Dec 23 2021

Combating identity fraud: The key is to avoid stagnation

Category: Identity Theft — DISC @ 9:57 am
Combating identity fraud: The key is to avoid stagnation
As cybercrime sophistication reaches new heights, what can organizations do to tackle these new threats?

Phishing, identity theft, and ransomware are not new types of cyberattacks. What is new is bad actors increasingly using automation and other advanced technologies to more quickly identify and exploit vulnerabilities in organizations’ defenses to access or steal sensitive data without being detected.

One commonality among most attackers is their desire to achieve the most lucrative outcome. They view themselves as a business, and like any business, they want to increase their ROI. Using automated bots is an easy and inexpensive way to identify vulnerable targets and launch their attacks.

Therefore, organizations must build and enforce barriers that the criminal determines are too complex and expensive to overcome. One way to do so is by conducting extensive vetting during the new customer onboarding process that challenges customers to verify their identities. A rigorous approach to onboarding not only ensures the person creating a new user account is who they say they are and builds trust, but it will also compel a bad actor to give up and move on to their next target.

What are the technologies they can use not only to protect themselves but their customers too?

Identity Theft: Satan’s Greatest Crime Against Humanity

Tags: identity fraud, Identity Theft

Jun 17 2021

Identity Theft: Learn How to Stay Safe and Not Become a Victim

Category: Identity Theft — DISC @ 10:48 am

Did you know the odds of being struck by lightning in a given year are only around 1 in 100,000,000? That’s not a scary thought, mainly since 9 out of 10 people survive.

But when it comes to identity theft, the odds are 1 in 15. Worldwide, there’s a new victim every 2 seconds. Now, that is spine-chilling!

Identity theft is the most common consequence of a data breach. Defrauding and stealing someone’s identity is easier today than it has ever been in history.

Let’s go behind the scenes of an identity theft maneuver and learn how you can protect yourself from it.

What is identity theft

Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal identifying information (like your name, social security number, or credit card number) without your knowledge or permission. The purpose of identity theft is to commit fraud or other crimes.

Identity thieves gain financial advantages or other benefits, while victims suffer financial loss and possibly other severe consequences, including being accused of a crime they didn’t commit.

Source: How identity thieves grab your information

https://twitter.com/CityPoliceIFED/status/1375456871440605185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1375456871440605185%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cyberghostvpn.com%2Fprivacyhub%2Fidentity-theft-learn-how-to-stay-safe-and-not-become-a-victim%2F

Tags: identity fraud, Identity Theft, Identity Theft Countermeasures

May 31 2019

Watch Cyber Security Is It Your Time For Identity theft, Yet?

Category: Identity Theft — DISC @ 6:05 am

This course is about helping you to survive an identity theft, attempt to educate you on how to prevent a direct identity theft attempt, know what to look for and how not be the one who helped the thief take your personal information. With your new found knowledge take it to your family so they can avoid years of headaches.

Source: Watch Cyber Security Is It Your Time For Identity theft, Yet? | Prime Video


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Tags: identity fraud, Identity Theft, identity theft and data security breaches, Identity Theft Countermeasures, Stopping Identity Theft

Oct 20 2009

Identity Theft Tip off, Countermeasure and Consequence

Category: Identity Theft — DISC @ 3:30 pm

Grand Theft Scratchy: Blood Island
Image by włodi via Flickr
Americans fear having their identities “stolen” by cybercriminals more than they do becoming victims of a terror attack, getting mugged or having their homes burglarized, according to a new survey released by Gallup, a polling firm.

Stopping Identity Theft: 10 Easy Steps to Security

Identity theft is a crime in which an attacker/hacker obtains your personal information, such as Social Security, credit cards numbers or driver’s license numbers etc. The attacker/thief can use your personal information to obtain credit, merchandise, and services in your name which will ruin your credit and may even create a criminal record.

