September is National Preparedness Month, so now is the time to create a plan to keep your personal information safe in case of a disaster. When a hurricane, wildfire, or tornado hit, you will need to make sure you have access to your personal identifiable information (PII) as well as other important documents to help [...]
Hurricane Dorian left damage along the east coast from North Carolina to the Bahamas. While residents work to clean up the affected areas, they face a new threat after the storm – identity theft. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), fraud spikes after a natural disaster with identity thieves and other scammers targeting [...]
An energy firm is out almost $250,000 from a high-tech phone scam that used artificial intelligence to mimic the boss’s voice. The CEO of the unnamed company, based in the United Kingdom, thought he was on the phone with his boss from the company’s German headquarters and following directions when he transferred about $243,000 to [...]
The global video-sharing site YouTube has agreed to pay $170 million in fines for violating children’s privacy laws. YouTube, owned by Google, will pay the U.S. Federal Trade and Commission $136 million along with $34 million to New York state for violating the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, by not receiving parental [...]
Scammers make up more than half of login attempts on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, according to a new report. A new fraud and abuse report by Arkose Labs found that 53% of logins along with 25% of new account signups on social media are by scammers. Most of the fraudulent [...]
A new phishing scam is using false two-factor authentication to take over Instagram accounts. The scam, recently discovered by researchers, starts with emails stating the recipients have had a login attempt into their Instagram accounts. The email states if the recipients did not attempt to log into their accounts they need to log in and [...]
Temecula, California, July 22, 2019 – Actress Bella Thorne now has IDIQ℠, the company behind the credit and identity theft monitoring IdentityIQ℠ brand, to protect her identity after a recent hacking incident exposed her personal information and photos. As an actress, director, rapper, and best-selling author, Thorne has amassed a social media following in the [...]
Five men have been charged with stealing millions of dollars from military members and veterans as part of an international identity theft and fraud ring that used stolen personal information to gain access to Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs benefit sites. The U.S. Department of Justice has charged Frederick Brown, Robert Wayne Boling Jr., [...]
Temecula, California, 21, 2019 – Credit and identity theft monitoring company IDIQ has been recognized as one of the best places to work worldwide with a Stevie® Award for Great Employers. IDIQ℠ has earned a finalist spot in this year’s Stevie Award competition and will be honored with a Gold, Silver, or Bronze Stevie Award [...]
A coordinated cyberattack has taken at least 23 government agencies in Texas offline. Most of the agencies affected by the cyberattack were smaller local governments, according to the Texas Department of Information Resources. The cyberattack has been tracked to a single threat actor. Officials first became aware of the attack when they had trouble accessing [...]
Officials of the credit monitoring site Credit Karma are blaming a “technical issue” for a data breach that exposed users’ credit and personal information to other site users. Users began posting to Reddit and Twitter this week to point out the issue, saying when they logged into the site they were given access to other [...]
Apple is offering a $1 million “bug bounty” to any hacker who can take over an Apple device without being supplied information from the device’s owner. Apple Security Chief Ivan Krstic announced the $1 million bounty during the Black Hat conference held in Las Vegas last week. The $1 million bounty is a significant increase [...]
An ex-Amazon employee who hacked Capital One consumer data might also have breached information from Ford, British telecommunications provider Vodafone, and the IT company Infoblox along with Michigan State University and the Ohio Department of Transportation. Paige Thompson, a former Amazon Web Services employee, was recently arrested for hacking into Capital One’s customer information stored [...]
With the Black Hat and DEF CON conventions – the mecca for both information security professionals and hackers alike – taking place in Las Vegas this month, one major industry focus this year is aviation software vulnerabilities. Black Hat, which runs Aug. 3 – 8, features a presentation on the Boeing 787 software system and [...]
An ex-Amazon employee has been arrested for allegedly hacking the account information of more than 100 million Capital One customers. Paige Thompson, of Seattle, is accused of exposing customers’ personal information – including names, addresses, credit scores, bank account numbers, Social Security numbers, and Canadian Social Insurance numbers – and attempting to share the information [...]
Equifax is expected to pay about $700 million for a data breach that put almost half the U.S. population’s personal information at risk. The credit-reporting firm is working to finalize an agreement that includes a $700 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, numerous state attorney general offices, and a class-action [...]
Social media giant Facebook has agreed to a $5 billion fine – the largest in Federal Trade Commission history – for violating users’ privacy. The record-breaking fine comes after the FTC began investigating the company last spring after political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica gained access to almost 87 million Facebook users’ data without their permission. [...]
Sprint has confirmed hackers were able to access account information through the Samsung website late last month, making it the second time this year Sprint customer data has been exposed. The most recent breach occurred last month through a Samsung webpage that allowed customers to add a line to their accounts. Hackers were able steal [...]
Temecula, California, July 17, 2019 – IDIQ, the company behind the credit and identity theft monitoring IdentityIQ℠ brand, is now offering 25% off for active duty and veteran military members – a group especially at risk for identity theft. Scott Hermann, co-owner and CEO of IDIQ, said the discount is not only a way to [...]
British Airways and the hotel chain Marriott are facing record-breaking fines for failing to protect customers’ personal information in two separate data breaches. Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office this month issued a $230 million (£183.4 million) fine – the largest ever imposed by the ICO – against British Airways for a data breach last year that [...]
