On Q Professional Investigations

Just last week, one of my friends had his identity stolen when he lost his credit card. All of a sudden, he had charges to his card rolling in from Chicago.

Identity theft and credit card fraud, however, can be much more complicated than just losing your wallet. If your personal information becomes compromised, it can lead to thousands of dollars in extravagant charges on your credit card, which can ruin your credit score.

Here are five ways to avoid having your identity and/or credit card stolen:

1. Physically secure all valuables in a car
It seems like common sense, but like they say, common sense isn’t so common. Earlier this year, the Riley County Police Department reported a spike in car thefts in Manhattan, especially during the winter months. However, just because it isn’t snowing outside does not mean people should abandon caution.

Leaving things like cell phones, wallets, money or other valuable in plain sight in a car can lead to your identity being compromised.

If you are traveling, make sure you know where your important documents and cards are at all times. Being reckless or aloof can lead to losing things, and sometimes it’s too late to retrace your steps.

2. Divulge sensitive information on a need-to-know basis
Being flippant with information such as account passwords, personal identification numbers and your social security number can cause serious issues. Not everyone needs to have access to personal information.

The most common mistake when it comes to divulging sensitive information seems to happen to people in relationships. Girlfriend gives boyfriend password to bank accounts or other online shopping accounts when they are dating. Girlfriend breaks up with boyfriend later on, but doesn’t think to change account passwords; boyfriend now has the ability to clean out accounts.

Keep sensitive information secure; you never know who can use that information against you.

3. Avoid using public computers to access the Internet
How many times do you see people at Hale Library doing online banking? If you haven’t noticed it, look for it the next time you go to the library; it’s incredible how many people don’t even think about it.

The fact is, however, that those computers get used by hundreds of people every day, making online identity theft much more likely. According to a report compiled by research firm Javelin Strategy and Research, nearly 12 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2011.

Using only personal, secure devices is just another safeguard against having your information compromised. If you cannot avoid using a public computer, make sure you log out when you’re done.

4. Lock all mobile devices and tablets
Generally, most laptops and personal computers are password-protected by default. Many people, however, don’t think to lock their phones or tablets, although it is a common feature in most mobile devices today.

Mobile devices now allow users to monitor and transfer money between bank accounts, quickly and easily shop online and gain access to other secure information that once was only accessible through personal computers.

According to the same research done by Javelin Strategy and Research, identity thieves often target frequent users of mobile devices and social media because they tend to be less cautious.

The Javelin report also reported 7 percent of smartphone users fell victim to identity fraud in 2011.

Protect yourself; it might be easier not to have to enter a password every time you want to surf the Web on your iPad or send a text on your phone, but at least you know that your secure information won’t be compromised.

5. Change passwords to accounts intermittently
K-State students are all familiar with the K-State Office of Information Security and Compliance’s password change requirements for their eIDs.

Although many students react to this mandate with disgruntled sighs and slight annoyance, the university has the right idea.

An identity thief’s best friend is stagnancy; after all, a target is easier to hit when it isn’t moving.

Changing your passwords can help you stay protected. No matter how annoying it can be, having sensitive information stolen can be far more of a pain to deal with than switching up passwords.

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The President of the United States is not going to pay your utility bill.

Atmos Energy is warning customers about the latest version of a scam that promises federal stimulus money for utility bills in exchange for a customer’s personal information. The scam artist provides a bank routing number that supposedly has an account with funds to pay past due bills.

However, there is no such program and customers should never give personal information to anyone who is not an authorized agent of any utility company.

Atmos Energy previously warned customers about the scam in May but has been receiving calls this week from customers who received the bank routing number. The North Carolina Attorney General issued a warning about this scam June 28 and utilities in Florida have also reported a similar effort.

According to Better Business Bureau reports, scammers have visited customers in person, posted fliers and used social media and texting to send messages claiming that President Obama will provide a credit or directly pay utility bills.

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The long-running police operation to infiltrate political groups continued to unravel this week, after the Director of Public Prosecutions disclosed that a second group of environmental campaigners may have wrongly convicted.

On Tuesday Keir Starmer, the DPP, announced that a senior prosecutor may have withheld vital evidence about police spy Mark Kennedy from another trial of activists.

As we reported here, Starmer has invited the 29 activists convicted in 2009 over a protest at the Drax power station to challenge their convictions at the court of appeal.

This is potentially a significant development that begins to undermine the official line that the first case, the Ratcliffe-on-Soar miscarriage of justice, was a one-off, isolated failure by police and prosecutors. Starmer’s announcement may be the beginning of the end for the “one rogue prosecution” argument propagated by the authorities. It in effect concedes that the controversy over the undercover policing of protest groups could be bigger than police and prosecutors have so far been willing to admit.

