How safe is your credit card number with merchants?
In the UK at least, there are rules outlining how merchants deal with credit cards and other secure information. This set of rules is maintained by the PCI Security Standards Council. The main credit card issuers have all agreed to implement these standards when issuing their compliance requirements to merchants. This means that merchants have [...]
Would you send money to help a friend?
I’ve read a several articles about this in the past few weeks. Someone hacks an email account and uses the account’s own contact list to ask ‘friends’ and contacts for money citing some personal tragedy or immediate need. Often these people interact with the contacts using the terminology, phrases, sign off names of their victim [...]
‘Sucker’ List discovered by Financial Services Authority
An article on the FSA’s site shows that the scamming industry is still alive and well. 38,000 UK names have been discovered on a list used by fraudsters dealing in worthless stocks and shares.
Password reset vulnerabilities
Traditional password reset questions such as “Mother’s maiden name” or “favourite colour” are too easily guessable by robots from publicly available lists and search engines. Companies use this system to save support costs but we need a new, more robust method to authenticate who you are.
Forget passwords, you are the biggest threat to yourself
Would you give your personal details out over the phone? Of course not! But what if the call was from your utility or phone provider and needed to discuss your account?
