Information Protection and Security

Oregon's attorney general says con artists are using the swine flu outbreak to infect computers and steal personal information.
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Facebook successfully fights off phishing scams as it announces the selection of brand protection firm MarkMonitor to help it bolster in-house security efforts.
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FTC, BBB officials say that sites promising a piece of the stimulus action are misleading at best, and may charge big bucks to provide information you could get for free.

When scammers go “phishing,” the bait they often use to hook victims into identity theft is the Internal Revenue Service. The reality: The IRS as a rule doesn’t send e-mail—especially on personal tax issues—so any incoming message alleging to be from the IRS is likely to be a scam.

Social engineering is the attempt to manipulate or trick a person into providing information or access to a system's information, by bypassing network security. A social engineering compromise can provide information on background, credit rating, medical history, and driving record, most of which is confidential. Colleges and universities are sometimes targeted for social engineering compromises due to inexperience of large numbers of students serving as part-time employees.

Identity theft is a federal crime in which an imposter obtains information by false pretenses for personal gain.

E-mails attempt to lure victims to dummy e-commerce sites in hopes of gleaning credit card numbers and passwords, the FBI says. By mimicking legitimate sites, they lull unsuspecting shoppers into giving up the information as they make what they think are legitimate purchases.
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E-mails attempt to lure victims to dummy e-commerce sites in hopes of gleaning credit card numbers and passwords, the FBI says. By mimicking legitimate sites, they lull unsuspecting shoppers into giving up the information as they make what they think are legitimate purchases.
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