Posts under ‘Preventing Identity Theft’

Representatives Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat, and Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican, have released a draft bill that would require companies that collect personal information from customers to disclose how they collect and share that information.Â
“Our legislation confers privacy rights on individuals, informing them of the personal information that is collected and shared about them [...]

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the “Truth in Caller ID Act” on Wednesday.  The new bill will ban any misleading or inaccurate caller ID information on any voice communications service, including VoIP.
Also known as “Caller ID Spoofing,” the practice involves using various types of software to insert a false name and number on call [...]

The US Justice Department is failing to tackle the problem of identity theft, the agency’s inspector general, Glenn Fine, said in a report released Tuesday.
In an internal review of operations, Fine says the department has not made identity theft a priority and has failed to take a coordinated approach to fighting the problem.
Yet identity theft [...]

The Better Business Bureau has come up with 10 ways to help consumers protect themselves from the growing problem of identity theft:
1. Don’t fall for phishing e-mails.
Phishing is when con artists use e-mail or phone calls to pose as a trustworthy organization in order to coerce sensitive information from victims. Phishing e-mails can look legitimate [...]

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 [...]