Sometimes it’s hard to see the progress being made in the fight against identity theft, especially when you’re on the front lines. That’s why I was encouraged by data from the 2010 Javelin Strategy & Research Identity Fraud Survey Report showing that more than half of identity theft victims surveyed filed police reports, resulting in a significant increase in arrests and convictions.
ITAC co-sponsored the report because we believe the fight against identity theft has to be guided by facts, not anecdotes. My instinct – my hope – was that new state laws requiring local law enforcement to take reports of identity crime from consumers, plus the efforts of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, were paying off. Still, it’s gratifying to see the hard numbers showing a nearly 50% increase in reporting. Continue reading this post »
If you are like us here at IDGuardian, you may be working on building yourself a Social Media presence. It could be for community outreach, a ways and means of increasing your business, or simply for fun. With any new technology, though, comes understanding; and sadly Social Media is becoming the proverbial “blinking 12:00 a.m.” of the Internet. People are jumping into networks blindly without a thought (or a care) as to exactly what they are doing. It is as if the buzz words “total transparency” have somehow completely robbed users of common sense, sending unhindered community participants headlong into what they believe is a Utopia of goodwill.
That was before a website shined a halogen lamp on things in an attempt to make people stop and think. Continue reading this post »
Welcome to the IDGuardian Podcast. These audio and video columns can be listened and or viewed to in a variety of ways:
- Through the blog via the media player found in this blogpost
- Through a manual download by clicking on the “Download” link
- By subscribing through iTunes
This episode features Neal O’Farrell, a nationally recognized expert on cybercrime and identity theft. Neal is a board member of the Center for Information Security Awareness and the first to train an entire police department in identity theft awareness. That program has since been used by more than 200 police departments and academies, as well as the FBI, the DMV, and U.S. Attorney’s Office.
This podcast is copyrighted 2010, IDGuardian.com, All rights reserved.
Any use of the Content not expressly permitted by IDGuardian’s Terms of Use may violate U.S. or international copyright, trademark, and/or other laws. For questions or feedback please contact us at questions@IDGuardian.com.
Thank you for listening,
and stay safe.
Banking and financial services providers may continue to feel the biggest pinch in the wallet based on the continued proliferation of the worldwide electronic identity theft epidemic, but the people who are most commonly seeing their personas and credit histories hijacked are at the other end of the spectrum.
When Javelin Strategy & Research releases its Identity Fraud Survey Report each year, we’ve come to expect that the study, now in its seventh year, will find that the theft of individuals’ personal information has once again risen substantially. Continue reading this post »
Reflections from a Black Hat Hackers’ Conference (Part Two)
Posted by: Michael Stanfield on February 22, 2010
The following special blog post is the conclusion of a note from Intersections VP, of Information Security, Tim Rohrbaugh.
The second day of briefings was honestly a blur. I couldn’t help but focus on the ancillary details that each presenter offered. Each presenter – I managed to attend only one out of three tracks – did have main goals that were clear and relevant, but all I heard were hidden details sprinkled throughout their talks that my shiny new perspective forced me to see. What were these details? Well, before I turn my keyboard to those let’s recap; US sourced Internet crime is for a large part orchestrated by Russian organized crime personalities. Those amazing facts that Joseph Menn discussed in his talk (and book) at the end of day one sat in my stomach all night. Which upon wakening for day two, I recalled a momentary thought at the beginning of the event where it felt natural to stick my head in the sand like the proverbial ostrich. That natural instinct to focus on the details versus the big negative picture was broken the second I asked one of my peers what “pay-per-install” meant. This term was part of a presentation title I was thumbing through – my two decades of military, government and commercial jargon did little to aid in deciphering the subject of this technical talk. Unfortunately, the meaning of the term would signify that yesterday’s realization, brought on by Menn’s book talk, was truly just the start of the fear that we are losing the war on Internet safety in a big way. Continue reading this post »
The IDGuardian Podcast: Episode #007 — Concerns with Small Businesses
Posted by: Neal OFarrell on February 17, 2010
Welcome to the IDGuardian Podcast. These audio and video columns can be listened and or viewed to in a variety of ways:
- Through the blog via the media player found in this blogpost
- Through a manual download by clicking on the “Download” link
- By subscribing through iTunes
This episode features Neal O’Farrell, a nationally recognized expert on cybercrime and identity theft. Neal is a board member of the Center for Information Security Awareness and the first to train an entire police department in identity theft awareness. That program has since been used by more than 200 police departments and academies, as well as the FBI, the DMV, and U.S. Attorney’s Office. Also watch for featured selections from the 2010 Javelin Report on Identity Theft in this video. More information on that study can be found at http://www.idsafety.net.
