How Safe Is Your Online Identity from Hackers?

Identity Theft may have happened to you already, waiting to trigger when you least expect it.

The Internet and Our World Evolving with Technology 

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"In today's world, people must keep up with technology in order to conduct their daily routines. They are required to adapt daily to new knowledge and exciting discoveries that are constantly changing the way they live and do business. Today, everything from saying hello to a friend down the street to videoconferencing with someone around the world can be done electronically, from home. Technological advances now allow people to carry out the most mundane of tasks, such as ordering groceries from the store, to the most complex activities, such as performing complicated surgery, all from a separate, remote location: a computer connected to the Internet.

Since its beginnings in the 1990s, the Internet has grown into a vast electronic network that now spans the entire globe, and it will only continue to grow. Because people use the Internet in their everyday lives, they rely on it for a safe and accurate exchange of information. Constantly, personal data such as Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, and passwords are traveling through wires, and also through the air, from one computer to another. With security measures in place to protect this sort of information online, most people feel safe on the Internet and trust that their personal information will remain confidential. But, unfortunately, criminals have also adapted to advancements in technology and, these days, people are becoming victims of crimes committed over the Internet."

Alert: Malware - Hackers Steal Millions From Banks

Reporting from NPR: "Putting in place a sophisticated digital racket, hackers were able to steal millions of dollars from up to 100 banks in what the Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab is calling "the most successful criminal cyber campaign we have ever seen."

Kaspersky, which helped uncover a piece of malicious software in the systems of bank computers, says the scheme worked like this: First the hackers were able to install malicious software on computers by phishing bank employees. That led to the infection of hundreds of machines.

The hackers kept watch until they found the computer of an administrator. That's when they recorded the screen and keystrokes to learn the system. Eventually, they mimicked the staff and transferred large sums of money from banks in Russia, Switzerland, Japan, the United States and the Netherlands to dummy accounts in other countries.

In other cases, they simply instructed ATMs to dispense money at certain times, where a conspirator would collect it. Perhaps in a sign of the hackers' sophistication, each bank robbery took two to four months from the infection of the computer to cashing the money out."

Report: Crashing Google Email App for Android

HackerNews Article: " A vulnerability has been discovered in the wildly popular Google’s Stock Android Email App, that could be exploited by malicious attackers to remotely crash your smartphone application just by sending a specially crafted email.

A Spain security researcher, Hector Marco, successfully exploited the vulnerability on his Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini running version 4.2.2.0200 of Stock Android Email App. He said the flaw appears to affect all older versions of Stock Android Email App, though devices running 4.2.2.0400 and newer versions are not affected.

According to the researcher, when the victim receives the malicious email and tries to view it, the email app crashes. Further attempts to open the email again triggers a crash in the application before the victim can do anything.

The flaw (CVE-2015-1574) is due to incorrect handling of the Content-Disposition header. Hackers could exploit the vulnerability by sending an email with a malformed Content-Disposition header to the targeted user in order to cause email application crash."