Experian credit-freeze PINs could be revealed by a simple trick
The credit bureaus’ struggles with PINs continue… Continue reading Experian credit-freeze PINs could be revealed by a simple trick
Category Archives: knowledge-based authentication
USPS Finally Starts Notifying You by Mail If Someone is Scanning Your Snail Mail Online
In October 2017, KrebsOnSecurity warned that ne’er-do-wells could take advantage of a relatively new service offered by the U.S. Postal Service that provides scanned images of all incoming mail before it is slated to arrive at its destination address. We advised that stalkers or scammers could abuse this service by signing up as anyone in the household, because the USPS wasn’t at that point set up to use its own unique communication system — the U.S. mail — to alert residents when someone had signed up to receive these scanned images.
The USPS recently told this publication that beginning Feb. 16 it started alerting all households by mail whenever anyone signs up to receive these scanned notifications of mail delivered to that address. The notification program, dubbed “Informed Delivery,” includes a scan of the front and back of each envelope or package destined for a specific address. Continue reading USPS Finally Starts Notifying You by Mail If Someone is Scanning Your Snail Mail Online
Security Sense: How Do You Do Knowledge Based Authentication When All Knowledge is Public?
How do you authenticate people based on data attributes they know when that very information is continually popping up in data breaches? It’s a hard problem with no easy answers.
Security Sense: How Do You Do Knowledge Based Authentication When All Knowledge is Public?
How do you authenticate people based on data attributes they know when that very information is continually popping up in data breaches? It’s a hard problem with no easy answers.
read more
The post Security Sense: How Do You Do Knowledge Based Authenti… Continue reading Security Sense: How Do You Do Knowledge Based Authentication When All Knowledge is Public?
USPS ‘Informed Delivery’ Is Stalker’s Dream
A free new service from the U.S. Postal Service that provides scanned images of incoming mail days before it is slated to arrive at its destination address is raising eyebrows among security experts who worry about the service’s potential for misuse by private investigators, identity thieves, stalkers or abusive ex-partners. The USPS says it hopes to have changes in place by early next year that could help blunt some of those concerns. Continue reading USPS ‘Informed Delivery’ Is Stalker’s Dream
Fraudsters Exploited Lax Security at Equifax’s TALX Payroll Division
Identity thieves who specialize in tax refund fraud had big help this past tax year from Equifax, one of the nation’s largest consumer data brokers and credit bureaus. The trouble stems from TALX, an Equifax subsidiary that provides online payroll, HR and tax services. Equifax says crooks were able to reset the 4-digit PIN given to customer employees as a password and then steal W-2 tax data after successfully answering personal questions about those employees.
In a boilerplate text sent to several affected customers, Equifax said the unauthorized access to customers’ employee tax records happened between April 17, 2016 and March 29, 2017.
Beyond that, the extent of the fraud perpetrated with the help of hacked TALX accounts is unclear, and Equifax refused requests to say how many consumers or payroll service customers may have been impacted by the authentication weaknesses. Continue reading Fraudsters Exploited Lax Security at Equifax’s TALX Payroll Division
Fraudsters Steal Tax, Salary Data From ADP
Identity thieves stole tax and salary data from payroll giant ADP by registering accounts in the names of employees at more than a dozen customer firms, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. ADP says the incidents occurred because the victim companies all mistakenly published sensitive ADP account information online that made those firms easy targets for tax fraudsters. Continue reading Fraudsters Steal Tax, Salary Data From ADP
IRS: 390K More Victims of IRS.Gov Weakness
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) today sharply revised previous estimates on the number of citizens that were hit by tax refund fraud since 2014 thanks to a security weakness in the IRS’s own Web site. According to the IRS, at least 724,000 citizens were victims of refund fraud after crooks figured out how to abuse a (now defunct) IRS Web site feature called “Get Transcript” to steal victim’s prior tax da Continue reading IRS: 390K More Victims of IRS.Gov Weakness