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....more
3/6/2020
/ China ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Data Breach ,
Fake Websites ,
Fraud ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Malware ,
Online Platforms ,
Personal Data ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Public Health ,
Scams ,
Social Media
Many of our clients have customer call centers to help customers with varied questions or concerns. Those who work in customer service, and in call centers tend to patient and helpful. But sometimes being too helpful can land...more
Darkreading.com has issued a survey entitled: Monetizing the Insider: The Growing Symbiosis of Insiders and the Dark Web which states that malicious insiders are responsible for 27 percent of all cybercrime. This statistic...more
As Hurricane Florence bears down on the Carolinas in the next few days, beware of scammers trying to take advantage of the good hearts of those of us who want to help the victims....more
9/14/2018
/ Charitable Donations ,
Charitable Organizations ,
Donations ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Fraud ,
Hurricane Season ,
Natural Disasters ,
Popular ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Scams ,
Severe Weather
Summer is finally here and with summer comes vacations. Some of us are planners and plan vacations far in advance. Others look for last minute finds that include “super savers.”...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is alerting consumers this week that imposters are calling people saying they are from the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF), and telling them that they may be eligible for...more
Power Company Fined for Contractor Copying Data to its Own Insecure Network -
Vendor management continues to be a problem for all industries, but some are scarier than others. The North American Electric Reliability Corp....more
3/30/2018
/ Asset Management ,
Cloud Storage ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Driverless Cars ,
Drones ,
Electronically Stored Information ,
Energy Sector ,
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ,
FERC ,
Fraud ,
Identity Theft ,
Infrastructure ,
NERC ,
NIST ,
Part 107 ,
Popular ,
Social Security ,
State Data Breach Notification Statutes ,
Third-Party Service Provider ,
Unmanned Aircraft Systems ,
Utilities Sector ,
Vulnerability Assessments
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a scam alert this week notifying consumers that it has received an up-tick in complaints that scammers are calling consumers claiming they are from the Social Security Administration....more
We hear daily about another payment card breach at a retail store, restaurant chain or hotel line. The response to a payment card breach differs from company to company. I get a lot of questions about payment card breaches...more
It is hard enough for middle agers like me to stay up on all the ways our personal information can be collected, accessed, used, disclosed, sold or stolen. It is even harder for our loved ones who are older, but not...more
Phone call scams are on the rise. In addition to scam artists posing as employees of utility companies (see Privacy Tip #84), the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has issued a warning to consumers about a phone scam...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced this week that March 5-11 is National Consumer Protection Week. The FTC will announce different programs and events throughout the week that are designed to educate consumers on...more
A study released by Javelin Strategy & Research has concluded that the number of identity fraud cases in 2016 rose 16% from 2015, costing victims $16 billion in losses. This includes both identity theft and credit card fraud....more
This scam really makes me mad—especially for some of the most vulnerable in our society, including the elderly.
This scam starts when your phone rings and the person on the other end says “Can you hear me?” Being the...more
I received a call last week on my home land line and when I picked it up (hardly anyone I want to actually talk to calls my home telephone number) the caller on the other end informed me that he was from “Microsoft 10,” that...more
There are a half a billion chip cards in the market right now. They have been touted to improve security and reduce credit card fraud. But do they?
According to a new report, both Visa and MasterCard have reported that...more
With more and more information online, it is easy to accumulate a lot of information about individuals just by using a search engine. Scammers use online information to build profiles of victims and then use different scams...more
Those of you with Amazon Prime Now accounts love the convenience of getting goods delivered to your home RIGHT NOW, well at least within hours until Amazon drones become common place....more
The feds have been busy on the cyber prosecutions front. First, on March 18, 2016, the FBI announced that a multi-agency collaborative effort blew up an identity theft ring whose leader was an inmate in a Georgia prison. The...more
Sony Pictures (Sony) agreed on Monday (October 19, 2015) to pay at least $2M and up to $4.5M to employees whose personal information was breached and posted online during the massive hack that hit Sony in 2014....more
We’ve all gotten them–the dreaded letter that informs us that our data has been compromised, including our Social Security number. Some have received so many of these “notifications” that they are de-sensitized, throw their...more
10/9/2015
/ Breach Notification Rule ,
Credit Monitoring ,
Credit Reports ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Fraud ,
Hackers ,
Identity Theft ,
Personally Identifiable Information
It has been reported that Hilton Hotel Properties (Hilton), including Embassy Suites, Doubletree, Hampton Inn and Suites and Waldorf Astoria is investigating credit card fraud alerts from banks, which have been alerted by...more
Not only did the IRS lose a flash drive with 12,000 school worker’s Social Security numbers on it in Texas, it admitted on August 17th that its initial estimate that 110,000 taxpayers’ personal information was used to file...more
8/24/2015
/ Credit Monitoring ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Data Breach ,
Fraud ,
Hackers ,
Identity Fraud ,
Identity Theft ,
IRS ,
Tax Fraud ,
Tax Returns ,
U.S. Treasury
We previously reported that UCLA suffered a data breach affecting 4.5 million patients. Days following the announcement of the breach, plaintiffs filed a proposed class action lawsuit against UCLA, alleging that UCLA should...more
7/24/2015
/ Breach of Contract ,
Class Action ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Data Breach ,
Fraud ,
Healthcare ,
Invasion of Privacy ,
Negligence ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
UCLA ,
UCLA Medical Center
The Department of Justice has announced that 25 year old Hieu Minh Ngo has been sentenced to 13 years in prison. His sentence was lighter than expected because he has cooperated with authorities to catch more identity...more
7/20/2015
/ Criminal Prosecution ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Data Breach ,
Data Brokers ,
Data Collection ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Fraud ,
Hackers ,
IRS ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Social Security Numbers ,
Tax Returns