E-Commerce ALERTS - Archive 2009

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AS PHONES DO MORE, THEY BECOME TARGETS OF HACKING

Mobile phones are becoming ever more like personal computers. That means they are also becoming more vulnerable to traditional computer menaces like hackers and viruses — MORE

FIVE MYTHS ABOUT CYBERSECURITY

While many understand the opportunities created through this shared global infrastructure, known as cyberspace, few Americans understand the threats presented in cyberspace, which regularly arise at individual, organizational and state (or societal) levels — MORE

SOCIAL NETWORK SEARCHES COULD BE A HACKER'S DREAM

The race to include up-to-the-minute postings from popular social networks atop search results from Google, Microsoft Bing and Yahoo Search should trigger a boon - for spammers and cybercriminals. That's the consensus of search and tech security experts — MORE

GENERALLY ACCEPTED PRIVACY PRINCIPLES SEEK TO CURTAIL IDENTITY THEFT

In light of a spike in identity theft and the frequency with which personal information is stored on portable devices, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) have expanded Generally Accepted Privacy Principles (GAPP) to include protocols for securing and disposing of personal information — MORE

A CENTURY OF DIRTY WEBSITES: COMPUTER SECURITY FIRM PUTS OUT A "DIRTIEST" LIST

A list released on November 30, 2009 by security researcher Symantec details the websites which serve the most malware on the internet. The 100 dirtiest sites on the web contain anywhere from 3,500 to more than 86,000 individual computer security threats apiece — MORE

EIGHT TIPS FOR SAFE ONLINE SHOPPING

Shopping online is a great way to save time and money, but those efficiencies quickly vanish for people who lack basic online shopping smarts. Take a few minutes to review these safe shopping tips: They may just save you a world of headache and financial pain — MORE

A FLURRY OF SCAMS ACCOMPANY BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING

You can be very careful when shopping but you will still be at risk. Each time you hand your credit card to someone or transmit your credit card number over the Internet, you're putting yourself at risk. The Privacy Rights Clearing House tracks data breaches, reporting publicly on incidents of merchants and vendors exposing your private data to identity thieves — MORE

OFF-NETWORK SECURITY - IT'S ALL ABOUT ASSET MANAGEMENT

After a decade of privacy laws and billions of dollars spent on data protection, data breaches are still common and persistent. The media loves to report them. Companies have learned to fear them, and for good reason. Breaches that expose customer or employee personal data are hideously expensive, and can lead to immense brand damage — MORE

KEEPING DIGITAL 9/11 FEARS IN CHECK

The challenge to government is how to harness the skills and capabilities of a wide range of stakeholders to defend against cyber attacks: military, intelligence, law enforcement, industry, privacy advocates, lawyers, civil servants, and you and me, the average and largely pacific internet-using public — MORE

VIRUSES CAN LEAD TO CHILD PORN ON YOUR COMPUTER

The type of viruses associated with these cases, more broadly defined as malware, allows a hacker to remotely control someone else's computer, turning it into a zombie, or a Bot, computer security experts said. They have been around for years and have allowed hackers to store all kinds of data on other people's computers without their knowledge, including music, DVDs and - yes, though rarely - child porn — MORE

BANNING FACEBOOK, TWITTER AT WORK COULD BACKFIRE, SAYS ONTARIO PRIVACY COMMISSIONER

Banning employees from visiting social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter at work isn't a good idea, according to Ontario privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian. "I think it's a mistake. It's like waving the proverbial red flag in front of your staff Ð it's almost a challenge to them to find a way around it." — MORE

SMALL BUSINESS IN THE DARK ABOUT IT SECURITY

When it comes to data security and privacy risks, many small and medium-sized businesses may have their heads buried in the sand, experts say. That's because these companies tend to ignore the risks of a breach, believing they will never be targets, or that it will cost too much to beef up safety measures — MORE

SOCIAL NETWORKING SECURITY CONCERNS TOP OF MIND FOR BUSINESSES

But there's also good news. Even though the worst economic recession in decades has compelled you to spend less on outsourced security services and do more in-house, your security budget is holding steady. And more of you are employing a chief security officer — MORE

CANADIAN IT SECURITY SURVEY UNCOVERS INSIDER BREACHES ON THE UPSURGE, PARADOXES, IRONIES

Insider breaches are on the upsurge yet local organizations are concentrating their efforts on fighting malware instead. In these uncertain times you would think that companies would think twice about outsourcing, but reports indicate a majority of Canadian businesses are preparing to do just that — MORE

TOP TIPS FOR SAFE NETWORKING ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER

Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks have quickly become an integral part of the online culture, and with them comes a whole new array of potential security threats. In this article, I'll identify some of the key dangers of social networking and offer a few easy steps that you can take to stay safe online — MORE

FAILURE TO BACKUP DATA PUTS SMALL FIRMS AT GREAT RISK

Small to medium businesses (SMBs) are risking the loss of valuable corporate data because they are failing to take enough steps to secure their data and are not backing it up. Those were the rather surprising findings from a survey from storage specialists Buffalo Technology — MORE

CANADIAN ORGANIZATIONS SEE HUGE SPIKE IN DATA BREACHES

There's been a huge spike in the number of data breaches and their cost to companies across Canada. Breaches cost an average of $834,149 per organization, according to recent country-wide poll — MORE

NEW 'BANKING TROJAN' SET TO SIPHON OFF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS

Security experts agree that cyber-criminals are getting better, but a new Trojan takes things to a whole new level. The URLzone Trojan, identified by researchers at Web filtering vendor Finjan Software earlier this month, represents "the next generation of bank Trojans," said Yuval Ben-Itzhak, Finjan's chief technology officer — MORE

FIRMS HACK IT MAINTENANCE BUDGETS AND HOPE FOR THE BEST

No matter what the pundits say about an economic turnaround, times are still tough. And after technology projects are delayed or stopped, layoffs are made and next year's budget is slashed, there's one more realm where IT is feeling the pinch: maintenance cuts — MORE

PEW STUDY: INTERNET USERS NOT CONCERNED ABOUT ONLINE PRIVACY

Despite media coverage of Facebook's Beacon, data breaches and online prowling, most Internet users are unconcerned with the repercussions that sharing personal information online might bring and do nothing to limit it — MORE

WEB WARS - CYBERSQUATTING MORE PREVALENT THAN EVER

The UDRP process, set up 10 years ago, saves businesses time and money by getting offending sites down relatively quickly and without lengthy lawsuits. But it hasn't deterred cybersquatters, who lay claims to domain names that play on a virtually unlimited number of variations of well-known brand names, including common misspellings of those names, to drive traffic to their own sites — MORE

FACEBOOK MAKES PRIVACY CHANGES

Facebook has agreed to change some of its privacy policies in response to criticism from a Canadian watchdog over how much personal information it was keeping on file and sharing with third-party application developers — MORE

CYBERCROOKS USING STOLEN CREDENTIALS TO PLUNDER SMALL BUSINESS ACCOUNTS

In an alert to its members earlier this month, NACHA-the Electronics Payments Association said that attackers are increasingly stealing online banking credentials, such as usernames and passwords, from small businesses by using keystroke-logging tools and other malware — MORE

HACKERS PUT SOCIAL NETWORKS SUCH AS TWITTER IN CROSSHAIRS

Social-networking sites were the most commonly targeted vertical market according to a study of hacking episodes in the first half of the year. The study is part of the latest Web Hacking Incidents Database (WHID) report — MORE

INTERNET SECURITY: FEAR IN THE FAST LANE

One of Australia's leading figures in online law enforcement says the internet offers so many opportunities for crime that he expects "at some stage there will be real debate on the benefit of the internet". This has led Detective Superintendent Brian Hay of the Queensland Police Service to suggest that some people might ask: Should we turn it off? — MORE

ONLINE TRAVELER: SAFE SURFING WHILE ON THE ROAD

"If you are using an open WiFi network, you are extremely vulnerable," says computer security consultant Kevin Mitnick. He should know: Mitnick served five years in prison for computer capers that gained him notoriety and prompted an FBI manhunt. Here are some steps you can take to protect yourself — MORE

CYBER SECURITY IS A SERIOUS BUSINESS FOR CITIES

Local cities have cyber security at the forefront of their minds, as institutions and homeowners become increasingly dependent on ditigal technology — MORE

WEAK SECURITY OPENS DOOR TO CREDIT CARD HACKS

The government leaves it to card companies to design security rules that protect the nation's 50 billion annual transactions. Yet an examination of those industry requirements explains why so many breaches occur: The rules are cursory at best and all but meaningless at worst, according to the AP's analysis of data breaches dating to 2005 — MORE

EMAIL MISTAKES BREACHING CONFIDENTIALITY AT THE CLICK OF A BUTTON

Last month, an employee at Coast Capital Savings picked the wrong distribution list when sending an e-mail, and in the blink of an eye information about more than 450 insurance clients was sent to 75 local media outlets — MORE

VICIOUS BOTNET INFECTS A MILLION PC'S, STEALS FINANCIAL DATA

A ferocious piece of malware that's infected up to a million PCs is stealing a "tremendous" amount of financial information from consumers and businesses that log on to their bank, stock broker, credit card, insurance, job hunting and favorite e-shopping sites, a noted botnet researcher said today — MORE

