Archive for March, 2010

LifeLock reviews

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

LifeLock complaints and the FTC settlement: What’s the real story?

There’s an interesting blog post at GuardMyCreditFile.com regarding LifeLock’s recent settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. The website belongs to the American Consumer Credit Education Support Services (ACCESS), a non-profit consumer advocacy organization whose primary purpose is to disseminate credit education information and assistance to the public.

In the article, the ACCESS author addresses the FTC’s principle complaints against LifeLock: That LifeLock’s CEO, Todd Davis, assured their 1.6 million members that LifeLock provides ironclad, absolute protection against identity theft. Secondly, the FTC took exception to Davis’ flagrant display of his personal Social Security number in print ads, TV commercials, the company website—even on the side of a truck in Manhattan. The FTC asserts Davis misused his own Social Security number.

Both of these allegations are feeble. (more…)

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LifeLock

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

LifeLock adds Tom Ridge, first Secretary of Homeland Security, to its Board of Directors

LifeLock announced this week the addition of Tom Ridge, the first Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, to the LifeLock Board of Directors.

“Today is a milestone day in the history of LifeLock as we have added Tom Ridge, one of our nation’s premier defenders, to our Board of Directors,” said Todd Davis, LifeLock Chairman and CEO.

After the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Centers, Former President George W. Bush appointed Ridge as the head of the newly created Office of Homeland Security. With passage of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the Office of Homeland Security became a cabinet-level department, and Ridge its first secretary.

President Bush said he appointed Ridge because he had “the strength, experience, personal commitment and authority to accomplish this critical mission.” (more…)

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Identity theft protection

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Consumer education key to cybercrime war

Is it better to try to chase down cybercriminals, or educate computer users? That’s the ongoing debate among security experts.

On one hand, there have been some huge victories recently in the battle against the bad guys. This week, three men were arrested in connection with a creating a “botnet” that infected an estimated 13 million computers from 190 countries and stole personal and financial information.

In 2008, the alleged mastermind of the largest cybercrimes in history was arrested. Albert Gonzalez is responsible for the greatest data breaches in history, including Heartland Payment Systems, TJX, Hannaford Brothers, 7-Eleven, Citibank and Dave and Buster’s, according to his indictments.

Gonzalez also supervised an online forum in which more than 160 million credit cards, birth certificates, Social Security cards, PIN numbers and computer login information was exchanged.

So, the good guys must be winning the war, right? Probably not. (more…)

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