by Julia Angwin, Senior Technology Editor, WSJ.com
I hate the term “identity theft.”
As far as I know, no one can steal my identity. Even if my bank account number, my credit card number and all my passwords are stolen, I am fairly confident that I will still be me and the thief will be a different person.
by John R. Emshwiller, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Justin Feffer, a senior investigator at the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, drove to a suspect’s house last December for a search relating to an identity-theft case. First, he did what cops normally do: took down the license number on the truck in the driveway, noted that surveillance cameras hung from the eaves and the windows were covered in paper.
by Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
The future of the cash for clunkers program is in doubt, but consumers should remain wary of fraudulent sites that claim to be associated with it.
The Federal Trade Commission has issued a consumer alert noting that only one Web site, Cars.gov, is the official destination for the Car Allowance Rebate System.
by Herbert H. Thompson, Contributing Writer, Scientific American
As a professor, a software developer and an author I’ve spent a career in software security. I decided to conduct an experiment to see how vulnerable people’s accounts are to mining the Web for information. I asked some of my acquaintances, people I know only casually, if, with their permission and under their supervision, I [...]
by Kelly Jackson Higgins, Senior Editor, Dark Reading
A researcher performing social-engineering exploits on behalf of several U.S. banks and other firms in the past year has “stolen” thousands of identities with a 100% success rate. Joshua Perrymon, hacking director for PacketFocus Security Solutions and CEO of RedFlag Security, says organizations typically are focused on online identity theft from their data resources, and don’t think about how the same data can literally walk out the door with a criminal posing as an auditor or a computer repairman.
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