An identity thief can be any stranger who steals your personnel information or may be someone posing as a bank representative (social engineering) to get your personal information over the internet.
The problem is you may not realize that you have been victimized by identity theft until you receive your statement. That’ why it is important to have some check in place which will tip off that you might have been victim of identity theft until it is too late. As the saying goes “trust but verify”.

10 million Americans fell victim to identity theft last year (08) alone. In a recent story from the Dayton Daily News, the Better Business Bureau’s John North noted that some criminals are using text messages when hunting for consumers’ credit information. The practice, which has been dubbed “smishing”, combines text messaging and the practice of “phishing

Identity Theft Tip Off:
Sacramento county detective Sean Smith told how to detect credit card fraud and potential identity theft by looking for a cheap transaction on your statement.
He said some thieves will charge $1 on a credit card to test whether the card is active. The detective told viewers that’s a red flag that’s something suspicious is going on with your account, and you need to call the credit card company immediately.

Identity Theft Victims:
If you are the victim of identity theft, file a police report and take the following steps:

Notify the Credit Bureaus
Contact the fraud departments of any of the three major credit bureaus to
place a fraud alert on your credit file.

TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance
Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790

Equifax: 1-888-766-0008; www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241

Experian: 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742); www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013

After cleaning your records from identity theft incident, check credit report periodically to make sure no new activity has occurred.

Identity Theft Consequences:
Consequences of identity theft can be serious. Your credit history can be ruined, a loan could be denied because of a negative credit report, you could even be arrested for crimes you didn’t commit because someone has been using your identity.

Identity Theft Countermeasures:

  • Check your credit card, medical and bank statements regularly, even weekly, to look for any unusual activity or any charges on your card that you didn’t make.

  • Before throwing any document out that contains your personal information, you need to shred the document. Cross-cuts shredder is recommended.

  • Do not carry your Social Security card in your wallet.

  • Only carry the credit card you may be using on the trip.

  • Do not give personnel information unless you can verify the person.

  • Avoid business online, unless the site is secure meaning your data is encrypted during the transaction.

  • Close the accounts that you know or believe have been tampered with or opened fraudulently.

  • Place a freeze on your credit report.

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    Tags: credit card fraud, identity fraud, identity theaft, Identity Theft, Identity Theft Consequences, Identity Theft Countermeasures, Identity Theft Tip Off, Identity Theft Victims, social security fraud, Stopping Identity Theft

    Oct 21 2008

    12 Phishing Threats and Identity Theft

    Category: Email Security,Identity Theft — DISC @ 7:22 pm

    Have you ever thought of losing something and you cannot live without it? Yes, that something can be your identity. Phishing is a practice of luring unsuspecting Internet users to a fake Web site by using authentic-looking email with the real organization’s logo, in an attempt to steal passwords, financial or personal information. In daily life people advise to retrace your steps when you lose something. The question is how you retrace your steps on cyberspace where some uber hackers know how to erase their footsteps to avoid detection. It is difficult to find phishers in cyberspace, and jurisdictional issues make it even harder to prosecute them. Then there is an issue of trust that phishers dupe people to believe that their web site is not fraudulent to collect personal/financial information.

    Amongst the financial crisis, phishing might be on the rise because for many organizations information protection might be the last thing on their mind. The FDIC has created a webpage to inform and warn consumers about “phishing.” These days phishers have targeted social network organizations LinkedIn and Facebook where their members have been duped into revealing their sensitive data.

    Mainly phishing attacks are targeted to steal the identity. Now the question is, how easy it is to steal somebody’s identity? Let’s say a phisher has your name and address, and then he/she can get your Social Security number with the search on AccurInt or other personal database website. A Social Security number is not the only bounty a fraudster can find on these websites, other personal/private information is available as well at minimal cost.

    In the table below are the 12 threats to your online identity which can be manipulated in phishing scams, and possible countermeasures to protect your personal and financial information. Some threats are inadequate or no security controls in place. The last row of the table is a monitoring control to identify the warning signs of identity theft.

