Cynja
The Cynja, Vol. 3: Guardian of all things noble in cyberspace
What is this? Learn about the Cynja comic series here
Kids and Tech
For typical kids, 1,000 photos online before age 5
Parents today are dooming their children to an over-exposed digital life by posting nearly 1,000 photos of kids before age 5, a new British study suggests. An advocacy group named The Parent Zone polled 2,000 U.K. and found they post 973 photos before their child’s fifth birthday. Even worse: many parents admit [Keep reading]
Gotchas / Consumer
PayPal punished, but will consumers get justice? Behind every big settlements, there’s 1,000 sad stories
Whenever you hear about one of those big-deal, multi-million-dollar settlements involving a federal agency and a misbehaving company, the news probably makes your eyes glaze over. In most cases, nothing really bad happens to the company — they just have to give back their ill-gotten gains, and maybe pay a [Keep reading]
Privacy
IRS uh-oh: Criminals steal data on 100,000 taxpayers from agency’s ‘Get Transcript’ online system
Identity thieves used the IRS’ own systems to steal personal information from about 100,000 taxpayers, the agency said on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. Criminals already armed with some data on the taxpayers used the IRS “Get Transcript” website to obtain even more data on their victims, the IRS [Keep reading]
Debt Collection Files
Debt collectors’ new tactic: Scary text messages
Debt collectors reportedly have a new strategy to get consumers’ attention: text messages. “YOUR PAYMENT DECLINED WITH CARD ****-****-****-5463 . . . CALL 866.256.2117 IMMEDIATELY,” reads one such text, according to the Federal Trade Commission. (This story was first published on Credit.com. Read it there.) The agency has temporarily halted three [Keep reading]
Cynja
The Cynja, Vol. 2: Hidden deep in cyber alleys
What is this? Learn about the Cynja comic series here or See the whole series
Cybercrime / Privacy
Starbucks value creation gift card hack adds money for nothing, hacker says; firm criticizes ‘fraudulent activity’
A computer security researcher says he recently found a way to hack Starbucks’ gift card system and add value to a gift card essentially for free. Starbucks has not yet responded to my questions about the attack, but the researcher says the bug he exploited has been fixed. Computer security consultant Egor Homakov, [Keep reading]
Cybercrime / Privacy
AdultFriendFinder customers hacked, highly sensitive data leaked online
One of the Internet’s largest adult dating websites has suffered a major data breach, with up to 4 million members impacted, according to U.K. news station Channel 4, which broke the story today. Victims face potential embarrassment or other serious repercussions in addition to the usual potential for identity theft. [Keep reading]
The Restless Project
Even higher rents don’t push Americans into buying homes — ‘a rock and a hard place’
Rents are increasing in most parts of the country. That normally nudges apartment dwellers into the housing market — as rents rise, so do reasons to buy a home — but that doesn’t seem to be happening in today’s topsy-turvy housing market. Instead, many renters are swallowing the increases and [Keep reading]
Cybercrime / Privacy
Study: 9 in 10 Americans want privacy, but only 1 in 10 think they can get it
The disparity is as dramatic as any you’re likely to see in a public opinion survey. Nine out of 10 Americans say it’s important to control the information collected about them and who can see it, but fewer than 1 in 10 Americans are confident that either the government or corporations [Keep reading]