Everything you type on your PC, whether it’s a Web address, your credit card information, user names and passwords – everything – is fair game for key loggers, the hacker-jerks who want to steal your identity and make your life miserable.
Rather than wasting your time reading the rest of this column, hie thee to www.keyscrambler.com and download the free version of KeyScrambler for Windows PCs. If you’re impressed, fork over either $30 or $45 for more powerful versions.
KeyScrambler is simple to use. Once it’s installed, you don’t have to worry about it. As you type in a Web address, user name, password or any other sensitive bit of information, KeyScrambler encrypts it – you can actually watch it generate nonsense character in a little window at the top of your Web browser. I installed it on both Internet Explorer and Firefox, and in both cases, it worked just fine.
Those nonsense characters are all a hacker can see, and that won’t do him a bit of good. Your password, for example, comes out as c&b% (or some such combination).
Unlike some commercial programs that protect against the key logging programs they know about, KeyScrambler protects against any key-logging program because it encrypts everything that’s typed into a browser window or other sensitive fill-in-the-blanks
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Intelligence-led policing, an umbrella concept which includes “predictive policing,” could help move police departments beyond the increasingly outdated Community Policing model and toward a more-professional approach that envisions crime suppression and control as the most important result of good police work. The premise of “predictive policing” is that human behavior is predictable, which opens the door to computer-assisted techniques that can forecast subtle patterns of specified criminal activity.
Though at first blush it appears that intelligence-led policing and “predictive policing” are the same, they are, in fact, slightly different. According to David Sklansky of the University of California at Berkley, “[t]he main distinction between intelligence-led policing and predictive policing is that predictive policing claims to be more ambitious and more technologically sophisticated…” In other words, “predictive policing” may be more aggressive in its application of intelligence-led policing techniques, a distinction that may be more obvious in theory than practice.
Let’s also be clear at the outset. “Predictive policing” isn’t predictive. Using computer algorithms it estimates where certain types of crime may occur, in a similar way that meteorologists forecast weather or seismologists estimate earthquake aftershocks. No crystal balls, necromancy, witchcraft, prophecy, or freakish “precogs” — only inputs, outputs, and informed analysis of criminal patterns, not individual criminal behavior.
Database-Dependent Approach
This approach is likely more useful in large departments with multiple but unlinked databases that supervisors and administrators now use to track and report past criminal behavior and request future resources. Smaller departments lacking technological resources may find themselves using less sophisticated, manual techniques.
Using “predictive policing” models, supervisors can allocate current police resources in anticipation of criminal activity. In essence, it takes a large amount of data and, with proper analysis, transforms information into actionable intelligence.
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This is hard to do when you’re not sure where all the broken cameras are…or when they’re broken.
“It’s like your cell,” Commander Andrew Smith explained. “My Verizon works great except when I make the corner off the 405 freeway. But it’s sporadic. Sometimes I pick up the phone in my living room and it cuts out, sometimes I pick it up and it works great.”
There are 38 cameras in downtown Los Angeles that were purchased with donations from private organizations in the neighborhood. Of those, ten are in Skid Row… and none of them are in great shape.
“Some are broken, some of them are down,” said Captain Horace Frank, commanding officer of Central Division (which oversees Skid Row). “And there’s no money to put them back online. In the end, it all comes back to money.”
The biggest problem, they say, is upkeep. The LAPD has gone through multiple maintenance companies in its effort to find one reliable source of upgrades for the years-old camera technology. The first company it went through went bankrupt. So did the second. So did the third.
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When George Orwell’s classic novel “1984″ was first published in 1949, it foreshadowed a society with an omnipresent Big Brother watching our every move.
But it did not foresee how technology would allow us to become ‘Little Brothers.” Or that so many would be using GPS tracking features in smart phones, webcams in bedrooms and surveillance cameras just about everywhere else to monitor what others are doing at all hours of the day.
From businesses monitoring criminal activity, customer flow and employee performance to private citizens protecting their property, watching over their families and seeking a lifestyle of convenience, there has been a boom in do-it-yourself security options.