    [Table=7]

    Organizations should take necessary steps to protect against identity fraud and apply whatever state and federal legislation applies to your business. Organizations which are serious about their information security should consider implementing the ISO 27001 (ISMS) standard as a best practice, which provides reasonable due diligence to protect and safeguard your information.

    US Bank phishing attack exposed
    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2QKQkuSB4Q


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    Tags: accurint, countermeasure, cyberspace, due diligence, equifax, experian, facebook, fdic, financial crisis, fraudster, identity fraud, information protection, isms, iso 27001, jurisdictional, legislation, linkedin, phishing, prosecute, safeguard, social security, threats, transunion, uber hacker

    Aug 21 2008

    Access control fraud and countermeasures

    Category: Access Control — DISC @ 1:22 am

    These days access to the internet is a business requirement. Most businesses are selling their products and services on the internet which sometimes requires customers to have access to the critical assets such as applications and databases. The global growth of the internet has increased complexity and potential risks to these assets. In some cases, one potential breach may put the organization’s very existence at risk.  French bank SociĂ©tĂ© GĂ©nĂ©rale made a frightening announcement in Jan. 2008 that it has uncovered a $7.14 billion US fraud â€” one of history’s biggest.  A trader at the futures desk misled investors in 2007 and 2008 through a “scheme of elaborate fictitious transactions.”


    In a security review, the reviewer will first determine the criticality of an asset and focus on how that asset is accessed by employees, the risks that unauthorized access by insiders or outsiders could pose to the organization, and if access control has sufficient countermeasures in place to mitigate those risks.  In other words, the security review will determine the risk level of access control to a particular asset and what appropriate control should be in place based on level of risk. At the same time, the business’s first priority is to make information available with effective access control in place. Based on criticality, assets subject to security review present different level of risk associated with access control. In other words, “not all data breaches are created equal.”


    Authorization control is utilized to determine access to network resources. Authentication will determine the identity of the user. Authentication verifies that the login belongs to a user who is attempting to gain access to the system which can be obtained through PKI, smart cards, USB devices, tokens and biometrics.  Accounting keeps the records of user activity including what was used, when and for how long. Most of the application and operating systems have strong auditing features in place to track the activities of a user. Accounting records can be very useful for forensic evidence in case of a security breach. Authenticity covers validity of the information, if someone misrepresents your information by claiming that it is his or hers. Authenticity addresses all forms of information misrepresentation and authenticity of the system users.


    In system profiling, the reviewer determines the criticality of access control and the risk posed to an organization where the risk is directly proportional to the criticality of an asset. Higher risk will require stronger controls or perhaps multiple controls. Security review should determine that controls in place are sufficient to avoid unauthorized access and non-repudiation of information and people. In many ways a password is the weakest link in the access control of a network defense. The best passwords are at least 60 random characters, letters, numbers, and punctuation which can be stored on a portable flash drive flash drive, to be retrieved when needed. All the passwords for the critical infrastructure should have these password characteristics. One weak password in the critical infrastructure can become a launching pad to access other resources in the network.


    Security tools can be used to collect user permissions in a spreadsheet, which can be utilized to analyze the effectiveness of authentication, authorization, accounting, and authenticity. This analysis will determine if users have appropriate access based on need, role and security policy of the organization. Non-repudiation is the cornerstone of access control which assures the validity of a transaction and user. Regular monitoring and non-repudiation of users in all facets of access control might be necessary to mitigate the identity fraud associated with high profile assets. Compliance only addresses the bare minimum required to comply with a control but to measure the strength of a control in high profile assets, a security reviewer should use due care to regularly evaluate the effectiveness of access control at all levels. It might not be an example of due diligence when some regulations fail to require data encryption.


    Security Threats


    Rogue Trader Crushes Bank Societe Generale


    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4qD_ooM198


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    Tags: accounting, authentication, authenticity, authorization, bast passwords, countermeasure, data encryption, due diligence, fraud, higher risk, identity fraud, mitigate, non-repudiation, potential risks, security review, security tools, societe general, unauthorized access