Protect Yourself From Phishing(Fishing) Attacks

To help protect yourself from phishing attacks, be sure to do the following:

• Turn on Phishing Filter in Internet Explorer 7. 
• Always look for a Lock icon when doing a financial transaction or giving personal information. 
• Pay close attention to the Address bar and make sure you are at the right site. 
• If you get an e-mail and you're not sure it came from your financial institution, call them to verify before following the instructions in the mail.

Macs Infected

Trojan Virus Has Infected 600K Macs, Firm Claims

(NEWSER) – Are you a smug Mac user who assumes you can't possibly get a virus? Well, think again. A Russian anti-virus firm believes that about 600,000 Macs around the world have been infected with the Flashback Trojan virus—and about half of those are expected to be in the US. The virus may allow cybercriminals to take over infected computers en masse and use them as a "botnet," the BBC reports.

Don't panic yet, though; the firm says it hasn't actually observed any "malicious activity," and that it has "hijacked the botnet to take it out of criminals' hands." Apple released a security patch yesterday to combat the problem, but anyone who hasn't updated since is still at risk.

Protect Your Teen

Protect your teen from identity theft

As your teenage son or daughter becomes more involved in the financial world, he or she also may become more susceptible to identity theft.

Here are a few basic tips for teens that can help them safeguard their information as they become more financially independent.

Protect your sensitive information. You use your name, Social Security number, date of birth and other sensitive information to apply for, and often access, financial accounts. A thief who gets a hold of this information can use it to open a new credit card in your name, and charge purchases that go unpaid.

Any entity that requests this information from you should have a very good reason for doing so. Exercise caution with any requests, especially with any requests that arrive by email.

It's not likely that a financial institution would ask you to send such information via email, so always call the institution or log in to your online account to verify the request.

Safeguard your account numbers, checks and credit cards. Keep your checks in a safe place, and if you pay bills or shop online, check to be sure that the business is reputable and that the website is secure before entering your information. As soon as you notice your credit cards are lost or stolen, report them to the credit card issuer, so that any subsequent charges won't be billed to you.

Don't share passwords. You are the only person who should know the passwords to your financial accounts, as well as the email account where you receive financial statements and communications. (An exception to this rule can be a letter of instruction that you prepare for your family in case anything happens to you.)

It's generally a good practice not to share your passwords, to store them in a safe place, and to use different passwords for each account.

Review credit reports every year for errors and fraud. Errors can happen, and left alone, they can negatively impact your credit rating for some time. You can avoid this by pulling up your credit reports every year, once you have a loan or credit card in your name. You can go to www.annualcreditreport.com to request a free credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus. You are entitled to receive these free reports once every twelve months.

Your credit reports also can alert you to fraudulent accounts opened in your name. You can lessen the potential damage to your credit rating if you catch such activity early.

Review your bills and statements as you receive them. If you have questions about recurring fees, or if you find a mistake or a charge that you didn't incur, it's best to deal with them as early as possible. Try to look over your statements as soon as you get them, call your financial institution with any questions, and keep your files organized so that you can retrieve them easily when you need them.

Safeguard your records. Keep your important records in a place where only you can access them. When you make electronic backups, password protect your files in order to secure them. Use a safety deposit box for your most sensitive records, and shred any records that you plan to dispose.

Computer Intrusion

Bots. Worms. Viruses. Spyware. Malware. Hacking.

Every day, criminals are invading countless homes and offices across the nation—not by breaking down windows and doors, but by breaking into laptops, personal computers, and wireless devices via hacks and bits of malicious code.

The collective impact is staggering.
Billions of dollars are lost every year repairing systems hit by such attacks. Some take down vital systems, disrupting and sometimes disabling the work of hospitals, banks, and 9-1-1 services around the country.

Who is behind such attacks?
It runs the gamut—from computer geeks looking for bragging rights…to businesses trying to gain an upper hand in the marketplace by hacking competitor websites, from rings of criminals wanting to steal your personal information and sell it on black markets…to spies and terrorists looking to rob our nation of vital information or launch cyber strikes.

Today, these computer intrusion cases—counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal—are the paramount priorities of our cyber program because of their potential relationship to national security.

"Gameover" Malware

Cyber criminals have found yet another way to steal your hard-earned money: a recent phishing scheme involves spam e-mails—purportedly from the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA), the Federal Reserve Bank, or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)—that can infect recipients’ computers with malware and allow access to their bank accounts.
The malware is appropriately called “Gameover” because once it’s on your computer, it can steal usernames and passwords and defeat common methods of user authentication employed by financial institutions. And once the crooks get into your bank account, it’s definitely “game over.”
Gameover is a newer variant of the Zeus malware, which was created several years ago and specifically targeted banking information.



How Can You Protect Yourself?

• Obviously, make sure your computer’s anti-virus software is up to date.
• Don’t click on e-mail attachments from unsolicited senders. NACHA, FDIC, and the Federal Reserve all say they don’t send out unsolicited e-mails to bank account holders. If you want to confirm there’s a problem with your account or one of your recent transactions, contact your financial institution directly.
• Don’t accept unsolicited jobs online that require you to receive funds from numerous bank accounts and then wire the money to overseas accounts—you could get caught up in a criminal investigation.

