id theft

MasterCard and Visa said Friday that they had notified issuers of its credit cards of a potential breach of the security of customer accounts. Visa blamed a third company for the error.

A new report shows children are much more likely to be the victims of identity theft than adults, and that the crimes can go unnoticed for years. Children make tempting targets because they aren't going to be using their identities for a long time and parents don't usually monitor their...

Customers who hand over credit cards to bartenders and wait staff deserve better protection than they got from a large restaurant chain, say state attorneys who recently won a six-figure settlement for a restaurant group's data-security failures. The Briar Group, in Boston, agreed to pay...

Identity thieves are claiming fewer victims, but those victims are spending a lot more time and money resolving the incidents, according to a survey by research firm Javelin Strategy & Research.

Do you wear seatbelts? Avoid raw eggs? Get a flu shot? In other words, do you behave in ways aimed at protecting your safety and your overall health? Now answer this: Do you have a password on your mobile phone? Do you tell your social networking sites where you are? If so, you're not as...

Thieves are targeting children's Social Security numbers before they even have a bank account, according to a report by the Associated Press. Hundreds of shady online businesses, many posted on Craigslist or under their own web sites, are conducting computer sweeps to find dormant Social Security...

A new Federal Trade Commission rule to curb identity theft will soon require businesses and organizations across various industries to develop anti-fraud defenses as strong as those of banks and financial institutions. The regulation, known as the Red Flags Rule, will require mortgage and auto...

In applying for various jobs online, I've been asked to give out some personal information and never gave it a second thought. Employers have asked for, and I've provided, my Social Security number, telephone number, and happily shared my resume with anyone who wanted to see it.I'm starting to...

For as much as people worry about the information collected by companies and the government, they often discard incredible amounts of personal information when they upgrade to a new computer. Individuals aren't the only ones guilty of handing out information on old computers; in their annual study...

According to a report from Gartner, about 15 million American were victims of identity theft from mid-2005 to mid-2006. And, based on the headlines -- as well as the improvements in technologies -- it seems like the threat is not abating. To get some perspective on things, I interviewed Scott...