Showing posts with label Cybercrime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cybercrime. Show all posts

November 23, 2014

Data 4 Ransom

The future of cybercrime will soon become the almost routine taking of your personal and corporate data as hostage. 

Once the hacker has control of it, with or without exfiltration, they will attach malware to it--like a ticking time bomb.


A simple threat will follow:


"I have your data. Either you pay for your data back unharmed OR your data will become vaporware! You have one hour to decide. If you call the authorities, you data is history."


So how valuable is your data to you?  


- Your personal information--financial, medical, legal, sentimental things, etc.


- Your corporate information--proprietary trade secrets, customer lists, employee data, more.


How long would it take you to reconstitute if it's destroyed?  How about if instead it's sold and used for identity theft or to copy your "secret sauce" (i.e. competitive advantage) or maybe even to surpass you in the marketplace? 


Data is not just inert...it is alive!


Data is not just valuable...often it's invaluable!


Exposed in our networks or the cloud, data is at risk of theft, distortion, or even ultimate destruction. 


When the time comes, how much will you pay to save your data?


(Source Comic: Andy Blumenthal)

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March 23, 2014

Six Internet Creepoids To Beware Of

There are a lot of basket cases out there--both in the physical world and in the virtual one.

The New York Times today has an article by Henry Alford about people who act or are mainly just perceived as creepy online. 

He gives examples of people who take out their smartphones (with cameras) in the locker room, who show their online photos and whoops there's an indecent doozie, who mistakenly send a critical email to the wrong person or distribution list, who say the wrong thing online because of autocorrect or autofill, and who act the detective looking up too much information about others. 

At the end, Alford calls for "more tolerance toward the gaffe-makers." 

And while we should be good people and forgive genuine mistakes, some things are not accidents and deserve the seal of "ick!"

Here's the list of 6 Internet Creepoids to seriously beware of:

1) Overly Cyber Friendly or Familiar:  People who chat, text, email, or comment in a way that portrays an inappropriate knowing or intimacy with others.

2) Cyber Stalkers: Those who unsolicitedly and unwanted or obsessively follow, friend, monitor, or harass others on the Internet.

3) Internet Trolls: Individuals who giddily sow discord with argumentative, inflammatory or extraneous messages online narcissistically or just to be jerks.

4) Cyber Exhibitionists or Voyeurs: People who inappropriately or compulsively expose themselves or watch others naked or engaged in sexual activity online. 

5) Cyber Impersonators or Identity Thieves:  Those who falsify their identities by exaggerating or masking their true selves, pretend to be someone else, or otherwise steal someone's online identity.

6) Cyber Freaks: Individuals who behave online in extreme unusual, unexpected, and frightening ways.

So while some things are innocent or accidentally creepy from otherwise nice and decent people, other actions are genuinely such from the real online creepoids. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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February 23, 2013

Analyzing The Law


So I am back in school AGAIN (I'm a life-long learner), augmenting my not so slow-paced job.

Let's just say that at this point, I recognize that the more I know, the more I don't know anything. 

The class that I am taking now is Cyberlaw, and while I did take law in business school--many moons ago--that was more focused on contracts and business organizations. 

This class looks interesting from the perspective of the legal and regulatory structure to deal with and fight cybercrime, -terrorism, and -war.

One interesting thing that I already learned was a technique for evaluating legal cases called IRAC, which stands for:

- Issues--the underlying legal matters that the case is addressing.

- Rules--what legal precedents can be applied.

- Analysis--whether those rules apply or not, in this case.

- Conclusion--rendering an opinion on the case.

This is a structured way to analyze any legal case. 

Of course, before you do these, you have to look at the facts--so that is the very first section. 

The problem with that is then you have F-IRAC and that can definitely be taken the wrong way. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

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