“I work with Microsoft” the surprise caller says. “And your computer has a problem.” So begins the Microsoft tech support phone scam. In a high-tech world, the low-tech crime of simply calling innocent people and tricking them into sending money is remarkably effective. It is always important to remember that, [Keep reading]
Grandma and Grandpa are sexting? Yup, says a new survey of 50- to 75-year-olds conducted by security firm McAfee. The research suggests older social media and smartphone users are also oversharing at an alarming rate, putting them at greater risk for identity theft. More than half of older Net users have shared [Keep reading]
Much of the criticism around HealthCare.gov has focused on the initial decision to force visitors to complete an application before they could see health care plan pricing. Critics say so-called “anonymous shopping” was killed late in the design process for political reasons. A completed application is required to determine each [Keep reading]
The troubles with the Obamacare website offer this side benefit: consumers are learning a lot about the debate between “waterfall vs. agile” software development. During the next several weeks, we’ll probably learn about Brooks’ Law, too. I wish we were learning the word “pretotype.” And perhaps, we’ll learn about The [Keep reading]
When the Justice Department announced last week that it had indicted a Vietnamese national for allegedly masterminding an identity theft marketplace, it left out a crucial detail — where suspect Hieu Minh Ngo obtained the data dossiers he sold on 500,000 victims during a five-year crime spree. Thanks to security [Keep reading]
Twitter has changed a major privacy setting, but it’s done so in the right way. It’s now possible for strangers to send private messages to users, making the service more like e-mail or text messaging. But by default, nothing has changed, so users have to take a step to do something [Keep reading]
Facebook and Google both announced huge changes with major privacy implications in the past 48 hours. Once again, both companies have made subtle steps designed to erode your privacy to benefit their invasive business models. Here’s what happened: Facebook made it easier for strangers to search for you and find [Keep reading]
Now that fall has fully arrived, can I play a game with you? What did you do on your summer vacation? I don’t want to know where you went, though you can tell me that, I bet it would have been somewhere exotic like somewhere in Southeast Asia, did you [Keep reading]
Studies are the engine of the news business these days. One out of three adults say they hate their job. Nine out of 10 adults say they’ve considered buying a new cell phone lately. Two out of three say they don’t trust the government. Four out of five like dogs [Keep reading]
You can feel the desperation in the woman’s short message. “My boyfriend posted sexually explicit photos of me on an ‘ex-girlfriend’ porn site,” she wrote on a legal advice website, AVVO.com. “I want them removed, but the website charges $500. Can I take legal action? Against the website or my [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan