Wednesday, 22nd February 2012.

Posted on Friday, 2nd October 2009 by Admin

In recent months, with the continued growth in highly public data breach incidents, we began looking at how organizations assess their level of exposure to data breach risk. I suspect if you ask the CEO of most public companies or public sector organizations about their level of risk, that they would tell you that they are “highly secure” and maintain excellent practices to prevent the misappropriation of personal information of their customers, patients, employees, students and other affiliates.

For many firms, they have to meet security and compliance requirements that are necessities in their industry, such as PCI for those that handle credit card information and HIPAA for healthcare organizations. Historically I think that they felt such rigorous compliance requirements could ensure their safety from the risks of data breach.

However, the recent past demonstrates that no organization is really immune to a potential data breach incident. The

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Tags: Breach Risk, Data Breach, Data Breach Risk, Risk
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Posted on Friday, 2nd October 2009 by Admin

As more and more Americans become reliant on credit cards in their daily life, identity theft is growing. Identity theft is when someone uses your personal information without permission. They can obtain credit or use your existing credit to put you in a serious financial crisis. Prepaid credit cards may be an option for someone who wants to avoid identity theft.

Prepaid cards are a credit card that you add a certain amount of money to. These cards do not have a set limit, but rather your spending is based on how much money you put on the card. The idea is that you can use the card anywhere credit cards are excepted, but without the worries of debt. You do not get charged interest charges and can not exceed your spending limit. These cards are not tied to a bank account and you do not get monthly bills. Read more…

Tags: Credit Cards, Identity Theft, Theft
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Posted on Wednesday, 30th September 2009 by Admin

Check out the news article: “New identity theft scam is targeting jurors” by Bob Audette of the Reformer news site. The paragraph that caught my eye is:

“Police said an individual called the man, saying the call was being made on behalf of Judge John P. Wesley in Brattleboro District Court. The individual stated that the man had recently missed his court-ordered jury duty, and therefore the court had issued a warrant for his arrest with fines attached. The caller asked the man to verify his address, telephone number and Social Security number. “

The article goes on to say that the gentleman was careful and not compromised, but how many were compromised? Who was calling these people requesting this information? The police have not caught this perpetrator and according to identity theft statistics they won’t catch them. So if the Read more…

Tags: Identity
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Posted on Tuesday, 29th September 2009 by Admin

The year 2010 is just around the corner and will soon be knocking on our doors. Also in 2010, some U.S. residents can expect U.S. Census workers to be knocking on their doors as well. What are your rights and what are some common identity thefts scams that you may encounter as the census takes place?

The U.S. census, held every ten years, is an attempt to attain to a nationwide headcount of every person that resides in the United States. Why is the U.S. Census important? The information collected from the U.S. census is used not only by the federal government policy makers but also by educators and community leaders to make imports decisions including the distribution of resources and in some cases redistricting. The last two U.S. Censuses missed counting millions of residents, particularly minorities and low-income household.

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Tags: Census, Census Rights
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Posted on Tuesday, 29th September 2009 by Admin

Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert

CNET reports Researchers at security firm Finjan have discovered a new type of banking Trojan horse that doesn’t just steal your bank log in credentials but actually steals money from your account while you are logged in and displays a fake balance.

The virus known as URLZone is controlled by servers in the Ukraine and steals money from the users account based on how much is actually in the account live in realtime when you are logged in. URLZone targets Firefox, Opera and the last three versions of Internet Explorer.

Currently the exploit is only affecting computers in Germany; however this is probably the most sophisticated worm of its kind to date. And it’s only a matter of time until it spreads further.

White hat hackers are struggling to stay one step ahead of the criminals. There are more ways to compromise data today than ever before. Viru

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Tags: Banking, Identity Theft
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Posted on Monday, 28th September 2009 by Admin

You can get a better mortgage interest rate. You simply have to improve your credit score.

The majority of consumers have never seen their credit report. Most don’t even know what it contains. They have a vague idea of the status of their credit — good versus bad — but are totally unaware of what their lenders are looking at.

It is increasingly important that you review your credit report from each of the three major credit reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) at least once a year. This is free. All you have to do is go to www.annualcreditreport.com for more information on obtaining your free credit report.

Most people will have inaccurate information reported on their reports at least once in their lifetime. A few will have it happen several times. Many Read more…

Tags: Interest Rate, Mortgage Interest, Mortgage Interest Rate, Rate
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