iPad2 "Give-aways" = ID Theft Too

It's lighter, thinner, faster, more elegant and at the top of any iFan's "I-want-one-of-those" list. Yes, it's the iPad2, released in the UK on March 28th. I admit as I type this blog entry on my "old" iPad1 that I will be eager to get my hands on the new version when it comes out, but not so eager as to fall for the many scams that invariably follow its launch.

High-end, big ticket electronics are a favourite of scammers looking to make a quick buck. The iPad2 is no exception and so please be warned that in the weeks before and after its launch there will no doubt be a flood of email campaigns and websites offering too-good-to-be-true deals on iPad2. They will lure you in with "free" give-aways, "buy one get on free" offers and large discount deals. The fact of the matter is that this just isn't the Apple operating model and these offers and deals are guaranteed scams.

More information to come as this develops, but for the time being, please don't be fooled into the free iPad2 scams that are already out there.

CyberCrime 2011: What to watch out for...

January is usually an exciting time of year (work wise) for someone like me, with all the security reviews of the previous year and lots of predictions about what we will be "fighting" in the next 12 months. For the most part, the security experts that put these predictions together are pretty accurate in what they say about the threats to our online identities in the coming year. After my previous post on New Year's resolutions, and highlighting some of the basic steps you can take to protect yourself, I thought I would do a quick wrap-up of my top 3 predictions being made for 2011...

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Identity Fraud New Year's Resolutions

Aah yes, the good old New Year's resolutions. Those promises that we make to ourselves but very rarely take seriously or follow through on. Apologies for sounding so cynical, but in my personal experience I battle to remember a proper New Year's resolution that I saw through right to the very end. Post Christmas weight loss and the associated gym contracts seem to be the most common failings. But there are a number of New Year's resolutions that I hope you will take seriously and be mindful of in the coming year. When it comes to protecting your digital identity, here are my top 5 New Year's resolutions...

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Online Brand Trust & Identity Theft

Trust is a funny thing. I mean everybody has their own "circle of trust" when it comes to friends, family and even colleagues or peers. Think back in history to a time when trust was little more than a handshake between gentlemen. You knew you could trust me because I said so. Times have changed, so has the trust model and the way in which it is established. Nowadays many of us have two "circles of trust", one involving real people and the other is a digital one created through our digital indetities...

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Smishing and Vishing: Are You Serious? Deadly!

Updated on Thursday, March 3, 2011 at 12:10PM by Richard Booth

When I first heard these terms a few years ago, I thought to myself that the linguistics police were going to have a field day. It was like IT slang had just gone OTT. But after a bit of investigation, I saw the connections and the justification behind these two new terms. As a play on the word Phishing (see previous posts) Smishing and Vishing are credential harvesting attacks that use SMS and voice as their attack vector. They are not as common as the good old email attack simply because they are more expensive and less scalable, but it is their relative scarcity that makes them all the more dangerous. Because of the large scale exposure to phishing, the public are starting to build up a relatively decent set of defences against it. These are not only technical and process based defences deployed by the service providers, but they include our own personal defences like being more astute in recognising such attacks...

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