How to buySAFE on the Internet

(Courtesy of buySAFE)The Center for American Progress and the Center for Democracy and Technology recently released a report concluding that not enough is being done to protect the public from fraud on the Internet. "If problems such as malware, phishing, and spam are left unchecked, many consumers may lose trust and abandon e-commerce," according...

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Cost Plus Customers Compromised in Data Security Incident

Cost Plus World Market is another retailer, where customers were unknowingly giving criminals access to their bank accounts when they made a purchase.On July 22nd, the company announced that after a thorough investigation they learned the Electronic Funds Transfer devices (PIN pads) might have been been compromised at eight Southern California stores by unauthorized third parties.Since then three additional stores have been identified as being compromised.The first hint of trouble was in June when two employees reported unauthorized transactions...

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Report Reveals That Internet Fraud Threatens E-Commerce

The Center for American Progress just released a report indicating that not enough is being done to protect the public from fraud on the Internet. It's also warning that the convenience, choices and lower prices enjoyed by Internet users are at risk because of this.They report reveals that high levels of fraud and abuse may cause more and more consumers to lose trust, a key-component of any successful business. Malicious software, phishing and spam were cited as primary causes for the high levels of fraud and abuse on the Internet. Studies indicate...

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Cyber Warfare, Not Just a Theory Anymore?

Last week, the news of a cyber attack by Russia against Georgia made this type of warfare become a chilling reality. According to an article in the LA Times, it also revealed how ill-prepared most of the world is to deal with this new threat.Most of the experts now agree that cyber attacks started well before lead started flying and were not very sophisticated by current standards. Most of the attacks were run of the mill DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) type events designed to deface and shut down government sites.One of the problems is that...

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Lottery Bandit Nabbed in California

While too good to be true lottery scams hit the news all the time, stories of crimes involving real lotteries happen less frequently.Apparently, a 37-year-old Ceres, California man was arrested by local and state detectives after stealing thousands of lottery tickets in a series of burglaries stretching throughout California's Central Valley. I suppose this takes the gambling addiction warnings on the California lottery site to a new level?The lottery addict in question, one Matthew Roberts, is a suspect in 30 burglaries from November to June that...

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FBI Educates Public on Mortgage Scams

A lot of people are in dire financial straights because they got sucked into what is now being called the mortgage crisis.Now that the problem is being examined carefully, a lot of fraud is being blamed as being a contributing factor to the entire mess. The problem is that the fraud aspect of the mortgage crisis is hardly over. Mortgage scams designed to take advantage of people in financial trouble are flooding the Internet and even the classified section of local newspapers. Mortgage fraudsters for the most part don't have a conscience and could...

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BlackHat Experts Predict the Hot Computer Security Topics for 2009

On the opening day of the BlackHat 2008 conference, Symantec did an anonymous survey of the attendees to discover exactly what they thought would be the hot security topics in the upcoming year.While no one can predict the future, I found some of this fairly interesting.The sample group consisted of IT managers, security researchers, and executives from several different industries,and of course, the government. The group surveyed could be considered International in nature, also. Experts from North America, Latin America and the Asia Pacific all...

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This Year, Fraud Will Cost Businesses $994 Billion in the U.S.!

U.S. organizations lose about 7 percent of their revenues to fraud, according to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. When compared to the projected U.S. Gross Domestic Product for 2008 -- 7 percent equates to $994 billion.In their just released Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud and Abuse, the average case cost a business $175,000. In a quarter of 959 cases used to compile the study, the loss was $1 million or more. The most costly type of fraud was financial statement fraud -- more commonly known as cooking the books -- which...

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Largest Identity Theft Ring in History Indicted

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that eleven perpetrators behind the largest known identity theft ring in history have been charged with conspiracy, computer intrusion and identity theft. Allegedly, the group is responsible for stealing and selling more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers. The credit and debit card numbers were intercepted electronically at nine retailers, who transmitted their unprotected financial information using wireless networks. Once they hacked into the wireless networks, the group would install...

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Bills Introduced to Combat Organized Crime on Auction Sites

While stories of individual people getting scammed on auction sites are legendary, individuals aren't only ones victimized on these sites. Large retailers and brand owners are victimized when their stolen or counterfeit merchandise is sold on these sites, also. In response to this, two bills are being introduced to combat this problem in the halls of Congress.The reason this has become a growing issue is that criminals can net 70 percent of the value of stolen merchandise on an auction site versus the going 30 percent received on street corners,...

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Countrywide Insider Steal's 2 Million People's Information

On Friday, the FBI arrested a former Countrywide employee and his accomplice for stealing and selling personal information (including social security numbers) obtained from people applying for mortgages. According to news sources, the number of people compromised was about 2 million.The Countrywide inside man was identified as Rene L. Rebollo Jr., who worked at Countrywide's sub prime lending division, Full Spectrum Lending. Also arrested was Wahid Siddiqi, who was the alleged information reseller in the caper. Both arrests took place in Southern...

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