To recap, the court of appeal last year quashed the convictions of 20 campaigners who had been plotting to occupy the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire in 2009. The judges ruled that basic principles of justice had been ignored as prosecutors and police withheld key evidence which could have acquitted the campaigners. That evidence consisted of secret recordings made by Kennedy of the activists’ private meetings. The appeal court judges said they shared the “great deal of justifiable public disquiet” about the case.

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As businesses, public agencies and colleges continue to request social media account user names and passwords from students and job seekers, two Bay Area lawmakers are pushing bills to stop the practice.

Yesterday, the Assembly Judiciary Committee unanimously approved Senate Bill 1349, authored by state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco/San Mateo, that prohibits public and private colleges and universities in the state from requesting the information.

Today, the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee will consider Assembly Bill 1844, authored by Assemblywoman Nora Campos, D-San Jose.

The Campos bill specifically prohibits businesses from requesting social media user names and passwords.

Lawmakers are crafting similar bills in states across the country.

In late March, however, a proposed Facebook user protection amendment was shot down by the U.S. House of Representatives.

The amendment to the Federal Communications Commission Process Reform Act of 2012 would have allowed the FCC to stop any employers from seeking the confidential information.

Facebook officials would not comment on the two new California bills yesterday but pointed to a statement made by Erin Egan, the company’s chief privacy officer, back in March after the House voted against the Facebook user protection amendment.

“This practice undermines the privacy expectations and the security of both the user and the user’s friends. It also potentially exposes the employer who seeks this access to unanticipated legal liability,” Egan wrote in a statement.

The most alarming practice is the reported incidents of employers asking prospective or actual employees to reveal their passwords, Egan wrote.

Facebook users should never have to share their password or let anyone access their accounts, she wrote.

The increase in reports of employers asking for inappropriate access to accounts is distressful to the company, she wrote.

In California, Yee and Campos are co-authoring each other’s bills.

“These social media outlets are often for the purpose of individuals to share private information — including age, marital status, religion, sexual orientation and personal photos — with their closest friends and family,” Yee wrote in a statement. “This information is illegal for employers and colleges to use in making employment and admission decisions and has absolutely no bearing on a person’s ability to do their job or be successful in the classroom.”

The two California bills would also prohibit employers and colleges from demanding personal email addresses and login information of employees, applicants and students.

SB 1349 will be considered by the Assembly Higher Education Committee next week.

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US Justice Department prosecutors pleaded with a federal appeals court to allow the placement of GPS tracking devices on the vehicles of suspected criminals without first obtaining a search warrant.

This argument goes against the Supreme Court ruling in the Jones case back in January which we have reported on extensively here at RMT, and asks the court to reconsider their decision. The ruling makes the practice of placing a tracking device without obtaining a warrant illegal, as it violates an individual’s Constitutional rights.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is hearing the arguments, and the Obama Administration claims that the Jones ruling was not specific enough. Basically, because it did not make clear the need to obtain a warrant in each and every situation, a loophole was left wide open which actually allows GPS tracking despite the court’s intentions.

The brief submitted to the court argues that “requiring a warrant and probable cause would seriously impede the government’s ability to investigate drug trafficking, terrorism and other crimes,” according to the Wall Street Journal. The brief also argues that the tracking of a person’s movements using a GPS device is only a “limited intrusion” on one’s privacy.

In US v. Jones, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the use of GPS tracking devices on the vehicles of suspected criminals without a valid warrant violated the Fourth Amendment, more specifically unreasonable search and seizure. Those who advocate for privacy hoped that this decision would have set the precedent for cases dealing with warrantless tracking for all kinds of electronic surveillance devices besides GPS devices.

Currently, law enforcement is able to access digital records such as emails and cellphone location data without obtaining a warrant. However, searches within schools and at border crossing locations have been deemed exempt from the warrant requirement.

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Background checks are highly useful in a number of situations, a number of which involve a professional who will be working extensively in a consumer’s home. Other situations present opportunities for background checks even for those professionals who work in medical or educational fields. Overall, there are seven professions that require a background check more than any other. These professions demand more consumer trust and confidence than can be merited without one of these comprehensive checks of an individual’s reputation and, with extensive online tools, there’s no reason not to get one.

Medical Professionals

There are few people whose reputations and honesty matters more than those in the medical field. Whether it’s a nurse, a doctor, or even a plastic surgeon, consumers should conduct a thorough background search on any medical professional before they commit to that individuals’ care on a permanent basis. Background checks in this case can be pretty revealing, showing court documents and previous lawsuits that might serve as a red flag. Especially given the high risks and prices of modern day medical treatments, there is simply no reason to give any medical professional the benefit of the doubt when it comes to relying on their care and forthrightness.