TORONTO HYDRO ADMITS CUSTOMER DATA BREACH

Toronto police have launched an investigation after as many as 179,000 Toronto Hydro customer account numbers were illegally accessed in the company's e-billing system — MORE

TWITTER'S HACKER NIGHTMARE SERVES AS A BUSINESS SECURITY LESSON

A hacker made off with confidential Twitter documents after breaking into an employee's e-mail account, the company's co-founder confirmed yesterday — MORE

FACEBOOK VIOLATES PRIVACY LAW: WATCHDOG

Canada's privacy watchdog says Internet phenomenon Facebook breaches the law by keeping users' personal information indefinitely - even after members close their accounts — MORE

50,000 'ZOMBIES' TRIGGERED RECENT DENIAL OF SERVICE ATTACKS

A report from security firm Symantec Corp. said the botnet that perpetrated the recent distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) attacks on several key U.S. and South Korean government, financial and media Web sites used around 50,000 zombie computers — MORE

THE ONE ESSENTIAL TRUTH OF COMPUTER SECURITY

The intruder doesn't have to worry about all your perimeter defenses and fancy log-on techniques because the trusted end-user escorts him through. Most of the big online heists you read about don't occur because the attacker compromised some Web server or database from the Internet — MORE

'WHEN YOU MESS UP - FESS UP AND DRESS UP'

An advance "kidnap warning" issued by the RCMP in Richmond, B.C., President Obama's pre-election Facebook campaign, and the damage-control strategy adopted by Maple Leaf Foods following a Listeria outbreak traced to its Toronto plant - are all examples of outstanding leadership in challenging times, according to a disaster management expert — MORE

MALICIOUS ATTACKS MOST BLAMED IN '09 DATA BREACHES

Rogue employees and hackers were the most commonly cited sources of data breaches reported during the first half of 2009, according to figures released this week by the Identity Theft Resource Center, a San Diego based nonprofit — MORE

ACKNOWLEDGING PRIVACY CONCERNS ARBITRATOR ALLOWS GOOGLE APPS USE AT CANADIAN UNIVERSITY

Lakehead University decreased the privacy of faculty by switching to Google's Gmail service for campus communications, but is allowed to do so because there's no requirement that they provide private e-mail communications, according to an arbitrator — MORE

HEARTLAND DATA BREACH WAS DEVASTATING, CEO SAYS

The sheer magnitude of the Heartland Payment data breach prompted Jennifer Stoddart, Privacy Commissioner of Canada to call the incident "shocking". Here's what Canadian businesses need to know to get compliant with security standards and avoid business-killing fines and penalties — MORE

$55 MILLION TELECOM SCAM CRACKED, GLOBAL HACKER GANG BUSTED

as cybercrime continues to proliferate, one industry security group is hoping its work will help stem the tide of spam and scams. Cybercriminals are increasingly exploiting human vulnerabilities for financial gain — MORE

CYBER ATTACKS MUST BE CHARACTERIZED AS A CRIMINAL OFFENCE

"War - as an act of violence, is understandable to all. The question is, can "cyberspace attacks" be called "violence"? It turns out, they can, very simply and seriously. Violation of the normal functioning of government mechanisms is violence — MORE

SIMPLE STEPS GUARD USERS AGAINST SCAMS, HACKERS

Today, we'll look at ways to enjoy the online world without waking up one morning to discover that your bank account has moved to Fiji — MORE

BLACKBERRY VS. iPHONE - 30 DAY TEST TELLS WHICH IS BEST FOR BUSINESS

Yes, it was Mac versus PC all over again: The iPhone was quickly pigeonholed as a fun, polished device for the cool kids to play with versus the RIM BlackBerry's rep as a corporate standard designed to get work done — MORE

HUNDREDS DUPED BY TWITTER PHISHING ATTACKS

Twitter users who thought friends were directing them to a "funny blog" Thursday ended up experiencing something completely different: a phishing scam. Twitter was hit by two different rounds of phishing Thursday, as criminals tried to take control of user accounts and then use them as a springboard to attack others — MORE

VISHING: DO YOU REALLY KNOW WHO'S CALLING?

