Day: March 7, 2007

Study: Identity theft keeps climbing

The rate of identity theft-related fraud has risen sharply since 2003, a new report from Gartner Research suggests.Gartner’s study, released Tuesday, shows that from mid-2005 until mid-2006, about 15 million Americans were victims of fraud that stemmed from identity theft, an increase of more than 50 percent from the estimated 9.9 million in 2003. It should be noted, however, that the 2003 statistics and the mid-2006 statistics came from two different sources–and hence, two different statistical methodologies. The original 9.9 million figure came from the Federal Trade Commission whereas the 15 million statistic is Gartner’s own. For

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Apple plugs eight QuickTime holes

Apple on Monday released updates to its QuickTime media player software to repair eight serious security vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities expose both Macs and Windows PCs to cyberattack, Apple said in a security alert. In all cases, an attacker could craft a malicious file which, when opened with QuickTime, could give the miscreant full control over a computer running the software, Apple said. The problems lie in the way QuickTime handles a number of formats. The security updates repair problems in the way the software handles QuickTime, MIDI, 3GP, PICT and QTIF files, according to the Apple alert.

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RFID designer gets $21 million in venture funding

Four years after realigning itself as a designer of RFID systems for wireless Internet networks, AeroScout has received a $21 million third round of venture capital that brings its total funding to $41 million. Two new Silicon Valley firms joined AeroScout‘s investor syndicate for the new round, with Menlo Ventures of Menlo Park, Calif., leading the round. Greylock Partners of San Mateo, Calif., was the other first-time investor. The new money will support continued sales, marketing and development of San Mateo-based AeroScout’s product line, a system of radio frequency identification tags and sensors that operates on networks

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Homeland Security offers details on Real ID

update Hundreds of millions of Americans will have until 2013 to be outfitted with new digital ID cards, the Bush administration said on Thursday in a long-awaited announcement that reveals details of how the new identification plan will work. The announcement by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security offers a five-year extension to the deadline for states to issue the ID cards, and proposes creating the equivalent of a national database that would include details on all 240 million licensed drivers. To find out how this affects you click here 

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Nixed: Black Hat talk on RFID access badge risks

update Security researchers have canceled a talk on the flaws of RFID-equipped building access badges after receiving legal threats from a major manufacturer. Researchers from security services firm IOActive planned to demonstrate that the commonly used identification cards can easily be duplicated, posing a serious risk to those who rely on such systems for security. The talk, slated for Wednesday at the Black Hat DC Briefings & Training event in Arlington, Va., was canceled Tuesday after IOActive said it received legal threats from HID Global, a major seller of access control systems. For More info click here

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