Teachers and Tutors

There was a time when teachers were viewed as upstanding members of the community by default, and parents were content to give the the benefit of the doubt and resist any background checks that they might otherwise pursue. That time is long over, however, as headlines of teacher-student abuse and poor teacher credentials dominate major national news outlets. Consumers’ students deserve the best education possible, and sometimes that means doing a thorough background check and demanding better of a school district that maintains lackluster or ethically-challenged professionals.

A New Roommate

Roommates, just like tenants, can present quite a few problems that a background check will help to avoid. Roommates, too, can suffer from late bill payments and a tendency toward evictions. And they can present other problems, as well, like bringing crime or other issues into the home where they are certainly not welcome. A background check will reveal not only a potential roommate’s financial integrity, but also their overall personal integrity and honesty. This is the key to a successful, long-term roommate relationship that can benefit both parties in the deal.

The Babysitter

Sure, the babysitter applicants might all seem cherry and bubbly, but that’s an easy thing to do. Seeming like they possess integrity, honest, and a high sense of personal responsibility, on the other hand, requires a bit more finesse, dedication, and research. That’s where a background check comes in: A comprehensive online background check will reveal whether or not an applicant can be trusted with both a home’s possessions and a couple’s children.

Yourself

Identity theft and erroneous public records reporting are two major crimes that cannot be seen, heard, or felt, in everyday life — until it’s too late. Doing a periodic self-background check can reveal credit reporting errors, employment and financial history errors, and other information that should be corrected in order to ensure long-term financial and personal health.

Plenty of Situations that Merit a Background Check

These 5 instances might be the most important ones for a background check, but they’re not the only cases where one is necessary. Nannies, housekeepers, and contractors, should all face a background check before they’re hired. So should a number of other professionals, at the consumer’s discretion. When in doubt, always investigate rather than bestow the benefit of the doubt. It will be beneficial in terms of both finances and household stresses.

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Today’s volatile economy already poses enough challenges for companies without having to worry about the threat of fraud. While most large businesses may have the financial wherewithal to deploy firewalls, monitoring systems, and hire the right IT staff to protect their networks, smaller businesses aren’t as fortunate.

In the recent New York Times article, “Owners May Not Be Covered When Hackers Wipe Out Business Bank Account,” Gartner estimates over 10 percent of small businesses have had funds stolen from their bank accounts, totaling more than $2 billion in fraud losses. For Ann Talbot, whose engineering and construction company Golden State Bridge lost $125,000 from cyber fraud, lacking the security tools and internal resources can make small businesses easy prey for Internet-savvy hackers.

“People think, ‘It’ll never happen to me,’ but these are incredibly sophisticated criminals, and we’re not I.T. experts. When you work for a big company, you have a full I.T. staff and you’re locked down like Fort Knox. When you work for a small to midsize company, you’re not locked down at all.”

In the case of Golden State Bridge, an office manager violating company policy by visiting a social networking site unknowingly downloaded malicious software. The criminals were able to capture the office manager’s user name and password, which they used to make two automated clearinghouse batch transactions that routed the money to eight different banks across the country.

While there is no foolproof security tool that stops every type of fraud tactic under the sun, a multi-layered authentication approach that covers online, email, text and telephone transactions is essential for detecting and stopping fraud techniques that can defeat single authentication defenses. According to some fraud experts, security solutions alone may not be enough. Because criminals tactics are evolving faster than many antivirus products, establishing corporate policies and applying additional best practice security measures can also play an instrumental role in helping small business owners protect their IT systems and networks. Some recommended strategies for small businesses include:

-Keep firewalls up-to-date and limit the number of employees with access to accounts
-Educate all employees and enforce strict rules for office computers
-Place limits on the amounts of all automated clearinghouse transactions
-Dedicate one computer solely for online banking (and never email or browse the Web from that computer)
-Check business accounts daily
-Purchase fraud insurance, otherwise businesses could shoulder the losses alone
-Have multiple people to approve every business transaction
-Ask and understand the security policies of business partners, vendors, etc.

Even with corporate policies in place, it’s impossible to control the online habits of your employees and anyone else who connects to your network. Because small businesses don’t have the deep pockets to deploy anti-fraud defenses required to ensure their systems and proprietary information are safe from cyber criminals, a multi-layered approach that combines effective and efficient tools like real-time device reputation technology with security best practices is critical to protecting their businesses from new and evolving forms of online fraud and abuse.

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You don’t have to look very hard to find an article discussing password breaches. Recently, there was a lot of buzz around LinkedIn, Last.fm, and eHarmony, three very large sites suffering from passwords being leaked to the public. This is not a new phenomenon (earlier this year everyone was all up in arms about the Zappos password breach), but one that continues to garner attention in the media.

However, what most journalists are saying about password breaches is likely different from what I am about to tell you – it simply does not matter how strong your password is, how it is encrypted when stored by the provider, or how the transport layer is encrypted (e.g., SSL). Here’s why:

How it’s encrypted matters, but no one does it right

Many websites today, primarily for performance reasons, are using traditional one-way hashing algorithms to store your passwords (such as MD5 or SHA1). This means you give the website a password, it computes a cryptographic hash and stores it in a database of some kind. The plaintext password should never be written to disk. The next time you login, the website computes the hash in the same manner and compares it to the value stored in the database.

This is all well and good, until someone obtains a copy of the password hashes. Obtaining the hashes, without any other protections, such as password salting, two or more users with the same password will have the same hash value. This allows attackers to generate very large databases of already-hashed passwords and make a comparison. Hardware on graphics processing units (GPU) can help accelerate the process.

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Preparing for an interview can be an exciting, but also stressful, event. While questioning should focus on your abilities to perform the tasks and duties required by the position, interviewers can sometimes begin down a slippery slope of illegal questions.

While those well versed in Employment Law, such as those in Human Resources, may be aware of what may or may not be asked, those conducting the interview may not be as aware.

Here is a list of the top 10 questions that job interviewers cannot legally ask you:

Where were you born?
What is your native language?
Are you married?
Do you have children?
Do you plan to get pregnant?
How old are you?
What do you do for Christmas?
Do you have a disability or chronic illness?
Are you in the national guard?
Do you smoke or use alcohol?

You can learn more about the reasons behind these questions being off limits here. You can also find lots more information regarding Employment Law, including Articles, videos and FAQs

If you feel that you have been discriminated against in the context of an interview or other employment context, contact an experienced Labor and Employment Attorney to schedule an initial consultation today. Employment laws are in place to ensure that you do not get unfairly discriminated against or receive other unfair treatment.

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A new sort of infidelity has been on the rise for decades, and it’s one of the biggest threats to marriage: ‘emotional affairs.’ Today’s workplace has become the new danger zone of opportunities for ‘emotional affairs,’ surpassed only by the Internet.

A relationship without sex can be just as intense, or more so than a sexual one. Not surprisingly, in most cases, approximately 80% according to Dr. Shirley Glass, author of Not Just Friends: Rebuilding Trust and Recovering Your Sanity After Infidelity, the dynamics of these platonic liaisons crosses over into sexual love sooner or later.

Why the crisis?

To understand the intensity of emotional infidelity, it helps to see the dynamics as an addiction, a form of addictive love. That’s because it’s easier to let go of a toxic pattern when you depersonalize the experience.

It’s not about ‘how’ special the person is or makes you feel, it’s about the neurochemicals that get activated when you think and behave a certain way that keeps you stuck in the damaging pattern! It isn’t a coincidence, for example, that persons with alcohol and other addictions are more likely to get into toxic relationships. Seeing the problem as an addiction also gives you access to proven steps to identify and break free of the toxic patterns.

Why addictive?

An addiction to an activity, person or substance puts a person’s brain and body in an intoxicating trance that, on the one hand, does not allow them to think clearly and make informed choices, and on the other hand, ‘rewards’ them for the toxic behavior with the release of certain chemicals that provide quick-fixes of pleasure in the body. Albeit temporary, there is also pleasure from lowering or numbing pain, shame or guilt, as it provides distance from taking responsibility to resolve the real issues of life and marriage (which risk failure).

In the The Addictive Personality: Understanding the Addictive Process and Compulsive Behavior Craig Nakken provides the following definition for addiction, as:

“A pathological love and trust relationship with an object [person] or event … the out-of-control and aimless searching for wholeness, happiness, and peace through a relationship with an object or event.”

It makes sense that so many depressives and alcoholics find themselves in toxic relationships.

What are the warning signs?

There are at least 12 warning signs to alert you to take action to protect yourself and your relationship from ‘emotional infidelity.’

1. Thinking and saying you’re ‘just friends’ with opposite-sex.

If you’ve been thinking or saying, “we’re just friends,” think again. If it’s a member of the opposite sex, you may be swimming in treacherous waters. The very words are dangerous to your marriage.

