Experian’s CyberAgent technology scans more than 10,000 underground websites and forums per day—more than 600,000 individual web pages—for personal identifying information (PII) being bought and sold. This PII includes bits like Social Security Numbers, email addresses, passwords and credit and debit card numbers. In fact, the credit and debit card numbers often come with the [...]
Hackers recently posted 6.5 million unique hashed passwords from LinkedIn, with already 200,000 of these passwords cracked. LinkedIn is a global social networking site for professionals—and it’s likely that many of the site’s users use the same password with other sites, including online retail stores, news websites and sites related to their employers.What does this [...]
By: Joel Carleton, Experian Director of Cyber EngineeringWe’ve all heard that it’s important to pick long, complicated passwords. What you may not realize is why this becomes crucial in the context of a breach. While ensuring you don’t pick from some of the most common passwords is important, it’s still not enough. Some background information on how passwords [...]
Being based in Austin, we are lucky to have the University of Texas at Austin (or simply UT to us Texans) in our backyard. In addition to great education and sports programs (Hook ‘em), UT Austin is also home to the UT Center for Identity, a research group devoted to advancing identity management – a [...]
Experian is excited to announce its official partnership with the University of Texas Center for Identity in Austin, Texas. Through this partnership, Experian and the Center for Identity will connect and collaborate on research and pilot projects focused on all aspects of identity – including identity management, identity security and best practices for protection.The Center [...]
It’s hard to believe that South by Southwest Interactive (SXSW) is already two weeks in the past. We spent eight months planning and prepping for the event—during which Experian hosted three panels—then it came and went in a flash. In fact, we already have SXSW 2013 on our radar. Before we get ahead of ourselves [...]
By Adam Kennedy, Experian Identity Restoration Supervisor; Certified Identity Theft Risk Management SpecialistImagine you’re on your favorite tax preparation software recalling incomes and deductions from the year past. Finally, you’ve reached the end of the seemingly endless questionnaire and the estimated refund number glares from the screen like a stuffed piggy bank waiting to be [...]
Headed to South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) conference in Austin, Texas this month? So is Experian. We’ve been working hard, organizing three SXSW panels that address today’s hottest security concerns: data breach preparedness, cloud security and voice authentication. The increase in volume, severity, publicity and fallout of recent data breaches and lack of cyber-security has [...]
The IRS admittedly has little control over protecting your tax returns against identity theft. The problem is too big, the data too widely available, prevention too rarely attended to until it's already too late. Your tax returns are the Holy Grail of identity theft because they contain virtually every piece of information a fraudster needs [...]
By John Sileo, Experian consumer security expertIdentity theft rates skyrocket for travelers. As USA Today noted in a recent article about the topic: Experts say business travelers are especially vulnerable because they increasingly rely on electronic devices that easily can be lost or hacked. Credant Technologies, a data-protection company, found that travelers have lost 11,000 [...]
