onClick Biometrics in touch

New Zealand knows what's up.

New Zealand press is voicing opinion and fact about Australia's biometric projects. Here's something about the 'privacy sacrifice' and the other an opinion on the large-scale deployment for personal identification. Both see the realities of biometrics as being beneficial, but require a necessary strict control over how they are used and collected.

Biometrics: 'the deal' at the heart of privacy sacrifice.
Biometrics code needed to keep big brother honest.

Largest identity theft case ever!

In the US, a case is underway against Philip Cummings, who along with others, stole identities of up to 30,000 people.

Wow. That's a lot of people.

And to think - this was a third party company that this guy worked for and ultimately stole from. One that as a consumer, you don't really have much control over as to whether they have your information and for how long. People would go into their bank, ask for a loan, and the bank would then call up the help of Teledata, who would provide a credit report from any or all of the three credit history bureaus.
Waiting there at Teledata in the help desk, was little Cummings, antsy to make some free money off of you.

He could face up to 50 years in prison. Hopefully he gets everything that's coming to him, as a sort of 'look-out-other-would-be-theives-this-will-be-you' gesture.

Ex-Teledata employee pleads guilty in massive ID theft case.

My password is 'smokingkitty'

Okay, so this article isn't that different from a bunch of others that have been posted here - the same stuff about how people use names of people, places, and things that are familiar to them as passwords (surprise!). And how those are very easy to guess, even when their intent is to make it difficult (double surprise!).
Basically though, I'm just putting this article here because the image they used for it cracked me up. Is that cat smoking a cigarette??
Is your cat a target for password-stealing hackers?

Put in perspective.

The Ten Immutable Laws of Security (taken from here. Via here.)

1. If a bad guy can persuade you to run his program on your computer, it's not your computer anymore.

2. If a bad guy can alter the operating system on your computer, it's not your computer anymore.

3. If a bad guy has unrestricted physical access to your computer, it's not your computer anymore.

4. If you allow a bad guy to upload programs to your web site, it's not your web site any more.

5. Weak passwords trump strong security.

6. A machine is only as secure as the administrator is trustworthy.

7. Encrypted data is only as secure as the decryption key.

8. An out of date virus scanner is only marginally better than no virus scanner at all.

9. Absolute anonymity isn't practical, in real life or on the web.

10. Technology is not a panacea.

If that's what it takes...

Everyone has a lot to lose when it comes to someone stealing their identity. We all have something someone else wants. Military personnel are no exception. They are one of the easy targets, just like professional football players.
So in response to the raised efforts to prevent the crime and punish criminals, the military has dropped the first five numbers in social security numbers on paper. If an identity theft wants to expand his business, now he'll just have to work a little harder for it.
Military guards against identity theft.

UK citizens have help getting their life back.

If your identity resides in the UK, they've laid out the red carpet of helping hands. This site is here to help you with the before, after, and how-to of identity theft.
Gov.uk launches anti-fraud website.

We might need a bigger prison for this...

President Bush passed the Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act this morning. A little bit of relief should come over you - this is finally one matter that's heading in the right direction.

This new law establishes in the federal criminal court the offense of aggravated identity theft. And someone convicted of that crime can expect to go to jail for stealing a person's good name. These punishments will come on top of any punishment for crimes that proceed from identity theft. For example, when someone is convicted of mail fraud in a case involving stolen personal information, judges will now impose two sentences, one for mail fraud, and one for aggravated identity theft. Those convicted of aggravated identity theft must serve an additional mandatory two-year prison term. Someone convicted of aggravated identity theft, such as using a false passport in connection with a terrorism case, would receive an additional prison sentence of five years. In addition, judges will not be allowed to let those convicted of aggravated identity theft serve their sentence on probation.

And if you are employed at a business that keeps customer information, and you abuse it, that's jail time for you too.

1 Point for the President.

Doing all they can for your name.

MasterCard is taking their stab at minimizing online fraud by partnering with another company that seeks out phishing scams.
MasterCard takes swipe at online fraud.

How to protect yourself in Scotland

It is well known at this point that thieves can come across identities in more ways than one, the internet being one of them.
So how does it become second nature to sniff out bad deals and ill-fated intentions? A little bit of common sense and psychic ability.
But if you have neither of those, another biometric technology is being worked on currently.

Software is being developed by researchers from Queen Mary University of London, which enables the computer to recognise exactly how the cardholder signs their name.
It uses biometrics, a technology which has been developed to help identify a person by the iris, retina, fingerprints, facial features or by voice pattern.
The system analyses the range of movement when the user moves the mouse to write their signature.

Safe surfing.

Citibank: They make identity theft fun to watch!

You've probably seen these by now, but have you seen all of them? Here are all of the Citibank Identity Theft commercials in all their glory. There's actually eight of these suckers, and no doubt they all get their point across.
Citibank Identity theft solutions commercials.