Electronic car fobs broken by car thieves
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Do not leave valuables in sight in your car. TODAY goes on to recommend that you don’t leave your garage door opener or your car registration in your car either. You’re leaving yourself open to a home invasion and identity theft as well.
I read an article at SC magazine yesterday about how Gmail Vault saves every draft of every email–as well as versions of drafts–timestamped, sent or unsent, from a Gmail account that uses Vault. Vault is an email storage service that costs $5/month for organizations that use Google Apps.
If the organization that you work for uses Gmail for their email server, then they could have access to every email in Vault without even having to ask for your credentials. Note: this doesn’t mean that your organization will access your email, or even that it’s legal, but they could have access if they wanted it.
What does this mean to you?
That article brings up another question: How can you encrypt personal email? There are some alternatives to investigate to see if one of them will work for your situation. Here are some providers of free, secured email:
I’m going to test drive each of them and report back on ease of use.
Payment cards that are Near Field Communication (NFC) are experiencing charging errors in the UK
What is NFC you say? It’s a card that is intended to work without it having to touch the card reader. The problem is some people are getting charged twice even though they didn’t take the card out of their wallets or purse. It’s a good idea to get a RFID-shielding cover for your debit / credit cards and your passport. Or you can make a cover from aluminum foil, instructions here http://www.rpi-polymath.com/ducttape/RFIDWallet.php
Note: the cover might not keep the card or passport from being read entirely, but it will cut down on the distance that the contents can be read at.
I do not recommend trying to damage the RFID chip.
This story is a timely reminder to keep an eye on your financial transactions!
What’s a “Patent Troll”? One definition of a patent troll is an organization that owns a patent which it intends to use for the sole purpose of suing someone else. A patent troll typically does not market or manufacture the product that the patent covers. The FTC calls them “patent assertion entities” or PAEs, and recently released a 309-page report on patents available here http://www.ftc.gov/os/2011/03/110307patentreport.pdf.
Why would you care? Well, according to articles in Ars Technica, a patent troll recently has been sending letters out to small businesses of between 10-100 employees demanding that they pay a licensing fee per employee for using the scan-to-email function on their multifunction printer because of patents owned by MPHJ Technology. You can read more details of this story in http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/04/meet-the-nice-guy-lawyers-who-want-1000-per-worker-for-using-scanners/.
Personally, I found the promoted comment from Dinglehoser (who says he is a patent attorney) on page 2 at the bottom of this article http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/01/patent-trolls-want-1000-for-using-scanners/2/ enlightening. His comment talks about AIA, the America Invents Act, and how it could affect patent trolls. According to http://www.lexisnexis.com/community/patentlaw/blogs/patentlegislationandreform/archive/2013/02/19/patents-post-grant-patent-trolls-drive-demand-for-new-aia-post-grant-proceedings.aspx, AIA is supposed to make patent litigation faster and more cost-effective.
What is “medical record theft” and why would someone want to steal your medical information? Simple.
The hospital or clinic a person goes to most likely keeps their records on a computerized system called an “electronic medical record” or EMR. What is a thief looking for? Your medical record contains information like your insurance company information, other identity information, financial information, and drug information. The thieves use this information to steal medical services, obtain prescriptions, and maybe even identity and financial information to use in identity theft.
And what if the hospital or clinic shares information with another business partner, such as a consulting doctor?
Recent health care breaches:
What can you do if your records are stolen? Here’s what the FTC recommends: http://ftc.consumerdev.org/bcp/edu/microsites/whocares/medicalidt.shtm
The FTC is holding hearings on Medical ID theft.
References: SC magazine http://www.scmagazine.com/id-thieves-find-gold-in-medical-data/article/236302/
Bitcoin is an open-source, peer-to-peer digital currency, using an MIT license. The site http://bitcoin.org/en/ explains what Bitcoin is and how to use it. It’s a very cool idea …
So what’s the downside you ask?
All you have to do is Google “Bitcoin issues” and a bunch of hits will come up dated within the last month:
But maybe one of the worst problems of all is an article published on May 2,2013 by Parity News: http://paritynews.com/web-news/item/1034-esea-league-stuffed-bitcoin-mining-code-inside-client-software. It started as an April Fool’s joke, where the E-Sports Entertainment Association (ESEA) League mined Bitcoins from their users by inserting code in their client software. At least, one of their administrators took responsibility for the “joke,” which wasn’t very funny in the end. Several users even claimed that their video cards were damaged because of overheating caused by the ESEA malware.
A cool idea, but maybe not a mature enough technology to use yet. Sometimes it’s a good idea to wait and see, especially if it involves your money or your privacy.
Do you think more public surveillance cameras will make you safer? Will they make you feel safer? Or will they allow the authorities to track down perpetrators more easily? Reason.com’s article “Saying Privacy Is ‘Off the Table,’ NYC Police Commissioner Demands more Surveillance Cameras” is very enlightening.
Read this article at http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/02/electronics-border-seizures/ about how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can seize and search your electronic devices at the border without cause. The border as defined by DHS extends 100 miles inland from the physical US border.
How long can they keep your devices? It’s not really defined, although according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), devices are usually return within 5 days. How long can DHS keep your data and what can they do with it? Again, according to the EFF, procedures are not clear for handling sensitive or confidential data.
If you need to travel with electronics, the EFF has a guide on how to “make your data less vulnerable at the border” at https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/11/effs-guide-protecting-devices-data-border. Always make sure that you back up your data before traveling, just in case any of your electronic devices are confiscated, lost, stolen, or damaged.
If you value your privacy, the EFF website is worth reading on a regular basis.
Intentional Privacy 