Security

Computer hackers swiped information from at least 45.7 million credit and debit cards of discount retailing giant TJX customers over the course of several years, the company confirmed this week. TJX first reported in January that hackers had breached a system that handles its credit card, debit card...

Jim Stickley, CTO of TraceSecurity makes his living sneaking into other peoples' businesses and leaving with their data. Stickley robs banks, but unlike conventional thieves, he is not after what is locked inside the vault. Instead, he steals personally identifiable information such as names, addres...

Convergence is again a hot topic. In the past, it described how voice and data traffic would eventually coexist on IP networks. Now it frequently refers to the trend of integrating information security functions into traditional corporate risk management organizations. There are good reasons for doi...

The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council launched in September as a joint venture between Visa International, MasterCard Worldwide, Discover Financial Services, JCB and American Express to continuously improve the data security standard. The group couldn't have appeared at a better time....

The wheels are in motion to create an economy free of paper money and coins. The first steps of that quiet revolution have long been in place for years and touch tens of millions of consumers every day. This includes consumers rolling through tollbooths without stopping, their in-car transponders be...

Internet auction fraud accounts for close to half of all the complaints made to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, according to a report released Friday. Of the 207,492 complaint submissions made to the Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2006, Internet auction fraud accounted for 45 percent,...

I'm an early adopter. I don't just analyze technology from the safety of my own cubicle; I bring it into my home and live with it. I find that by doing so, I gain a perspective that would otherwise be lost. About a year ago, I disconnected my traditional landline phone and signed up for VoIP service...

Approximately 10 million Americans fall victim to identity theft each year, a statistic that is expected to increase despite the diligent efforts of government and institutions to turn the tide. Leading IT security providers are arguably in the best position to understand the nature and scale of the...

Google plans to provide Web advertisers with more data and tools to combat click fraud, a damaging practice that costs advertisers an estimated $16 billion a year. The new tools are part of an effort to crack down on click fraud and dull its impact on the otherwise highly profitable pay per click on...

Unfortunately, it is now easier and cheaper than ever for those bent on illicit gain to use the Internet to obtain the private, personal information necessary to impersonate you online -- the first step for cybercriminals to gain access to your financial information. "Online identity theft is going ...

There's no doubt that online banking is widely popular in this country -- just ask the millions of customers who've signed on for the convenience it provides. As fraudsters create new scams to bilk financial services customers or to simply hijack their accounts, however, banking customer trust is on...

"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times." The oft-cited quotation from Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" seems apt when talking about the opportunity presented by digital communications and computing. It has also ushered in a new breed of cybercriminal who tries hard to use your personal...

Cybercriminals are as gung-ho about perpetrating online fraud as financial institutions and governments are dedicated to preventing it. It's not so much the number of people who have fallen victim to ID theft, but the potential for serious loss and the possibility that you or I will become the next ...

Recent high-profile data breach incidents have placed in the spotlight for many IT departments and corporate executives the importance of innovative solutions for effective identity and access management solutions. Imprivata, which specializes in identification and access management appliance soluti...

By now, you're probably familiar with the scenario: A major retailer or private institution is hit with a hack that compromises the stored data of thousands of individuals. Names, debit and credit cards, and Social Security numbers are up for grabs to the highest bidder. The breached institution off...