Technology Talk

According to a July 2005 Pew Internet & American Life Project report, 68% of internet users - 93 million Americans - experience computer problems that can be traced back to adware and spyware.

There are two types of threats that can be considered spyware: Read the rest

This week, a federal grand jury charged 24 people in connection with 6 identity theft scams involving bank and mortgage fraud. Of those, two of the scams involved circles of 10 people.

In the first case, Charles White and Allen Smith allegedly headed up a 10 person group who defrauded banks to the tune of at least $1 million. By using the names, social security numbers, addresses, and dates of birth of potentially hundreds of customers of Commerce Bank, Wachovia Bank, PNC Bank, and M&T Bank, they were able to cash foreign and counterfeit checks as well as withdraw funds from current customers’ accounts. Read the rest

It’s finally happened. A 14-year-old girl has filed a lawsuit against MySpace.

The lawsuit, filed last Monday in the District Court of Travis County, Texas, were aware that sexual predators troll MySpace looking for children. The suit seeks damages of no less than $30 million for fraud and negligence in misrepresenting their security measures to protect children and teens. The suit also charges 19-year-old Texas resident Pete Solis with sexual assault and emotional distress. Read the rest

It seems like every few weeks, there’s a new report that large amounts of personal data go missing when a laptop is stolen or there’s some other kind of security breach. It makes me wonder just how one lets their laptop be stolen - do they just walk away from it? Leave it in airports? Thieves do a bait and switch? Perhaps companies should get employees to pay for their laptops and maybe they’d take better care of them. But I digress… Read the rest

Is it really possible to keep personal data private? Between the personal info of 26.5 million veterans being stolen, Gary McKinnen hacking into US Gov computers, and of course, the ongoing NSA wiretapping stuff, it really makes you wonder.

Information Week now has an article on data grabbing. Did you know that the FBI sends 30,000 national security letters - special subpoenas that don’t require a judge’s signature that allow the FBI to request bank, insurance, phone, ISP and credit report records (thankfully, medical records are not included) - each year? And unlike subpoenas, companies who receive a national security letter can’t disclose that they’ve received one? Read the rest