Brian Thompson

Cyber-Thieves and ID Theft criminals never rest and continue to stay ahead of law enforcement, businesses, and consumers. And because of that fact, now is a great time for consumers and businesses to evaluate their cybersecurity posture – especially during the COVID-19 environment – with a focus on response and recovery. Why response and recovery? Because consumers and employees continue to click on phishing emails and organizations continue to experience data breach events such as ransomware. Two recent examples include Blackbaud (Blackbaud Ransomware Attack Gets Worse) and Twitter (Twitter Hackers Posed as Company IT Officials Making a Support Call). Blackbaud – a cloud technology company confirmed in early October that “stolen data also included bank account data and Social Security numbers, far more personally identifiable information than the company first thought.” Specific to Twitter, the New York State Department of Financial Services released its findings and concluded: “the hack was […]

  Pizza in Chicago, Gift Card in Montreal WHAT? When my card was rejected at a small café in Stockbridge, MA where we had just had lunch we made a quick call to our credit card company and they asked if we had purchased…   “…purchased 2 pizzas in Chicago and a $1000 giftcard to a fishing supply store in Montreal”. No Way! Clearly, we did not order a Pizza in Chicago and we had been hacked. We canceled the card immediately. But what if I hadn’t used that card that day? Then what?So began my education about Identity Theft. I vowed to look into an Identity Protection solution ASAP. I learned that Credit Card Fraud isnot the same thing as Identity Theft.   Credit Card Fraud is a potential consequence of identity theft. Here, a thief steals your credit card information and then makes purchases in a store or online. Most credit […]

Since people started working from home due to the COVID-19 crisis, risk has had gone up!  Medical ID Theft, financial and non-financial identity theft, fraud and scams have significantly increased. Keyword phrases such as cybercrime, cyber thieves, data breach, digital spying, identity theft, personal privacy, phishing, and reputational risk have been reported and written about relating to both individuals and businesses more than ever. As if it was not enough to constantly fight hackers and scammers at the office, most American workers are now fighting the same hackers, scammers and ID theft criminals remotely, from our “private” homes. Understanding that many people live their lives online through social media, dating websites, reading the news, and the use of smartphones – the COVID-19 crisis has increased access points to the American consumer and worker more than ever. One example of a new access point for many consumers is Telehealth. According to […]