The Federal Trade Commission has asked a federal court to shut down two Florida companies, one a seller of allegedly phony auto warranties, the other a telemarketing company that allegedly has called more than 1 billion phone numbers since 2007. The judge granted the FTC's request for a temporary restraining order Friday, and FTC officials predicted a "dramatic decrease" in unsolicited "robocalls" — MORE

COMPUTER SECURITY ETHICS AND PRIVACY

Today, many people rely on computers to do homework, work, and create or store useful information. Therefore, it is important for the information on the computer to be stored and kept properly. It is also extremely important for people on computers to protect their computer from data loss, misuse, and abuse — MORE

KAISER HOSPITAL FINED $250,000 FOR PRIVACY BREACH IN OCTUPLET CASE

California health regulators fined Kaiser Permanente's Bellflower hospital $250,000 Thursday for failing to keep employees from snooping in the medical records of Nadya Suleman, the mother who set off a media frenzy after giving birth to octuplets in January — MORE

MOBILE DEVICES - REDUCE THE RISK OF A PRIVACY OR SECURITY BREACH

As we receive, use and send information "on-the-go", the risk of losing a mobile device or having it stolen, and the resulting risk of a data security breach, grows exponentially. Being portable and having information at our fingertips is highly convenient, but reducing the risk of a data breach is even more important — MORE

HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS - "USE A MAC"

If you're thinking of upgrading your IT setup, I would highly recommend a Mac, even if you need to run a PC. Same logic applies for laptops in your organization. Even during a recession, the productivity gained by giving your employees computers that just work can't be underestimated — MORE

SIX SIMPLE AND QUICK WAYS TO SECURE YOUR iPHONE

When it comes to mobile devices, security tops the list of IT security managers' concerns. And rightly so: According to a Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) survey of 2,024 information security professionals earlier this year, more than half of respondents say risks related to mobile devices and remote workers are up significantly compared to 2007 — MORE

CYBERCRIME MORE ORGANIZED THAN EVER, NEW REPORT SHOWS

Overall, 2008 was a continuation of that trend as cybercriminals continued to attempt the spread of malware to be used in an effort to collect confidential information. The hackers created more than 1.6 million new threats in 2008 - a staggering amount considering that 2007 saw the creation of 624,267 new threats and 2006 saw just 140,690 — MORE

USE TWITTER SMARTLY AND SAFELY FOR WORK AND PLAY

Twitter holds inherent value for both your personal and business life. As a business person, building a presence on Twitter helps you connect with customers and peers, and perhaps get feedback on your products and services — MORE

CANADIAN MP WANTS PRIVACY LAWS UPDATED TO "ACCOMMODATE" GOOGLE STREET VIEW

Last week Nepean-Carleton MP Pierre Poilievre filed a motion before a Parliamentary committee seeking Google CEO Eric Schmidt or a Canadian representative to appear before the Canadian government and help examine the privacy issues around Street View — MORE

CANADIAN RETAILER RESELLS COMPUTER DRIVE FULL OF PERSONAL FILES

Canada's largest office products store sold a returned computer hard-drive on clearance containing hundreds of personal files on it - a move privacy experts say violates key provisions of a privacy law requiring businesses to safeguard personal information of customers — MORE

FOREIGN WEB ATTACKS CHANGE SECURITY PARADIGM

Traditional security systems may be ineffective and become obsolete in warding off Web attacks launched by countries, according to Val Smith, founder of Attack Research. New attack trends include blog spam and SQL injections from Russia and China, Smith said during his talk at the Source Boston Security Showcase — MORE

WHAT NOT TO DO WITH YOUR TAX RETURN

Do you have a home computer? You think you're being careful with what you read, save and share from it? Guess what? Chances are you could be a cyber-crime victim just waiting to happen — MORE

GMAIL AND GOOGLE APPS COULD FACE PRIVACY INVESTIGATION FOLLOWING BREACH

A privacy group has asked the US Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether Google Inc.'s cloud computing services, including the popular Gmail hosted e-mail service, Google Docs and the Picasa photo sharing service, adequately protect users privacy — MORE

AS THE ECONOMY SINKS, DATA BREACHES RISE

despite advances in technology and a bevy of new regulations intended to force companies to safeguard consumer data, data thieves are as clever - and busy - as ever. While information-technology budgets are under extreme pressure these days, information security may be one area that should escape the ax — MORE

THE GOOD, BAD AND UGLY OF ID THEFT TRENDS

Identity theft is on the rise, up as much as 22 percent in 2008. Fraud of all stripes is up, too. The reason, experts say, is the recession is pushing criminals to be more brazen — MORE

ARE PASSWORDS OUR BEST SECURITY OPTION?

