security freeze

March 14, 2016

From Stolen Wallet to ID Theft, Wrongful Arrest

This post was originally published on this site It’s remarkable how quickly a stolen purse or wallet can morph into full-blow identity theft, and possibly even result in the victim’s wrongful arrest. All of the above was visited recently on a fellow infosec professional whose admitted lapse in physical security lead to a mistaken early morning arrest in front of his kids. The guy police say stole Miller’s wallet and got him wrongfully arrested was himself apprehended earlier this month. On the morning of Feb. 20, Lance Miller was arrested in front of his two children by local sheriffs in Golden, […]
June 10, 2016

IRS Re-Enables ‘Get Transcript’ Feature

This post was originally published on this siteThe Internal Revenue Service has re-enabled a service on its Web site that allows taxpayers to get a copy of their previous year’s tax transcript. The renewed effort to beef up taxpayer authentication methods at irs.gov comes more than a year after the agency disabled the transcript service because tax refund fraudsters were using it to steal sensitive data on consumers. During the height of tax-filing season in 2015, KrebsOnSecurity warned that identity thieves involved in tax refund fraud with the IRS were using irs.gov’s “Get Transcript” feature to glean salary and personal information they […]
August 1, 2016

Social Security Administration Now Requires Two-Factor Authentication

This post was originally published on this siteThe U.S. Social Security Administration announced last week that it will now require a cell phone number from all Americans who wish to manage their retirement benefits at ssa.gov. Unfortunately, the new security measure does little to prevent identity thieves from fraudulently creating online accounts to siphon benefits from Americans who haven’t yet created accounts for themselves. The SSA said all new and existing ‘my Social Security’ account holders will need to provide a cell phone number. The agency said it will use the mobile numbers to send users an 8-digit code via text message that needs to be entered along […]
August 16, 2016

SSA: Ixnay on txt msg reqmnt 4 e-acct, sry

This post was originally published on this siteThe U.S. Social Security Administration says it is reversing a newly enacted policy that required a cell phone number from all Americans who wished to manage their retirement benefits at ssa.gov. The move comes after a policy rollout marred by technical difficulties and criticism that the new requirement did little to prevent identity thieves from siphoning benefits from Americans who hadn’t yet created accounts at ssa.gov for themselves. In an announcement last month, the SSA said all new and existing ‘my Social Security’ account holders would need to provide a cell phone number. The SSA said […]