Home | Solutions Blog
Latest Posts
Sony Corp. on Tuesday admitted that hackers have obtained personal data and possibly credit card information of tens of millions of people who have registered for PlayStation Network, the company’s online game and movie service, as well as its Qriocity digital music service.
PlayStation is a fun game, data breach is not.
As of March 31st, the Sony PlayStation Network has about 77 million accounts. These accounts link users to the network to obtain downloads and access online movies through services like Netflix. While Sony states that not all of the 77 million accounts are active accounts and some individuals have multiple accounts, they are not denying that a breach of information occurred.
The company spokesman, Patrick Seybold, admitted that the hackers not only gained such information as names, addresses, phone numbers, user names, birth dates, email addresses and passwords of registrants; but they are unsure if credit card information was compromised as well. Update: Sony recently announced that an additional 25 million records were breached.
Posted in Cyber Data Security, Fraud Detection & Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: 77 Million, Data Breach, data security, identity theft expert, Identity Theft Prevention, Identity Theft Speaker, John Sileo, play station hacked, PlayStation, Playstation 2, PlayStation Account, Sony, Sony Breach
Remember the iconic 1984 Super Bowl ad with Apple shattering Big Brother? How times have changed! Now they are Big Brother.
According to recent Wall Street Journal findings, Apple Inc.’s iPhones and Google Inc.’s Android smartphones regularly transmit your locations back to Apple and Google, respectively. This new information only intensifies the privacy concerns that many people already have regarding smartphones. Essentially, they know where you are anytime your phone is on, and can sell that to advertisers in your area (or will be selling it soon enough).
The actual answer here is for the public to put enough pressure on Apple and Google that they stop the practice of tracking our location-based data and no longer collect, store or transmit it in any way without our consent.
Posted in Cyber Data Security, Fraud Detection & Prevention, Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Android, Apple, Big Brother, data collection, Data Mining, data security, Droid, Geo-location, Google, GPS, iPhone, John Sileo, Location Based, Mobile Phones, Mobile Security, Tracking, User Data
We’ve all done it before – left the table to get a coffee refill or go to the bathroom and left our laptop, iPad, smartphone or purse sitting on the table. We justify it by telling ourselves that we are in a friendly place and will only be gone a second. Our tendency is to blame technology for information theft, but the heart of the problem is almost always a human error, like leaving our devices unattended. Realizing that carelessness is the source of most laptop theft makes it a fairly easy problem to solve.
My office is directly above a Starbucks, so I spend way too much time there. And EVERY time I’m there, I watch someone head off to the restroom (see video) or refill their coffee and leave their laptop, iPad, iPhone, briefcase, purse, client files and just about everything else lying around on their table like a self-service gadget buffet for criminals and opportunists alike.
Posted in Burning Questions (Video), Cyber Data Security, Fraud Detection & Prevention, Identity Theft Prevention, Video Tips by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: data, data security, Digital, Expert, Identity Theft Prevention, information, ipad, iPhone, IT Department, John Sileo, laptop, protect, Security, Smartphone, Speaker, Starbucks, Theft
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ380SHZvYU[/youtube]
Posted in Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: CIA, Data Mining, Facebook, John Sileo, Onion, Online/Social Media Privacy, social networking, surveillance
Major data breaches like the recent Epsilon Breach occur frequently, even if you don’t hear about all of them. With all the publicity surrounding this particular breach, people have been asking how to remove themselves from some of those marketing lists that are frequently compromised.
Opting our of marketing databases is one way to lower your risk of becoming a data breach victim.
So, how do I get out of marketing data bases?
Most databases allow you to opt out of having them share and sell your information, you just need to find out how. Many sites make it tricky to get this done, but most sites that are selling or harvesting your information allow you to do so one way or another.
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Data Breach, identity theft expert, Identity Theft Prevention, John Sileo, Online Safety, opt out, Removal, Remove, Spokeo, spokeo.com, white pages
Identity Theft Expert John Sileo has partnered with Amazon.com for a limited time to offer the Smartphone Survival Guide for Kindle at 1/4 of the retail price.
Click Here to Order Today!
The Smartphone Survival Guide: 10 Critical Tips in 10 Minutes
Smartphones are the next wave of data hijacking. Let this Survival Guide help you defend yourself before it’s too late.
