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Cybersecurity expert Marty Puranik warns about the potential of cyberattacks against police networks and local and state government servers.
The Federal Trade Commission is moving against scammers that promise quick financial independence or unrealistic investment returns, among other alleged scams.
Along with 19 federal, state and local law enforcement partners, the FTC announced a nationwide crackdown on scams that have no basis in reality, the agency announced this week.
The crackdown, Operation Income Illusion, involves more than 50 law enforcement actions against work-from-home and employment scams, pyramid schemes, investment scams and bogus coaching courses, among other schemes, the FTC said.
Scammers have exploited the COVID-19 pandemic as a perfect opportunity to prey on the fears of the public, with some of the most-targeted groups including students, military families, people on a limited fixed income and minorities, the agency said.
A Nevada-based company that provides travel emergency services must put in place a comprehensive information security program as part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over allegations the company failed to take reasonable steps to secure sensitive consumer information such as health records.
In a complaint against SkyMed International, Inc., the FTC alleged that the company failed to take reasonable measures to secure the personal information it collected from people who had signed up for its emergency travel membership plan, and as a result, the company left unsecured a cloud database containing 130,000 membership records. The unsecured database, exposed by a security researcher, could be located and accessed by anyone on the Internet and contained personal information stored in plain text such as names, dates of birth, home addresses, health information, and membership account numbers, according to the complaint. The FTC also alleged that SkyMed failed to assess
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Amid the joyous arrival of the coronavirus vaccine lauded as the beginning of the end of the deadly pandemic lurks a sinister undercurrent.
Fraudsters peddling the promise of a dose have arrived in in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere. And Los Angeles city officials are concerned residents here could be the next target.
Frontline healthcare workers will receive the vaccine first. Wider distribution might not arrive until spring or summer. A several-month wait could fuel desperation among vulnerable populations, such as the elderly or people with preexisting health conditions, who aren’t in the front of the line, according to Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer.
Another VoIP Service Provider Hit by FTC for Facilitating Illegal Telemarketing Robocalls
December 16, 2020
Another VoIP service provider found themselves in the hot seat as allegations that customers using their service were making illegal telemarketing calls in the millions to consumers on the Do Not Call Registry using Robocalling and spoofing their caller ID numbers.
This action is part of a continued crackdown by the Federal Trade Commission looking to stop would-be fraudsters by holding accountable the services they use to perform these illegal calls.
According to the Federal Trade Commission’s website, Alcazar Networks Inc. and its owner have settled the charges, which include barring the defendant from misconduct of this sort in the future as well as a monetary penalty of $105,562.