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]
Consumers who have been lulled in to a false sense of security over credit card fraud could be in for a rude awaking. That was the message delivered at Visa’s Global Security Summit held in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Disclosure last week of a serious data theft involving some of [Keep reading]
You know those annoying reminders you keep getting from Adobe to update your Acrobat or Flash software? Now would be a good time to pay attention to them. Brian Krebs at KrebsOnSecurity.com discovered last week that computer criminals had gained access to Adobe’s servers and stole a treasure trove of [Keep reading]
Caller ID isn’t always what it appears, and increasingly, criminal telemarketers are taking advantage of that. Aggressive phone sales operators have pretended to be the IRS, and they’ve pretended to be charities, but apparently they’ve developed a new tactic recently — impersonating teachers, calling parents at home during the school day. [Keep reading]
Are those digital checks you can download from your online bank putting your money at risk? Perhaps. Old-fashioned check fraud, supercharged by online account hijacking, is the latest fraud headache, I learned at the Visa Security Summit in D.C. on Wednesday. Some are calling it check fraud with “digital fine [Keep reading]
The economics of petty theft is an interesting chicken-and-egg game. That’s how New York City police officers recently ended up imploring consumers to download the new iPhone operating system, iOS 7. They want you to be the egg. Last week, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman was among leading law [Keep reading]
Everyone is online, right? Wrong. About one in seven U.S. adults don’t use email or the (not quite the whole) worldwide web, according to a poll published by Wednesday by the Pew Research Center. Many in the disconnected crowd are older and poor, as one might expect. But a large number [Keep reading]
When consumers try to sign up at just-launched health care exchanges next week, they might be surprised that credit bureau Experian and its telephone help desk may stand in the way. And those seeking a subsidy will be confronted by Equifax’s controversial The Work Number product, a massive database the [Keep reading]
The scary thing about large commercial data brokers, other than their collection of your personal information without your permission, is the possibility that their enormous hoards of data can be stolen. Despite all promises of care and security, hacks happens. Privacy advocates always warn about this when discussions about large-scale [Keep reading]
Cross-promotions are where it’s at, but this is kind of remarkable. I just received an e-mail pitch via the Yankees that reads: “The right call. Every time.” Then, there’s the pitch: “Protect you Stuff and express your Yankees pride with Norton Internet Security — New York Yankees Edition.” Team-branded credit [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan