On the Wire Podcast: Jessy Irwin
In the premiere episode of the On the Wire podcast, Dennis Fisher talks with Jessy Irwin of 1Password about the state of authentication on the Internet, why it’s so difficult to use passwords securely, whether passwords will ever go away completely, and the difficulty of educating users about security. Podcast music by Chris Gonsalves and […]
Welcome to On the Wire
The Internet is useful for a lot of things—watching videos of dogs dancing to Toto, ordering drone-delivered ice cream—but it has become less-than-useful at the task that it was originally designed for: organizing information and connecting people to that information. The sheer volume of data, opinions, and speculation available on any given topic makes it […]
Anatomy of a Phone Fraud Scam
When Nargess Sadjady answered the phone at her home in London one early evening in August, the man on the other end gave her some disquieting news: There were some suspicious online purchases on her account. The caller spoke with a soft Scottish accent and said he was from the security team at her bank, […]
Four Men Convicted in Huge Phone Fraud Scam in UK
Prosecutors in the United Kingdom have convicted four men in connection with a widespread phone fraud scam that saw them steal more than £600,000 (more than $912,000) from a number of elderly victims over the course of a year. The men ran a version of a common scam in which they posed as police officers and called victims, […]
What’s Next in Phone Fraud: 2016 Trends & Predictions from Pindrop Labs
It’s that time of year again. We’ve asked Pindrop Labs researchers to break out their crystal balls and make some predictions for the coming year in phone fraud. Below are a few of the trends that our team will be watching for in 2016. Scammers Hit the Campaign Trail 2016 is an election year, which […]
Social Engineering Protection Comes to Android
Google, as the de facto owner of the Internet, is in a unique position to effect change on the network, and one piece of that equation is the ability to protect users from various threats. That can take a number of forms, and the most recent move from the company is a change to Android that […]
FTC Rule Change Cracks Down on Payment Methods Used by Fraudsters
The Federal Trade Commission is trying to cut off some of the sources of money that flow from consumers to phone scammers by tightening up the rules on how specific forms of payment can be used. The changes come as consumers are facing an onslaught of increasingly sophisticated and persistent campaigns from scammers pretending to be […]
Your Voice Is Not Your Own
The security industry has been trying to replace usernames and passwords since, well, forever, and with little success. The rush to employ biometrics has produced plenty of options, some of which can be defeated by Gummy bears, and no clear winner. Voice recognition recently has emerged as one of the leaders in the clubhouse in […]
The Silent Tracking Beacon in Your TV Ads
It turns out that the weird guy in your office who keeps telling you that his TV is spying on him isn’t totally insane. Well, he might still be insane, but his TV also might be spying on him. An Indian company called SilverPush has developed a technology that allows advertisers to track users across […]