This podcast is copyrighted 2010, IDGuardian.com, All rights reserved.
Any use of the Content not expressly permitted by IDGuardian’s Terms of Use may violate U.S. or international copyright, trademark, and/or other laws. For questions or feedback please contact us at questions@IDGuardian.com.
Thank you for listening,
and stay safe.
Reflections from a Black Hat Hackers’ Conference (Part One)
Posted by: Michael Stanfield on February 15, 2010
The following special blog post is the reproduction of a note from Intersections VP, of Information Security, Tim Rohrbaugh.
OK, so I have been attending the so-called “hacker convention,” Black Hat, off and on since 1998. I usually look forward to the event as one does to the first day of the new year – as a chance to change perspective. Lately, if I attend, I hear from skilled technologists who have a great deal of time on their hands, and focus their effort on specific weaknesses they see or their peer group has suggested might be of interest. These revelations of weakness the presenter discusses tend to be part insight and part forecast. Insight, with respect to areas that have been taken advantage of over the last six month and forecast, what will become mainstream for the next six months. I can usually count on at least one “ah ha” moment at the event. I most likely find this golden nugget of information in specific types of talks and so I stick to those tracks or briefings. This year, I stumbled into one session based on “not” what I thought the technical criminal minds would focus on over the next months, but instead the release of a book that chronicles two heroes’ experiences trying to make a difference with respect to the criminal underworld controlling large swaths of the Internet. The title of the briefing was “Hacking Russia: Inside An Unprecedented Prosecution of Organized Cybercrime,” given by the author Joseph Menn whose book – Fatal System Error. The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who Are Bringing Down the Internet – was recently released. As most of my friends, co-workers and family can attest, I can be annoyingly critical of everything I hear these days. While a slight exaggeration, it seems to me that “facts” my generation was inundated with during our formative years have turned out to be wrong. No, our brains do not stop creating new brain cells after adolescence… we have Neurogenesis as a fact today; No, we do not use one part of our brain for only one function –- we have Neuroplasticity to thank for this; No, just because our parents used IT… does not mean that there is nothing to worry about from a health perspective… Continue reading this post »
Identity theft is not merely something that happens on the Internet. You can lose your identity in real world cons, scams, and outright theft also, but we tend to think of it as an online crime because that’s what we see most often in the United States. An interesting fact is that the money stolen from banks in the USA online far exceeds the amount physically stolen. However, traveling outside the USA brings different risks into play. Many times your physical security is at greater risk when you are traveling, and your identity is at risk because stolen credit cards, drivers license, passport, can and do happen.
I travel quite a bit for business and pleasure and visit some pretty varied places so I try to keep up with crime news in the places I’m going. Some of this stuff may sound a little far fetched to you as you sit in your living room reading this, but when you are the only green eyed, blond haired American (I’m not profiling. The reality is we are targets because any American’s pocket change is worth stealing if you’re a local who has nothing) in an entire region then it is prudent to protect your body and your identity.
Here are tips I’ve picked up over the years for you to stay safe. Continue reading this post »
Yesterday started with a stir across the popular social network, Twitter, as Mashable.com (with the help of blogger Andrew Girdwood) put its users on high alert:
Numerous Twitter users are pointing out that Twitter forced them to change their passwords out of the blue. According to blogger Andrew Girdwood, these users have received an e-mail containing the following message: “Due to concern that your account may have been compromised in a phishing attack that took place off-Twitter, your password was reset,” together with a link for resetting the password.
Although the e-mail itself looks like a phishing attack, it’s genuine; it seems that admins at Twitter have discovered something fishy is going on, and they’re trying to prevent further damage before it happens.
This development had not only become a trending topic on Twitter, but started to grab media attention, including the Washington Post. While this situation shouldn’t be taken lightly, we at IDGuardian do not recommend that you start changing any passwords on accounts. According to our research, Twitter users are finding out via an “official email” from Twitter.com or from other Twitter users. Meanwhile, on Twitter’s Status and News blogs, there is no mention of this phishing scam whatsoever.
This gives us a moment’s pause, and it should do the same for you, too. Continue reading this post »
The Tax Man Cometh (and identity thieves are not far behind)
Posted by: Neal OFarrell on January 26, 2010
Is it just me or does it feel like tax time was not that long ago? The taxing season is upon us again and one group of citizens is just giddy with excitement. No, not tax preparers. For identity thieves, tax time is one of the best and busiest times of the year as they prey on unsuspecting taxpayers caught in a whirlwind of returns, refunds and rebates.
So why is tax time so good for identity thieves? Three simple reasons:
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