Cybersecurity Expert

I have completed and uploaded my guide to "reducing personal risk of card & identity fraud", with 20 key tips and some FAQs about Identity fraud/theft. ITSEeducing_your_Risk_of_Identity_Theft I had a lot of interest and requests to produce a formal guide by various site visitors and offline friends. I'm aware most of the guide will be just common old sense to any security professional out there, but the guide nor generally my website is aimed at the level.

I noticed Microsoft's Eileen Brown was pondering Spam in her Blog, asking “Why the heck do these spammers keep on spamming people?" http://blogs.technet.com/eileen_brown/archive/2007/10/15/a-lot-of-spam.aspx?CommentPosted=true#commentmessage Well here’s my response… It is because out of the tens of thousands of Spam Email they send, which costs practically nothing, there are always one or two gullible people who click through to buy a product or get done, making it a profitable and worthwhile exercise. “Two years from now the Spam problem will be solved ” - Bill Gates, January 2004 Bill got that wrong, it's increased big time since then. Why the problem? Well Standard Email is just not secure, it is impossible to tell or control who has actually has sent them, not without using Certificates and PGP etc, even the latest Anti-Spam software isn't the silver bullet.

I was on national Radio Monday lunch time, taking part in a debate on cashless societies; specifically I was giving my (the security) perspective on the new Contactless Debit/Credit Cards, which will be rolled out within the UK early next year. My points were as follows: Since the introduction of Chip & Pin in the UK a couple of years ago, there are been a significant reduction in credit card fraud at the high street till (cash register), even the latest figures for the last six months show credit card fraud at the cash register is down by 11%, despite an overall rise in UK card fraud of 26%, which underlines the growing problem with card fraud. The trends show the bad guys are increasingly stealing UK card details to either use online, or to use them in countries where PIN numbers are not required to process transactions, i.e. using the magnetic strip on the back of the card instead of the chip, which I’ll get on to later in this rather lengthy post. The reason why Chip and P...

Here's my 15 tips to help reduce your personal risk of credit card fraud and identify fraud. Oh when I say identify fraud\theft, I mean when someone assumes your identify to rack up credit\loans and other fraudulent activity in your name. 1. Invest in a decent shredder, avoid cheap shredders they are a false economy, they often don’t last long anyway, and can make shredding a real chore. Try to get into the habit of regularly shredding receipts, statements or anything else with financial and personal information. 2. Never ever disclosure your PIN number, login details or passwords. Often fraudsters will “confidence trick” by appealing to either greed or fear. For example if you are told you have won a competition or entry into a free cash draw, but you have never entered the competition, I 99% guarantee it is either a scam or an attempt to collect your personal details for marketing, just remember there is no such thing as a free lunch. Also fraudsters will use fear to by pas...