“There’s no doubt that the cost, advancement and capacity of technology to provide things like remote video for protective purposes has really made it available to a much broader range of businesses and for people, as well,” said Hank Monaco, vice president of marketing for ADT Commercial Security in Boca Raton.
Mudassar Ismail owns several restaurants and he can monitor all of them in real time and record the video feeds.
“I can watch [surveillance] cameras on my phone and my laptop,” Ismail said.
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A new industry group is forming in the mid-Atlantic region to combat cargo theft in the area.
The Virginia Carolinas Cargo Security Council will be modeled after a handful of other cargo security organizations in other parts of the country, Torry Shealy, a member of group’s steering committee, told Security Director News. While cargo theft is a bigger problem in states like Florida, California and Texas than it is in Virginia and the Carolinas, Shealy said the region wants to be proactive.
“If you look at overall trends, it’s trending toward an increase [in cargo theft] nationwide,” said Shealy. “But if we can organize and have companies putting procedures in place and adopting some technology or just increase facility security, vetting of employees, etc., there’s probably a good chance that they can protect themselves against this.”
Shealy said the council’s main missions will be to connect the industry with local and state law enforcement and to facilitate information sharing among different players in the supply chain, from manufacturers to distributors, trucking companies and warehouses. “A lot of times when you get security guys together, they’ll say we tried this and we tried that,” he said. “Getting together as a group and talking about that itself can be a great exchange of ideas as far as increasing security operations at your facility.”
The Virginia Carolinas Cargo Security Council’s steering committee also includes Jennifer Bennett, manager of asset protection at Polo/Ralph Lauren; Mike Johnston, regional security manager for DSC Logistics; Dennis Brannon, president of DRB Agency; and Doug Wilkes, DRB Agency’s sales manager.
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Had the LAPD worked to keep these cameras functioning, it may have arrested several perpetrators by now
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) recently admitted that many of downtown LA’s surveillance cameras don’t work because it doesn’t know how to work or maintain them correctly.
The surveillance cameras, which were put in place in order to assist the LAPD in solving crimes, were purchased by local business groups and installed over the last few years. The LAPD was then supposed to monitor the cameras and the activity captured.
However, the LAPD recently confessed that about three dozen downtown cameras were not maintained correctly, thus do not work. The police department was not trained on how to maintain the cameras, and it had a difficult time finding a vendor to take care of the cameras for the department.
Police officers who did try to monitor and maintain the cameras sometimes ended up breaking the devices because the system, which was placed in a closet-sized room, overheated.
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Most of the surveillance cameras installed in downtown Los Angeles as part of an effort to help police crack down on crime have not been working for two years, according to interviews and records reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.
The cameras were installed over the last few years in a highly publicized partnership between local business groups, which purchased them, and the Los Angeles Police Department, which was meant to monitor and maintain them.
But officials said the majority of the cameras don’t work. Some broke down and were never fixed. In the case of six cameras purchased to watch over the Little Tokyo neighborhood, LAPD officials admit they were never plugged into the police station’s monitoring bank.
Frustration about the broken cameras has deepened in recent days after a string of stabbings on a block in Skid Row. In one case, a 53-year-old man died after being stabbed and beaten by more than half a dozen suspects. No arrests have been made.
A camera is located just above where the stabbings occurred, but officials said the device was not working properly.
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The world’s largest commercial genealogy website this week removed the Social Security numbers of recently deceased individuals, two weeks after lawmakers urged the site, Ancestry.com, to stop enabling ID thieves by posting the sensitive information.
A spokeswoman for the Provo, Utah, company said that “there was some sensitivity” about the company policy of releasing the numbers. That led to a “purposeful decision” to not post the numbers for those who have died in the last 10 years, spokeswoman Heather Erickson said.
An employee with a second website, Genealogybank.com, said that the Naples, Fla., company also has decided to stop posting Social Security numbers.
