Robert Siciliano

While PC-based online banking is not much older than a high school student, mobile banking is still in elementary school. With the proliferation of smartphones, however, online banking's younger sibling is quickly catching up to the slightly more established option.

Banking through your PC's web browser offers a full menu...

For the 12th year in a row, identity theft complaints top the list of consumer complaints received by the Federal Trade Commission. Fifteen percent of more than 1.8 million total complaints filed in 2011 involved identity theft.

Javelin Strategy & Research estimates that nearly 12 million Americans were...

Over the past 15 years, the increasingly rapid evolution of technology has resulted in new computers or mobile phones becoming outdated in a matter of one or two years. Chances are, you've gone through no less than ten digital devices in the past decade, if not more. It has become...

mCommerce, or mobile commerce, refers to financial transactions conducted via smartphones or other mobile devices. But are mobiles really meant for financial transactions?

While about a third of mobile phone users remain unwilling to dabble in mCommerce due to identity theft concerns, the majority of users are apparently comfortable...

"Carders" are the people who buy, sell, and trade stolen credit card data online. This carding forum video provides an example of an online forum where stolen credit cards are bought and sold.

Hackers rely on a variety of techniques to obtain credit card data. One such data theft...

Insurance is intended to have your back in the event that something goes wrong, but some individuals have found loopholes in the system, effectively turning insurance companies into their own personal banks. These scammers have long been known to engage in "slip and falls," claiming "whiplash" and engaging in elaborate...

No more jimmying doors with a Slim Jim, bricks through windows, extracting lock cylinders with a dent puller, or hot-wiring ignitions. Automobiles today are being built to include wireless capabilities that allow for remote unlock, remote start, and of course, there's global positioning systems (GPS) and services like OnStar and...

For some, Valentine's Day means they might be lonely. I've been there, and I know many who are there now. That loneliness can distort your perspective in a way that trumps common sense. This leads people to make badly considered decisions that only worsen their circumstances. Unfortunately, scammers...

Public-private partnership (PPP) describes a government service or private business venture which is funded and operated through a partnership of government and one or more private sector companies.

Here's an example of "public-private partnerships": Recently, six Estonian nationals have been arrested and charged with running a sophisticated...

History is said to be a good indicator of what might come in the future. If you follow trends in how things are done and what tends to gain momentum then you can get a pretty good idea of what's ahead.

McAfee Labs™ is made up of security professionals who...

If you ever decide to get all hopped up on drugs and seek some extra cash to feed your fix, I'd suggest not wearing your governmental department of corrections court ordered previously installed GPS ankle-monitoring bracelet to your next home invasion.  Chances are you'll get caught.

But as tongue...

People lie when they set up online dating profiles, they lie when they put up fake social media profiles, and they lie to the innocent victims of their scams.

Banks and retailers know better than anyone that people lie. There...

Without question, 2011 is the year for hackers of all kinds to get their 15 minutes of fame. But it feels like it's lasting a lot longer than 15 minutes. With so many different breeds of hackers, each with their own agenda and an endless supply of potential targets, the...

In Nashville, where you'll find smoked ribs, country music and 68-year-old grandmothers who sleep with shotguns, a take-no-prisoners Nana picked off two home invaders breaking in as she slept. She was quoted saying, "Never in my whole life have I ever harmed anything or anybody, but I've never been...

You may have noticed that over the last decade, computers have grown faster and more powerful, with more RAM, bigger hard drives, and improved processors. This is made possible by the development of better, cheaper technology, coupled with a corresponding need on the part of consumers and corporations. It has...

You've heard of "flash mobs," when a group of people suddenly get together in some form of public place for a performance of some sort, generally in the name of fun. They are formed when someone posts something on Facebook or Twitter and text messages begin to go viral....

Protect your information by creating a secure password that makes sense to you, but not to others.

Most people don't realize there are a number of common techniques used to crack passwords and plenty more ways we make our accounts vulnerable due to simple and widely used passwords.

How to...

They say there's a sucker born every minute. Not everyone can be sophisticated and worldly. Unfortunately, naiveté invites predators and victimization.

Social engineering is the act of manipulating people into performing certain actions or divulging confidential information. Essentially it's a fancier, more technical form of lying.

Combine naiveté with...

An ex-con picked the wrong home to invade.

Imagine you're in bed counting sheep, dreaming of clouds and flying unicorns. Suddenly there is a knock on the door, which is startling to most people who wake up to the presence of noise and especially that of a knock at 3am.

After Osama bin Ladens Death a flurry of internet scams hit the internet. Most notably scam emails with links to pictures, videos and phony Facebook messages with links to videos that don't exist.

When clicking these links your PC can be infected with a RAT which is a...