I'm willing to accept the fact that passwords are the best data-security option today, but they're far from perfect, primarily because of the human factor. Either our passwords are too easy to guess or we're too willing to share them, whether inadvertently (by writing them down where others can find them) or on purpose — MORE

BUSINESSES HIT BY PHONE FRAUD MAD AT TELECOM COMPANIES; WANT POLITICAL ACTION

Frustrated companies facing crippling bills totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars for phone calls made fraudulently through their voice-mail systems say they are getting little satisfaction trying to straighten out the costly mess — MORE

NEARLY 60 PERCENT OF FIRED WORKERS "STEAL COMPANY DATA" BEFORE QUITTING

A survey of 945 individuals who were laid off, fired or quit their jobs in the past 12 months shows that 59 per cent admitted to stealing company data and 67 percent used their former company's confidential information to leverage a new job — MORE

STIFF FINES, JAIL TERMS PRESCRIBED FOR SPAMMERS IN "LONG OVERDUE" CANADIAN BILL

An anti-spam bill currently before the Canadian senate - now known as S-220, An Act respecting commercial electronic messages (the Anti-Spam Act) - if passed would help Independent Service Providers (ISPs) and individuals take up arms in the global battle against spam, say industry insiders — MORE

U.S. IS WORLD'S SPAM CAPITAL, CANADA "NO LONGER" AMONG TOP OFFENDERS

Five years after Bill Gates declared that spam would be a thing of the past within two years, spammers continue to cause problems for computer users, using sites like Facebook and Twitter as a vehicle for their antics — MORE

COMPANIES LOSE $202 FOR EACH COMPROMISED CUSTOMER RECORD

Companies that are reluctant to invest what it takes on data security better be prepared to pony up a lot more if their systems are ever breached. That's the main take-away from a new report released by the Ponemon Institute LLC, which shows that the average cost of a data breach to companies is continuing to increase — MORE

FINDING YOURSELF ONLINE - INFORMATION ABOUT YOU AVAILABLE ON THE WEB

What information is available about you in cyberspace? Where does it come from? What risks does it present and what, if anything, can you do to protect yourself? To answer those questions I decided to use my own identity, Robert L. Mitchell, a national correspondent at Computerworld, as my research subject — MORE

MONSTER'S DATABASE HACKED, JOB SEEKERS' PERSONAL INFO STOLEN

Monster Worldwide Inc. is advising its users to change their passwords after data, including e-mail addresses, names and phone numbers, was stolen from its database — MORE

PHISHING SCAM LURES CANADIAN TAXPAYERS WITH PROMISE OF CASH

Tax season may seem like it's a long way off yet, but that hasn't stopped Internet fraudsters from promising taxpayers a refund in a bid to steal their personal information, according to the Canada Revenue Agency — MORE

COMPUTER PRO OFFERS SECURITY TIPS

Businesses routinely hire consultants to organize their IT (information technology) networks and be on call when viruses attack or software becomes balky. Daniel Sproul thinks businesses also should hire computer forensics experts who can spot internal IT security issues that could damage a business' operations - and reputation — MORE

ENTERPRISE DATA BREACHES ON THE RISE, REPORT FINDS

If last year was any indication, enterprise IT security pros will be busy in 2009. A report released this week by the Identity Theft Resource Center, examining data security breaches in 2008, found lots of issues to address — MORE

AUDITOR: IRS STILL VULNERABLE TO CYBER BREACHES

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service remains vulnerable to a wide range of cybersecurity problems, and the agency has fixed less than half of the vulnerabilities identified in a November audit, according to a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office — MORE

HACKERS TO TAKE AIM AT THE CLOUD, VIRTUALIZATION

The booming popularity of virtualization, cloud computing and other new technologies may prove too tempting for malware authors to resist - and could prompt a wave of attacks in 2009, according to security vendor AppRiver — MORE

WORRIES ABOUT BREACHES OF PRIVACY

It has been reported that there have been more documented data breaches in 2008 through August than in all of 2007. In addition to the damage to reputation of the corporations which have experienced the data breaches, individual victims of data theft have suffered losses for which they have sought redress in the courts and, for certain large breaches, groups of victims have also sought class action status in the courts — MORE

DESTROYING DIGITAL DATA: WHAT ARE YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES?

When it comes to electronic personal information and privacy, what is the responsible way to get rid of such information? The goal is effective destruction of the digital data such that personal information cannot be obtained or reconstructed — MORE

E-PAYMENT SITE BREACH COMPRIMISES 5 MILLION CUSTOMERS

CheckFree Corp. and some of the banks that use its electronic bill payment service are notifying more than 5 million customers that criminals took control of several of the company's Internet domains and redirected customer traffic to a malicious Web site hosted in the Ukraine — MORE

ADDITIONAL NEWS ARTICLES IN 2008 ARCHIVE

E-Commerce Alerts are issued by Bennett Gold LLP, Chartered Accountants as situations develop. Bookmark this site and check back often.