Does Social Media Reflect Society?

A Community within our Society You are what you eat; You become what you believe; I am not my art.  A 2011 study from the University of Texas at Austin's Department of Psychology titled "Manifestations of Personality in Online Social Networks: Self-Reported Facebook-Related Behaviors and Observable Profile Information" found that Facebook users are no different online than they are offline. The study also declared a strong connection between someone’s real personality and their Facebook-related behavior. Social and personality processes, according to the study, accurately mirror non-virtual environments.  It was published in the academic journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. ...

355 Shopping Days Left

After just being bombarded with the endless options of gifts for your loved ones, a simple reminder that the next blitz is just around the corner.  And you are a target.  2011 started relatively tame for breaches but when hacktivism and a few other entities decided to take hold, it became a massive year for lost data.  From retail to healthcare to government to schools to financial institutions – no one was immune.  Household names like Sony, RSA, Lockheed and Sega were all hit.   Privacy Rights Clearinghouse reports that 535 security breaches in 2011 exposed 30 million sensitive records to...

The Top 10, Top Predictions for 2012

Around this time of year, almost everyone and their brother put out their annual predictions for the coming year.  So instead of coming up with my own, I figured I’d simply regurgitate what many others are expecting to happen.  Security Predictions 2012 & 2013 - The Emerging Security Threat – SANS talks Custom Malware, IPv6, ARM hacking and Social Media. Top 7 Cybersecurity Predictions for 2012 - From Stuxnet to Sony, a number of cyberattacks emerged in 2011 that experts have predicted for quite some time.  Webroot’s top seven...

SANS 20 Critical Security Controls

A couple days ago, The SANS Institute announced the release of a major update (Version 3.0) to the 20 Critical Controls, a prioritized baseline of information security measures designed to provide continuous monitoring to better protect government and commercial computers and networks from cyber attacks.  The information security threat landscape is always changing, especially this year with the well publicized breaches.  The particular controls have been tested and provide an effective solution to defending against cyber-attacks.  The focus is critical technical areas than can help an organization prioritize efforts to protect against the most common and dangerous attacks.  Automating security...

Where Do You Wear Your Malware?

The London Stock Exchange, Android phones and even the impenetrable Mac have all been malware targets recently.  If you’re connected to the internet, you are at risk.  It is no surprise that the crooks will go after whatever device people are using to conduct their life – mobile for example, along with trying to achieve that great financial heist….’if we can just get this one big score, then we can hang up our botnets and retire!’  Perhaps Homer Simpson said it best, ‘Ooh, Mama!  This is finally really happening.  After years of disappointment with get-rich-quick schemes, I know I'm gonna...

A Digital Poltergeist On Your Television

I love starting blogs with, ‘Remember when…’ and this is no different.  Remember when, we used to receive our television programming over the air via an antenna?  Many still do but the days of seeing a huge pointy metal object perched on top of a house are dwindling.  (That would actually be a cool photo essay – homes that still have working antennas.)  They’ve been replaced with satellite dishes and coax.  Even then, your programming was still coming over a dedicated cable from a system other than the internet.  Not so anymore.  The explosion of Internet ready Televisions, DVD players,...

Identity Theft: Good News-Bad News Edition

So which would you like first?  Javelin Strategy & Research said identity theft incidents were down 28% in 2010 (vs. 2009) according to their latest consumer survey.  This is the lowest level since 2007 and about 3 million less victims than in 2009.  They partially attribute this to a decline in industry reported data breaches going from 604 (221 million exposed records) to 404 (26 million exposed records) in 2010 along with economic conditions, better security measures and busts by law enforcement playing a major role.  If you have an existing credit card account, there’s good news on...

Radio Killed the Privacy Star

With apologies to The Buggles and the 12 other bands that have covered this song: RFID out there is always watching you, Staying awake intent at tuning in on you. When I was young I never thought it would come true. Oh-a-oh They put a chip on things and never let you be. Your data gathered up with new technology, Yes, there’s Security but problems we can see. Oh-a-oh They track your movement....

Identity Theft Roundup

I’m on a ID fraud kick lately and there are quite a few stories of late about identity theft.  Here are just a few: House Approves Red Flags Exemptions – In January 2008, the Red Flag Rule went into existence which said that organizations (mainly banks and financial institutions) that extend credit to have a written Identity Theft Prevention Program designed to detect identity fraud on a day to day basis.  This new bill would except certain businesses like physicians and hospitals from having to abide by the rule.  Sen. Dodd (D-Conn) said that the bill, ‘makes clear that lawyers, doctors,...

Synthetic Identity Theft: The Silent Swindler

As a brief follow up to yesterday’s Got a SSN I Can Borrow, I came across this story from The Red Tape Chronicles saying the odds that someone else has used your Social Security Number is One in 7.  ID Analytics, a data collection and customer behavior analytics firm, works with organizations, including the US Social Security Administration, to detect Identity-Based fraud; separating the true customers from the impostors.  They’ve analyzed 290 million Social Security numbers and found that 40 million of those numbers have been connected to more than one name; basically, 40 million of us are sharing identities...