The IRS, the Social Security Administration and other government agencies had a problem when dealing with the public. Scammers — often organized criminal groups or even state sponsors — impersonate genuine beneficiaries of entitlement programs (e.g. unemployment insurance, tax refunds or tax credits, social security retirement or disability benefits) and claim these benefits to themselves.…
A battle is brewing for your heart and soul — and your eyes. In one corner is Augmented Reality — AR. In the other, Virtual Reality – VR. My money is on AR, but I have been wrong before (see predictions on crypto). Let’s understand the difference in hardware, software and philosophy between AR and…
Traditionally, this time of year one either looks back at the previous year, or looks forward to the year ahead. While there have been great advances over the years with respect to informations security tools, technologies, training and awareness, significant challenges remain. What follows is my estimation of the top information security challenges for 2022.…
Forty-three years ago, on November 2, 1988, the Internet lost its innocence. Now, in reality, the Internet was never truly “innocent,” and, let’s face it, in 1988, it wasn’t even really the Internet. It was the ARPANet, or DARPANet, or MILNet… a loose confederation of large institutions like banks, government agencies and academics connected…
On June 3, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion holding that a Georgia police officer could not be prosecuted under the federal computer crime law for accessing a criminal database accessible only “for law enforcement purposes” and then selling data that he received from that database. The Court did not say that the…
In the wake of the highly publicized attacks on both gasoline and food infrastructures by Russian-based ransomware attackers, the Biden administration on June 3 issued an advisory to business leaders directing them to take action to harden their systems against ransomware and to be more resilient against similar attacks. It has also been reported that…
Both conservatives and liberals are convinced that “mainstream” social media “censors” their views and opinions. Liberals point out that so-called conspiracy theories like those peddled by Q-Anon, white supremacist and white nationalist organizations get traction from social media and are amplified by their algorithms, and that as a result, more conservative viewpoints are expressed online…
On October 28, 2020, officials from the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security assembled a conference call with healthcare industry executives warning them about an “imminent cybercrime threat to U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers.” The agencies on the conference call, which included the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), warned participants…
