For those of us who work outside of the home during normal times, we know when we are home on the weekends not to answer our home telephone unless we recognize the number or caller. The same is, of course, true for our mobile phones. If the caller is someone we know, they will leave … Continue Reading
It is an old trick, and one that scammers are once again using following massive lay-offs after the coronavirus outbreak and mandates to shelter from home. The trick is to impersonate an employer recruiting for jobs, or touting the ability to make lots of money while working from home. As the old adage says, “If … Continue Reading
Our firm is a proud member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), as are those of many of my colleagues in the industry. I attend the IAPP Global Privacy Summit every year, and have done so since (I think) 2004. Yikes. Back in the early days, hundreds of individuals attended the conference in … Continue Reading
The coronavirus—or COVID-19—has health care experts scrambling, and has caused global concern for health and well-being due to its rapid spread throughout many countries, including the United States. A scare like this is the perfect opportunity for scammers and fraudsters to prey on well-intentioned people. Unfortunately, during this global health care concern, criminals are using … Continue Reading
Criminal minds are creative, and new ransomware strains show just how creative cyber-attackers can be. A new strain of ransomware, dubbed Ransomwared, requests a different kind of payment from the victim than the typical bitcoin request. Instead of paying for the decryption of data, or to prevent cyber-attackers from releasing private photos they have obtained … Continue Reading
A new study by Check Point Research shows that cyber criminals are using well-known brands to lure victims into clicking on nefarious links, providing personal information or credentials, or getting users to transfer money. This is an old malware trick that we used to see and now recognize. Scammers send a phishing email after copying … Continue Reading
Tax identity theft continues to be a significant problem for taxpayers. Tax identity theft occurs when criminals use the personal information of individuals and file fraudulent tax returns before the taxpayer does, requesting a refund. When the real taxpayer files his or her tax return, the IRS kicks it back, explaining that it has already … Continue Reading
I am on vacation this week in beautiful Jackson Hole. The skiing is epic, the restaurants amazing, 1921 silver dollars inlaid in the tops of two bars, elk and moose abound, and I’ve had a sighting of several coyotes, a badger, and owls. Sounds idyllic. It is for the most part, except for ransomware attacks. … Continue Reading
The same week that the National Institute of Standards and Technology came out with its Privacy Framework [view related post], highlighting how privacy is basically a conundrum, news articles also highlighted a new technology, Clearview AI, that allows someone to snap a picture of anyone walking down the street and instantly find out that person’s … Continue Reading
I don’t know much about dating apps. I met my husband decades ago, long before the Internet, and the old-fashioned way—in college. But I know people who have used them, have been happy with them, have found their life partner through them, have funny stories about using them and the people they met through them. … Continue Reading
Pretty much the only time I don’t feel like I am Chicken Little predicting a massive cyber-attack is when I am with my colleagues at the FBI, Secret Service, NSA and my students in the Brown Executive Masters of Cybersecurity who are members of the military. They don’t respond to my thoughts and fears of … Continue Reading
Three million fraud cases were reported to the FTC in 2018, and 444,602 of them involved identity theft. These reported cases (just think of how high the statistic would be if all cases were reported) amounts to the third most common type of fraud reported to the FTC. According to The Motley Fool, of those … Continue Reading
Holiday shopping is in full gear and everything seems to be an Internet of Things (IoT) device. It continues to amaze me how folks will buy IoT gadgets and plop them in their homes and have no idea that they include a speaker or camera, recording every move and word, or that they pose a … Continue Reading
For those of you who have downloaded the face editing app FaceApp, please note that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has classified FaceApp as a counterintelligence threat because of its Russian origins. According to the FBI, “[T]he FBI considers any mobile application or similar product developed in Russia, such as FaceApp, to be a … Continue Reading
If, like me, you travel a lot, listen up—the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office has issued an advisory as part of its fraud education campaign warning travelers not to use free USB charging stations offered in airports, hotels and other public places. According to the warning, “juice jacking” occurs when hackers have loaded malware into … Continue Reading
Biometric information is unique to each of us, including our fingerprints, voice, face, iris, and DNA. We can’t replace our biometric data like we can a credit card. If it is compromised, it is compromised forever. It is uber sensitive. Yet, many people give it away without a second thought. Luckily, there are privacy advocates … Continue Reading
Reporter Kashmir Hill from The New York Times (NYT) published an informative piece this week about our secret consumer scores. We all know that retail companies monitor our clicks on their websites, sell our data not protected by law, and aggregate, slice and dice the data so they can target us with ads. But we … Continue Reading
The Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Inspector General (VA OIG) recently completed an audit of the VA’s Milwaukee Regional Office after it was tipped off by a whistleblower about the exposure of sensitive information on shared drives by employees who did not have authorization to view the information. According to the audit, sensitive information … Continue Reading
As most of you know, I rarely download an app. However, here’s one I just downloaded and here’s why. The Jumbo Privacy app, available in the App Store, is all about providing consumers with a way to audit their privacy and learn whether and how their information might have been compromised. A cool thing about … Continue Reading
Everyone should be aware that October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. TechNewsWorld is urging all users to “Own IT,” which “means staying safe on social media, updating privacy settings, and keeping tabs on apps. Simply put, users need to take better ownership of their data and their online presence as part of daily safe cyber … Continue Reading
WhatsApp has announced that it has patched a vulnerability that would have allowed hackers to access with malware the chat history of users. Android 8.1 and 9 could have been susceptible to the attack. However, WhatsApp is urging all users to update their app. Although WhatsApp says it has patched the vulnerability and does not … Continue Reading
Everyone knows how I feel about those home genetic testing kits—most people don’t understand that when they send their DNA to a private company that it is not protected by HIPAA or any other law, and the company can legally use and disclose it, including selling it to other companies. Understand what companies are doing … Continue Reading
While on a plane this week, I read a great Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article called “How to Keep Your Mobile Banking Safe.” Although I question whether anyone can keep their online bank account completely safe, it was a good article and had some great tips that I want to pass along to those of … Continue Reading
I am not a big fan of putting all of one’s passwords in one place, but many people use password managers. If you use Last Pass (see previous blog posts about Last Pass here and here), be aware that it was recently advised by a Google Project Zero researcher that there was a vulnerability that made … Continue Reading