Smartphones are quickly becoming the fashionable (and simplest) way for thieves to steal private data. Case in point: Google was recently forced to remove 21 popular Android apps from its official application website, Android Market, because the applications were built to look like useful software but acted like electronic wiretaps. At first glance, apps like Chess appear to be legitimate, but when installed, turn into a data-hijacking machine that siphons private information back to the developer.
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Android, Android Market, App Store, Applications, Apps, BlackBerry, BlackBerry Security, data security, Droid, Droid Security, Expert, Fraud, Hacking, Hijacking, iPhone, iPhone Security, jail break, jail breaking, Jailbreaking, John Sileo, Lookout, Mobile Phone, safety, Security, Smart Phone, Smartphone, Smartphone Survival Guide
How should my business balance the risks of social media with the rewards of this increasingly dominant and highly profitable marketing medium? That’s the very insightful question that a CEO asked me during a presentation I gave on information leadership for a Vistage CEO conference.
Think of your move into social media (Facebook/Fan/Business Pages, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) like you would approach the task of helping your fifteen-year-old daughter prepare to drive on her own. You love her more than anything on earth and would do anything for her (just like you will go to great lengths grow your business), but that doesn’t mean you just hand her the keys. Trying to forbid or ignore the movement into social marketing is like telling your teen that they can’t get their license. It isn’t going to happen, so you might consider putting down the denial and controlling those pieces of change that are within your power. The task is to maximize the positives of her newly bestowed freedom while minimizing any negatives; the same is true in social media.
Posted in Fraud Detection & Prevention, Identity Theft Prevention, Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Business Fraud, data security, Expert, Facebook, Facebook Risks, John Sileo, linkedin, Online/Social Media Privacy, Privacy, safety, Security, Social Media Business, social networking, Social Networking Business, Social Networking Risks, Speaker, twitter, YouTube
When will corporations learn? I received 6 data breach emails yesterday because of the Epsilon’s lack of security.
Have you been inundated with more spam and phishing emails recently? If so, it may be due to one of the largest email and data breaches in Internet history. Epsilon is one of the world’s largest providers of marketing-email services and they handle more than 40 billion emails annually and more than 2,200 global brands.
Epsilon issued the following statement: “On March 30th, an incident was detected where a subset of Epsilon clients’ customer data were exposed by an unauthorized entry into Epsilon’s email system. The information that was obtained was limited to email addresses and/or customer names only.”
Posted in Cyber Data Security, Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Data Breach, Data Breach Expert, Email, Epsilon, identity theft expert, John Sileo, Spam
A close friend of mine just had his Facebook account taken over and used for pretty nasty things, so… this is just a quick reminder to change your Facebook password frequently for added security. If you have been a member for years, like most people, and have not ever changed your password, I recommend you do so right now (don’t wait, you’ll never do it later).
On a site like Facebook that houses so much of your personal reputation and information, it is good to keep passwords new and difficult to hack. We see people’s Facebook profiles get hacked every day from clicking on malware and phishing schemes – and once they have your Facebook password, they probably have the same password you use on other accounts. Changing your password frequently, as simple as it sounds, is an easy way to avoid some of the privacy problems posed by Facebook. Once you are logged in, visit your Account Settings Page. On the first page next to Password click change.
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention, Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Account Takeover, Change Facebook Password, Change Password, Facebook, Facebook Password, Facebook Safety, Facebook Safety Survival Guide, Fraud, identity theft expert, malware, Online/Social Media Privacy, Password, Security, social networking
Equifax Data Breach Protection Tips
Beware Disaster Scams in the Wake of Hurricane Harvey
Trump Russia Investigation Update: Did Campaign HELP Russians Plot Disinformation Strategy?
Is Russian Hacking of U.S. Nuclear Power Plants a Reality?
Cyber Security Experts: NotPetya isn’t Ransomware – It’s Cyber Warfare
Investigate Russian Hacking for Security, Not Politics (and get on with governing)
Identity Theft Services: Is ID Theft Monitoring Worth the $$$?
Internet Privacy Expert Reviews DuckDuckGo Private Search Engine
Stop Check Fraud with Security Checks