The moves come six weeks after a Scripps Howard News Service investigation showed how people obtain and use the deceased’s Social Security numbers — which are freely released by the government — to commit identity fraud, including submitting false tax returns and collecting refunds.
Responding to the Scripps Howard articles, Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, introduced legislation to limit the release of the so-called “Death Master File,” while Senate Democrats urged Social Security Administration Commissioner Michael Astrue to stop releasing the information.
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Police are encouraging nightclubs to use digital technology such as scanning people’s fingerprints to help tackle problems with revellers.
One Cardiff nightspot uses such a system already and police will host a demonstration next week to persuade more licensed premises to sign up.
Nick Newman, of Cardiff Licensees Forum, said: “I’m expecting quite a few more to invest in it”.
But one leading city councillor said it raised issues over civil liberties.
Customers at the Ladybird Lounge in Mill Lane are among the first in Cardiff to use a new technology which scans their driving licence or passport.
Clubbers also have the option of having their fingerprint scanned so they do not need to produce identification documents in future.
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When it comes to “white collar” crime, finance directors, chief executives and other senior management are far more likely to be involved in fraud – such as the mis-statement of financial results, theft and expense abuse – than junior staff. The economic downturn has also made it a lot easier to commit fraud, according to research by KPMG, which warned that scams go undetected for longer.
The consultancy’s global analysis of fraud trends suggests that the typical fraudster is male, aged 36 to 45, holds a senior job in finance, has worked for his company for more than a decade and acts in collusion with a partner. What should send alarm bells ringing across companies is a jump in the number of cases involving the exploitation of weak internal controls – up to 74% in 2011 from 49% in 2007.
The recession and continued difficult economic climate may be partially to blame, according to the report. Tighter budgets are forcing some companies to cut costs in risk management and control, giving fraudsters more opportunities to falsify accounts or siphon off funds. But personal greed remains the prime motivation for fraud, followed by pressure to reach tough profit and budget targets.
“Organisations should take some of the blame,” wrote Phillip Ostwalt, Richard Powell and Mark Leishman, the authors of the KPMG report. “For them, it is time to consider how they contribute to fraud when failing to detect or respond to lapses or gaps in controls, or by setting overly onerous targets… There tends to be less fraud in companies that make intolerance of fraud part of the corporate culture and which set realistic and achievable targets for employees.”
In 2007, nearly half of all fraudsters worked in senior management. While this has fallen to 35%, board level perpetrators increased from 11% to 18% between 2007 and 2011.
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Canadians will be packing more plastic in their wallets with the launch of new polymer bills that replace paper-cotton notes.
The Canadian dollar has traded above parity with the U.S. greenback for months, and gets technologically tougher with the new plastic money designed to thwart counterfeiters.
The polypropylene substrate lasts 2.5 times longer and makes it harder to copy than the existing paper-cotton money, according to the Bank of Canada. It marks the first full-scale use of a substrate other than paper for Canada’s currency.
The two-windowed $100 note enters circulation in November and celebrates Canadian contributions to science. Aside from images of DNA, an ECG, insulin, and a researcher using a microscope, it has two portraits of Prime Minister Robert Borden. One is a unique holographic likeness set in a clear plastic window that changes colors with the viewing angle.
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The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has completed a first round of field-testing on a program designed to spot people who intend to commit a terrorist act. Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST) was employed at an undisclosed location in the northeast, according to Nature News. FAST measures a wide variety of physiological indicators, from the steadiness of a person’s gaze to their heart rate, to judge a subject’s state of mind. FAST differs substantially from the polygraph, however. It relies on non-contact sensors, so it can measure indicators as someone walks through a corridor at an airport.
The project has drawn comparisons to the science-fiction concept of “pre-crime”, made famous in the film Minority Report, in which security services are able to detect criminal intentions. FAST has attracted criticism from researchers who question the science underlying it. “No scientific evidence exists to support the detection or inference of future behaviour, including intent,” declares a 2008 report prepared by the JASON defence advisory group.
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