This rationale allows you to make excuses, or more plainly, to tell lies (to yourself and others) about something you know in your gut is wrong. Regardless how strongly TV and entertainment promote the idea of opposite-sex friendships (and this is part of the problem!) as not only ‘okay,’ but also ‘right’ to demand unconditional trust, in most cases, an intimate friendship with a member of the opposite-sex that you find interesting and attractive poses risks.

2. Treating them as a confidant, sharing intimate issues.

Sharing thoughts and deepest concerns, hopes and fears, passions and problems is what deepens intimacy; it builds an emotional bond between two people, time better used in marriage relationship. Giving this away to another person, regardless of the justification, is infidelity, a betrayal of trust. This is especially true when you consider that emotional intimacy is the most powerful bond in human relationships, much stronger than a sexual one.

3. Discussing troubling aspects of your marriage and partners.

Talking or venting to a person of the opposite sex about what your marriage lacks, what your partner lacks, or what you’re not getting to make you happy sends a loud message that you’re available for someone else to ‘love and care’ for your needs. It’s also a breach of trust. And, like gossip, it creates a false sense of shared connection, and an illusion that you, your happiness, your comfort and needs are totally valued by this person (when, in truth, this has not been put to the test!).

4. Comparing them verbally and mentally to your partner.

Another danger sign is a thinking pattern that increasingly finds what is ‘positive’ and ‘just right’ about the friend and ‘negative’ and ‘unfulfilling’ about the partner. This builds a case ‘for’ the friend and ‘against’ the partner. Another mental breach of trust, this unfairly builds a physiologically felt case ‘for’ the friend and ‘against’ the partner, forming mental images in the brain that associate pleasurable and painful sensations accordingly.

5. Obsessively thinking or daydreaming about the person.

If you find yourself looking forward to seeing the person, cannot wait to share news, think about what you’re going to tell them when you’re apart, and imagine their excitement, you’re in trouble. This sense of expectation, excitement, anticipation releases dopamine in reward centers of your brain, reinforcing toxic patterns. Obsessively thinking about the person is an obvious signal that something is wrong. After all, you don’t do this with your friends, right?

6. Believing this person ‘gets’ you like no other.

It always appears this way in affairs and romantic encounters at the start. It’s an illusion, and in the case of emotional infidelity, one that is dangerous to a marriage because the sense of mutual ‘understanding’ forms a bond that strengthens and deepens emotional intimacy, with the release of pleasurable neurochemicals, such as the love and safety hormone oxytocin. This focus also puts you in a ‘getting’ frame of mind. It means you are approaching your marriage in terms of what you’re getting or not getting, rather than what you’re contributing.

7. Pulling out of regular activities with your partner, family, work.

Being absorbed with desire to spend more and more time talking, sharing, being with the person, it’s only natural to begin to resent time you spend on responsibilities and activities at home (and work?). As a result, you begin to pull away, turn down, or make excuses for not joining regular activities with your partner and family. Family members notice you are withdrawn, irritable and unhappy.

8. Keeping what you do secret and covering up your trail.

Secrecy itself is a warning sign. It creates a distinct closeness between two people, and at the same time grows the distance between them and others. Secrets create a special bond, most often an unhealthy one. For example, there may be a false sense of emotional safety and trust with the person, and an unwarranted mistrust and suspicion of the partner, or those who try to interfere with the ‘friendship.’

9. Keeping a growing list of reasons that justify your behaviors.

This involves an addictive pattern of thinking that focuses your attention on how unhappy you are, why you’re unhappy, and blames your partner and marriage for all aspects of your unhappiness. It builds a dangerous sense of entitlement and forms a pool of resentment from which you feel justified to mistreat your partner or do what you need to increase your happiness without considering the consequences.

10. Fantasizing about a love or sexual relationship with the person.

At some point, one or both persons begin to fantasize about having a love or sexual relationship with the other. They may begin to have discussions about this, which adds to the intensity, the intrigue and the intoxicating addictive releases of neurochemicals that make the pattern more entrenched.

11. Giving or receiving personal gifts from the person.

Another flag is when the obsession affects your buying behaviors, so that you begin to think about this person when you are shopping, wondering what they like or would show your appreciation. The gift choices are something intimate items that you would not give ‘just’ a friend. Gifts send clear messages that the two of you are a ‘close we’ set apart from others, and that the relationship is ‘special.’

12. Planning to spend time alone together or letting it happen.

This is the warning sign that, when not heeded, most often pushes partners to cross the line from a platonic to a sexual relationship. Despite good intentions and promises to one another that they would not let ‘anything’ happen, it’s a set up, a matter of time, when opposite-sex friends flirt with the availability of time alone.

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