FTC Plans Internet Privacy Framework

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010

Amid growing privacy concerns from both citizens and legislators, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said Tuesday that it plans to create guidelines on Internet privacy to protect consumers from abuse of their personal data by social networking, Internet search and location tracking companies. The Washington Post reports the announcement came ...

FBI Spyware is Aggressive Fight Against Hackers and Terrorists

Friday, April 17th, 2009

The FBI’s spyware software, “Computer and Internet Protocol Address Verifier” CIPAV , has been actively used to infiltrate hacker networks, extortionists, and other bad actors. You can read the actual FBI documents about the spyware and it’s use in cases here. More here: FBI Spyware is Aggressive Fight Against Hackers ...

Proposed US Legislation Makes Proxies and TOR a Tool for Sophisticated Electronic Crime

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Proposed new US legislation would increase prison sentences by 25% if a criminal is using Internet anonymization technology such as TOR or proxies. Privacy advocates of course are very alarmed, as this sends a message that privacy and anonymity on the Internet are tools of criminals, and paint one ...

Warning – Look Out for Bogus Tax and IRS Emails

Monday, April 13th, 2009

As tax day in the USA gets closer (taxes are due to be paid on April 15), look out for fake IRS phishing scams. These could be lures to get you to electronically file your taxes, or following April 15 they could be fake tax refund scams. Continue here: Warning ...

Romanian Police Break Up a Phishing Cybercrime Gang

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

The Romanian police, along with the US FBI, have broken up a major bank fraud cybercrime gang . The gang created fake online banking websites, and lured consumers to these sites with fake phishing emails. When consumers entered their usernames and passwords, the thieves were able to log into ...

Internet Privacy Concerns Are Growing

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

The New York Times has published the results of an online privacy survey , where 90 percent of respondents called online privacy a really important or somewhat important issue. 75 percent of respondents agreed that “The Internet is not well regulated, and naïve users can easily be taken advantage ...

Former FBI Chief Says NSA Should Not Run CyberSecurity

Friday, March 13th, 2009

Earlier this week I blogged about the resignation of Mr. Rod Beckstrom from the position of director of the National Cyber Security Center in DHS. Beckstrom resigned because he felt that the NSA was trying to take over the cyber security role for the USA, and he felt that ...

Welsh Police Lose Confidential Data on 2,300 Crime Victims on Unencrypted CD-ROM

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

The personal details of more than 2,300 crime victims were lost in the post by Gwent Police, BBC Wales has discovered . A CD went missing in May 2007, but the force said those affected were not told because it was decided their details could not be accessed. Gwent ...

10 Million Computers Infected with Identity-Theft Malware

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

APWG member Panda Labs released a report yesterday that approximately 10 million PCs worldwide are infected with malicious software designed to steal identity information such as usernames, passwords and credit card data. Alarmingly, 35 percent of these computers are running the latest anti-virus software from major vendors. This highlights ...

A Great interview with Michael Barrett, PayPal’s Chief Information Security Officer

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

H-Online has posted a really great interview with Michael Barrett , Chief Information Security Officer of PayPal. It discusses the PayPal Security Key, which is a One Time Password device for securing your PayPal account. Basically, you need to enter your user name, password, and the number displayed on ...

Rod Beckstrom Resigns from National Cybersecurity Center Amid Confusion with NSA

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

I have been fortunate to know Mr. Rod Beckstrom , the former director of the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) inside the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Rod is a read advocate for cyber security inside the civilian government. He’s a very intellectual fellow, but also well versed in ...

See IronKey at FOSE 2009 in Washington DC This Week

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

IronKety is exhibiting at the FOSE 2009 government trade show this week in Washington DC. Stop by and say “Hi”. Read the rest of the post here: See IronKey at FOSE 2009 in Washington DC This Week