Cyber Crime Report

Cyber Crime Report

Crooks are realizing that hacking into computers and stealing identities and credit information is easier, and more lucrative, work than drug trafficking, reports Bob Orr.

Guideline To Donations

Before making a donation of any kind, consumers should adhere to certain guidelines, including the following:

• Do not respond to any unsolicited (spam) incoming e-mails, including clicking links contained within those messages because they may contain computer viruses. 
• Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as surviving victims or officials asking for donations via e-mail or social networking sites. 
• Beware of organizations with copy-cat names similar to but not exactly the same as those of reputable charities. 
• Rather than following a purported link to a website, verify the legitimacy of non-profit organizations by utilizing various Internet-based resources that may assist in confirming the group’s existence and its non-profit status. 
• Be cautious of e-mails that claim to show pictures of the disaster areas in attached files, because the files may contain viruses. Only open attachments from known senders. 
• To ensure contributions are received and used for intended purposes, make contributions directly to known organizations rather than relying on others to make the donation on your behalf.
• Do not be pressured into making contributions, as  reputable charities do not use such tactics. 
• Do not give your personal or financial information to anyone who solicits contributions. 
• Providing such information may compromise your identity and make you vulnerable to identity theft. 
• Avoid cash donations if possible. Pay by debit or credit card, or write a check directly to the charity. 
• Do not make checks payable to individuals. 
• Legitimate charities do not normally solicit donations via money transfer services.
• Most legitimate charities websites end in .org rather than .com.  
• There are scams targeting Haitian immigrants and their families offering assistance in getting family members and friends out of Haiti.  
• These individuals charge a fee and then claim they will provide the necessary immigration paperwork or an airline ticket for disaster victims to leave Haiti.  For official information pertaining to immigration from Haiti to the U.S., visit the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website at www.USCIS.gov. 

Ten Crime Types

During 2010, the non-delivery of payment or merchandise was the most reported offense, followed by
FBI-related scams and identity theft.

Ten Crime Types
Type                                                          Percent

1. Non-delivery Payment/Merchandise         14.4%
2. FBI-Related Scams                                13.2%
3. Identity Theft                                            9.8%
4. Computer Crimes                                     9.1%
5. Miscellaneous Fraud                                 8.6%
6. Advance Fee Fraud                                   7.6%
7. Spam                                                       6.9%
8. Auction Fraud                                           5.9%
9. Credit Card Fraud                                     5.3%
10. Overpayment Fraud                                 5.3%



Definitions of Cyber Crimes

• Non-Delivery Payment/Merchandise(non-auction) – Purchaser did not receive items purchased, or seller did not receive payment for items sold.
• FBI-Related Scams – Scams in which a criminal poses as the FBI to defraud victims.
• Identity Theft – Unauthorized use of victim’s personally identifying information to commit fraud or other crimes.
• Computer Crimes –1) Crimes that target computer networks or devices directly or 2) crimes facilitated by computer networks or devices.
• Miscellaneous Fraud – Variety of scams meant to defraud the public, such as work-at-home scams, fraudulent sweepstakes and contests, and other fraudulent schemes.
• Advance Fee Fraud – Criminals convince victims to pay a fee to receive something of value, but do not deliver anything of value to the victim. 
• Spam – Mass-produced, unsolicited bulk messages. 
• Auction Fraud – Fraudulent transactions that occur in the context of an online auction site.
• Credit Card Fraud – Fraudulent, unauthorized charging of goods and services to a victim’s credit card.
• Overpayment Fraud – An incident in which the complainant receives an invalid monetary instrument with instructions to deposit it in a bank account and to send excess funds or a percentage of the deposited money back to the sender.

Change In Cyber Crime

Historically, auction fraud has been the leading complaint reported by victims, with a high of 71.2 percent of all referrals in 2004. However, in 2010, auction fraud represents slightly more than 10 percent of referrals. This demonstrates the growing diversification of crimes related to the Internet.

Cyber Security Needed

Today's In-Demand Cybersecurity Career Paths Include:

• Cyber policy analyst

• Chief security officer

• Cyber security software engineer

• Digital forensics expert

• Information systems security administrator

The advancement of computers and communication technology continues to have a profound impact on our lives, and the workplace needs technically competent people to provide appropriate computing solutions for users.

The growing number and diversity of consumer electronic devices offer criminals and terrorists a wealth of opportunity to hide harmful information. As a result, many crimes today have a digital component. Police and security forces are being pushed to the limit to investigate, collect and analyze the growing amounts of suspected data — all while preserving the digital chain of custody.

Digital Forensics Solution provides investigators greater flexibility to analyze cases through:

The ability to open multiple instances of forensics software from a single session — our single-pane-of-glass approach Consolidated storage repository that allows for greater team collaboration while maintaining full evidence chain of custody Complete end-to-end solutions for both field 'Triage' operations and in-lab forensics investigations.