data breaches, how does 2011 compare with previous years? A new report from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC) notes 535 breaches during 2011, involving 30.4 million sensitive records. But thats just a conservative estimate, since not all data breaches see the light of day. Because many states do not require companies to report data breaches to a central clearinghouse, data breaches occur that we never hear about, said PRC director Beth Givens in the report.

Even so, 2011 saw some of the biggest or most significant breaches in history, PRC says:

1. Sony. Sony suffered over a dozen data breaches, stemming from attacks that compromised Sony PlayStation Network, Sony Online Entertainment, and Sony Pictures, among other Sony-owned websites.

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Tags: 2011, Data Breaches
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Posted on Thursday, 29th December 2011 by Archie Norton

Information from ScamBusters:

1. Phishing and Identity Theft. As we said earlier, our biggest concern is the amount of information hackers have shown themselves capable of stealing by breaking into the networks of firms that hold our personal records. We think this will continue to grow, along with persistent attempts to capture our confidential information through phishing tricks via spoof sites, emails and cell phone text messages.
2. Malware. Law enforcement agencies and software companies have been moderately successful in shutting down botnets, used for spamming, and fake anti-virus alerts that trick victims into paying to supposedly secure their PCs. But the scale of the malware industry is phenomenal.

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Tags: Scam, Top 10
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