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Robert Siciliano

Robert Siciliano Security Analyst at Safr.me

Phone Account of FTC Chief Technologist hijacked

An impostor posed as Lorrie Cranor at a mobile phone store (in Ohio, nowhere near Cranor’s home) and obtained her number. She is the Federal Trade Commission’s chief technologist. Her impostor’s con netted two new iPhones (the priciest models—and the charges went to Cranor) with her number. In a blog post, Cranor writes: “My phones immediately sto...

/security

Robert Siciliano

Robert Siciliano Security Analyst at Safr.me

Viruses as Cyberweapons for sale

It’s all about code—the building blocks of the Internet. Software code is full of unintentional defects. Governments are paying heavy prices to skilled hackers who can unearth these vulnerabilities, says an article at nytimes.com. In fact, the FBI director, James B. Comey, recommended that the FBI pay hackers a whopping $1.3 million to figure out h...

/security

Robert Siciliano

Robert Siciliano Security Analyst at Safr.me

TeamViewer Clients Victims of other Hack Attacks

Get an account with TeamViewer, and you will have a software package that enables remote control, online meetings, desktop sharing and other functions between computers. But recently, customers of TeamViewer have reported remote takedowns of their computers that resulted in different forms of monetary theft, such as bank accounts being cleaned out....

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Robert Siciliano

Robert Siciliano Security Analyst at Safr.me

Can Two-Factor Authentication actually fail?

You’ve probably read many times that two-factor authentication is a superb extra layer of protection against a thief hacking into your accounts, because gaining access requires entering a One Time Passcode (OTP)—sent via text or voice—into a login field. In other words, no phone, no access. But CAN a hacker get the phone? Ask Deray McKesson, an ac...

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Robert Siciliano

Robert Siciliano Security Analyst at Safr.me

Identity Theft getting even worse

In 2015, depending on the kind and type of identity theft we are talking about, identity thieves impacted 1.5 million people or more, says the Javelin Strategy & Research report. That’s more than double than for 2014. The move from stripe cards to chip cards has motivated crooks to fasten their seatbelts and really take off with an accelerate...

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Robert Siciliano

Robert Siciliano Security Analyst at Safr.me

Carders cashing out on Magstrip Cards

Two thousand credit card payment terminals stand to become infected with malware called Trinity point of sales. Ten million credit cards were stolen by hackers, called Fin6, who may end up scoring $400 million. The cards were stolen from retail and hospitality businesses. If each card sells for $21 on secret carder shops, you can see how the hacker...

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Robert Siciliano

Robert Siciliano Security Analyst at Safr.me

Hackers hacking Banks big time

“Anonymous” is an activist hacking group that has recently boasted that it will engage in 30 days of cyber assaults against “all central banks,” reports an article on cnbc.com. And their bite is as big as their bark, as this announcement came soon after several major banks around the world were struck—and Anonymous proudly claimed credit. The banks...

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Robert Siciliano

Robert Siciliano Security Analyst at Safr.me

Ransomware Hackers provide Customer Service Dept. to Victims

Yes, believe it or not, ransomware has become such a booming business for thieves, that these cyber thugs even provide bona fide customer service departments to guide their victims! When ransomware infects your computer, it holds your files hostage; you can’t access them—until you pay the hacker (usually in bitcoins). Once paid, the crook will give...

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Robert Siciliano

Robert Siciliano Security Analyst at Safr.me

Three Quarters of a Billion Records breached

Last year, says the security firm Gemalto, over 700 million records were breached. Or, to put it another way, this translates to two million stolen or lost records every day. 2015 Breach Level Report 1,673 hacking incidents 398 were triggered from the inside of the attacked company: employees and even IT staff who were tricked (social engineering)...

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Robert Siciliano

Robert Siciliano Security Analyst at Safr.me

Look out for Shipping E-mail Phishing Scams

Stop clicking on e-mails about your package delivery! Scam, scam, scam! Look, it’s simple: Scammers are also pretending to be from the DHL and FedEx shipping companies, not just UPS. Crooks know that at any given time, thousands and thousands of U.S. people are waiting for a package delivery. So these cyber thieves send out mass e-mails by the mil...

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