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Candid Cameras

The videoconferencing systems being used by banks and law firms can sometimes be switched on remotely by a hacker, giving access to any information discussed within the cameras' range, The New York Times reported Jan. 23. The company that caught the security flaw, Rapid7, says it found one such camera that may have been used by Goldman Sachs.

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Cyber Crime

Fraudsters are making off with more money, even though the number of fraudulent incidents is dropping, according to a new report from Visa Inc.'s CyberSource. Part of the reason fraudsters are doing so well is that merchants rely on clunky manual processes instead of automated ones to analyze their data.

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Bad Call

It is possible to steal a consumer's online banking password just by dialing their smartphone, according to a Georgia Tech Research Institute engineer interviewed by The New York Times for a Jan. 25 article. The best defense? Cut power to the phone.

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New Recruits

The tool that was used to attack financial websites in retaliation for cutting off payments to WikiLeaks has been adapted in a way that could pin new Web attacks on innocent people, Wired.com reported Jan. 20. When Web surfers click a link to a Javascript version of the tool, it causes their computers to attack a targeted website — and makes no effort to hide the user's identity.

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Health Plan

If the health care system begins assigning universal patient identifiers to each patient, it may cut the risk of identity theft by reducing that industry's reliance on Social Security numbers and other financial data to link to health records, The Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 23.

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Bad Habit

Retailers may want to cut the amount of customer information they habitually collect. On his blog, Celent analyst Jacob Jegher slammed a Coach cashier for trying to stealthily add his address to a mailing list after viewing his driver's license for security purposes. His fears may have been justified — Coach's website was reportedly attacked this week.

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Law & Order

In March, the last part of a 2010 Massachusetts data breach law will take effect, requiring all companies that handle data on the state's residents to ensure that it is properly protected by any third parties they deal with, Computerworld reported Jan. 25. The law covers information including bank account numbers and Social Security numbers.

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Hard Lesson

Arizona State University took its computer systems offline Jan. 19 to address a security breach. A hacker obtained an encrypted file with the user names and passwords of the system employees and students use to access school information, The Arizona Republic reported. The file did not have Social Security numbers or bank account details.

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Speak Up

Voice biometrics may make a comeback. The technology was previously pitched as a replacement for PINs and other authentication methods, but today it is being marketed as a complementary product in a layered approach to security.

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