IT GRC Forum

Near Field Communications (NFC), is the exchange of information between two devices via wireless signal. For example, a wireless signal emitting from your cell phone can act as a credit card when making a purchase. In the case of a mobile wallet application, those devices would be a mobile phone and a point of sale device at a checkout counter.

If you were hit by a bus, and passed on to whatever heaven might exist, would you care about your Facebook page? Probably not. But your loved ones more than likely would. Things like email, websites, and social media profiles are considered “digital assets,” which may have some monetary value, but for the most part offer sentimental value to the family of the deceased.

The White House issued a statement in regards to our critical infrastructure – such as the electricity grid, financial sector, and transportation networks that sustain our way of life – have suffered repeated cyber intrusions, and cyber crime has increased dramatically over the last decade. The President has thus made cyber security an Administration priority.

The Internal Revenue Service today issued its annual “Dirty Dozen” ranking of tax scams, reminding taxpayers to use caution during tax season to protect themselves against a wide range of schemes ranging from identity theft to return preparer fraud. Here are 4:

Corporations know there are long-term marketing benefits of social media and they also know the security issues with employees continue to be a problem.

Back in 2010, The Wall Street Journal was already warning us about app developers’ lack of transparency with regard to their intentions.

The 2012 Identity Fraud Report: Social Media and Mobile Forming the New Fraud Frontier, released by Javelin Strategy & Research, reports that in 2011 identity fraud increased by 13 percent. More than 11.6 million adults became a victim of identity fraud in the United States, while the dollar amount stolen held steady.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) provides the following list of warning signs that your identity may have been stolen:

Peer to peer file sharing is a great technology used to share data over peer networks.  It’s also great software to get hacked. This is the same P2P software that allows users to download pirated music, movies and software.

A couple of weeks ago, the RSA Security conference took place in San Francisco, CA.  The increasing sophistication of hackers and visibility of data breaches (including one on the conference’s namesake company last year) makes this an exciting time to be in the security business.. While this show is for corporate IT and security professionals, there are some things that consumers can take away from all of this.

You’ve seen barcodes all your life. So you know what they look like: rectangles “boxes” comprised of a series of vertical lines. When a cashier scans a barcode, you hear a familiar beep and you are charged for that item.

USB flash drives are handy little devices that can cause big security headaches. Even with robust datasecurity policies USBdrives often fall thru the cracks (and out of pockets). These flash drives are often used by employees for both personal and business use which could potentially spread a virus from a home PC to the corporate network.