Identity Management

So, Identity Theft. What is it really? Well, I’m glad you asked. It’s basically when your personal details are used fraudulently to open accounts or obtain documentation in your name. This could result in debts being accumulated, for which you would initially be accountable – until you prove yourself innocent.

Two major identity management companies are forging ahead with products designed to satisfy what a cloud-computing consortium calls one of the trickiest problems preventing secure and automated connections between internal IT infrastructures and external service providers: identity and authentication.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) claims to have struck a major blow to a multi-million identity fraud syndicate.

Whether it is for an investigation, a whistle-blower statement, a prank or just extreme paranoia, you may have a need for anonymously sending messages. The following five tools provide an easy to use way to communicate incognito with Internet surfing, emails, phone calls and text messages. While these tools have their limitations, they do provide an Investigator a great way to hide his identity, gather intelligence, and communicate secretly when needed.

Chris Nickerson is willing to push it about as far as a person can go when it comes to security assessments. The founder of Lares, a security consultancy in Colorado, Nickerson conducts what he calls "Red Team Assessments" for clients. He is paid to try and dupe a client, and the client's employees, to give them a clear picture of the weak spots in their security plan. He then advises them on how to shore up defenses more effectively in the event a real criminal comes knocking.

Some of the world’s largest corporations have recently fallen victim to hacking attacks and identify data theft, while other online businesses have been compromised and sidelined for days or weeks, losing millions of dollars in revenue and suffering significant reputational damage. It’s never been more important for companies to act in order to avoid becoming the next victim of identity data theft.

A financial crisis is not the time for organisations to become lax about the value of their information security assets.

If you've had any money in the stock market, it's been a bloodbath the last few weeks. It's hard to remember that any 10-year period in stock market history has always ended up with better returns than any other investment. As financial analysts argue over whether we are already in or just headed into a deep global recession, we are facing a rough, contracting period. People with good jobs are holding on to them tighter than ever.

Reformed hacker-turned-security-consultant Kevin Mitnick served five years in federal prison for breaking into phone and software company networks. He talks about his past hacking exploits, computer security, and how he turned an illegal hobby into a useful career.

What are some of the challenges in deploying NAC? What are the alternatives for LAN security?