Identity Thief

I saw the film ‘Identity Thief’ last night. It’s a comedy about a mild mannered business man who has his identity stolen by a seemly harmless female crook.

Interestingly it begins with the victim receiving a phone call about signing up to a service protecting against identity theft.

The victim then gives the caller all the information necessary to steal his identity – which the crook duly does.

The security message here is not to give out your (or anyone else’s) information on the phone without verifying the caller is legitimate.

In the film the victim has all his cards maxed out, is accused of various crimes commited by the thief and is suspended from his job.

He then goes on a trip to catch the baddie and bring her back to his local police – with various ‘adventures’ along the way…

Worth seeing: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2024432/

Message in a bottle.

I got a message in my email recently that I thought I’d share…

Hello my name is Julia I am from small city in the center of Russia.
I am 24 years old.I am very friendly and romantic person.
I saw your structure and have decided to do record in you as I search for the friend on the Internet!
I want to have serious relationship and it true.My dream is search for the man which will appreciate me and to respect.
I like to get acquainted with unknown people. I am a optimistic girl with sense of humor, who is looking for her soulmate…
Sometimes I go to the disco with my friends. I like to spend my free time on the nature.
There are a real beautiful places near my town! Al my life I like sport.
When I was young I was engaged in gymnastics and now I am engaged in aerobics.
Al my friend say that i cherful and sociable.
I hope soon to see your message in my box.

My email: ……@yandex.ru

Bye..

Aside from the humorous aspects of this there is a point: my advice is don’t respond to this type of message. It’s very likely a scam so just ignore it

The zombies are out there…

There’s a story today about the US Emergency Alert System, a system that automatically alerts authorities about emergencies, being hacked in the States.

Apparently viewers of four local TV stations in Montana and Michigan had their programs interrupted to warn about dead bodies being re-animated and attacking the living. (Where’s my shotgun???)

The serious side to this is that important infrastructure needs to be securely maintained – otherwise is could be subject to pranks or much more serious abuse.

More zombies: http://www.scmagazine.com/known-bugs-could-be-to-blame-for-zombie-alert-prank/article/280295/