Posts under ‘Preventing Identity Theft’

The FBI and Better Business Bureau Wednesday put out a warning to exercise caution before donating to organizations claiming to be charities that will send financial assistance to Haiti.
“Apply a critical eye,” said the FBI in a statement, and do “due diligence before responding to those requests.”
“Be cautious about online giving, especially in response to [...]

1 in 6 Massachusetts residents have had their credit card numbers, medical records, or other personal information leaked or stolen over the past two years, according to records provided to the Boston Globe.  That is at least 1 million people living in Massachusetts who have had their personal information breached.
This included data on customers of [...]

The Better Business Bureau released a list of last years top consumer scams:

Acai Supplements and other “free” trial offers - Ads offering trial offers for teeth whiteners, acai anti-aging pills, and other miracle supplements blanketed the Internet, including trusted Web sites of national news organizations. The marketing campaigns often falsely claimed an endorsement by celebrities [...]

President Barack Obama chose Howard Schmidt to be his cybersecurity chief on Tuesday.  Schmidt is a former eBay and Microsoft executive. His career includes 31 years in government, including a stint on President George W. Bush’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Board. He is currently CEO of the Information Security Forum.
Schmidt will be in charge of setting [...]

On Tuesday a national data breach notification bill was passed in the U.S. House of Representatives.  The Data Accountability and Trust Act (DATA), requires businesses to notify both customers and the Federal Trade Commission if sensitive information has been exposed to a security breach.
The law states that:
“Any person engaged in interstate commerce that owns or [...]

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning the public about false emails asking people to register for a CDC-sponsored mandatory vaccination program.Â
“Users that click on the email are at risk of having malicious code installed on their system,” according to the CDC announcement.
The fraudulent e-mails claim to be from the U.S. Centers for [...]

On Thursday The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approved two bills that would require organizations with data breaches to report them to potential victims.
The first bill The Personal Data Privacy and Security Act would require agencies and businesses to report data breaches to victims whose personal information “has been, or is reasonably believed to have been, [...]

The Federal Trade Commission has postponed enforcement of the Red Flags Rule once again, continuing to put consumers at risk of identity theft.
This is the fourth time The Federal Trade Commission has delayed enforcement of the “Red Flags Rule” requiring implementation of identity theft prevention measures. The latest deadline for compliance was set for November [...]

The Federal Trade Commission will begin enforcing its Red Flags Rule on November 1st.  The Red Flags Rule has been delayed three times now give entities additional time to prepare.
The Red Flags Rule require creditors and financial institutions with covered accounts to implement written programs to detect early warning signs of identity theft in their [...]

There are currently 45 states that have their own data breach notification bills.  The Chief of the FBI’s Cyber Criminal Section, Jeffrey Troy believes this should be a Federal Law for all states.
“A data breach notification bill would help us tremendously, particularly in terms of efficiency in conducting investigations,” said Troy.
“If U.S. businesses were required [...]