Safe and Secure

The usual privacy concerns expressed with “nanny cams” involve the propriety of “spying” on your nanny. But it turns out there is a much more serious concern. These cams are small wireless devices and anyone with a compatible receiver can view the video from outside your home. Anyone, even potential burglars and kidnappers, can sit somewhere nearby and see inside your home.

Nanny-Cam May Leave a Home Exposed

The wireless video camera, which is heavily advertised on the Internet, is intended to send its video signal to a nearby base station, allowing it to be viewed on a computer or a television. But its signal can be intercepted from more than a quarter-mile away by off-the-shelf electronic equipment costing less than $250.

Ameriprise Auto and Home Insurance, a division of Ameriprise Financial formerly American Express, is now offering $5,000 of free identity theft protection to all policyholders. The coverage is for expenses including credit reports, lost wages, attorney and court fees, application costs to refile loans, fraudulent fund withdrawals and miscellaneous costs like postage, long distance calls and photocopies. Over 10 million Americans were victims of identity theft last year and it is considered the fastest growing financial crime.

Identity Theft Protection Now Offered by Ameriprise Auto & Home Insurance

Emergency Contact Network is a service which provides a call center to relay messages to family members in an emergency. Each family member is given a special ID card. If they are injured and unable to contact family themselves, emergency workers can contact the call center and ECN will then contact all appropriate people. They also provide for relaying member messages during hurricanes, earthquakes and other disasters.

Here’s a bit of what they have to say about themselves:

The Emergency Contact Network (ECN) was developed to give people the opportunity to stay connected to their loved ones during emergency situations. There are too many statistics and stories about people being brought to Emergency Rooms without their family or friends knowing what have happened to them for hours sometimes even more than a day. Because the IDs we commonly carry (drivers’ licenses, student IDs and passports) have no contact information on them i.e.: phone number, cell phone, email, there is no way for hospitals to call us or our loved ones during emergency situations.

The Florida Attorney General in conjunction with Macy’s and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has released child safety publication that focuses on up to date child safety strategies. It goes beyond “don’t talk to strangers” and includes a glossary for parents of the terms used by kids on the internet.

Children are routinely told to stay away from and not talk to strangers. Unfortunately, statistics show that many children are abducted or exploited by people they or their families might know. The term “stranger” can mislead children and cause them to think that they should only be wary of unfamiliar individuals. Instead, children must be taught to identify certain dangerous situations or actions, or behavior rather than particular individuals.

The booklet - SafeSteps: A Parents Guide to Online Safety, Child Abduction and Runaway Issues - is available online for free download [pdf file].

The Zotob virus hit banks, television networks and other businesses Tuesday especially targeting Windows 2000 systems. Television reports are saying that over half of home computer users don’t use any antivirus software. Your minimum home computer security setup should include a software firewall, a router or hardware firewall if you have “always on” broadband, good antivirus software and anti-spyware software.

Havoc from Zotob virus

A virus that attacks computers using Microsoft’s Windows 2000 system hit at least two Canadian banks and several U.S. businesses yesterday.

At the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the virus affected computers in the trading division and head office.

Many home WiFi networks are unsecured, not because they lack the capacity for security, but because securing them is not made simple enough. Unsecured WiFi networks are prone to leaching by neighbors and vulnerable to wardriving. McAfee is about to release a Wi-Fi security product that will secure wireless routers and even change the encryption “keys” automatically every 3 hours.

IT Observer - McAfee readies home Wi-Fi security tool

It will work with older Wi-Fi systems that use the WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) encryption system, as well as current equipment that also supports the newer WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) and WPA 2 technologies, he said. The software will go on sale online next week and in stores next month.

A survey of chicken for sale in the UK found a significant presence of bacteria resistant to multiple antibiotics. Thorough cooking and proper preparation are even more important with the potential for untreatable food poisoning.

Superbugs found in chicken

Of the British-grown chickens analysed, over half were contaminated with multi-drug resistant E.coli which is immune to the effects of three or more antibiotics.

More than a third of the 147 samples, which included overseas and UK produced chicken, had E.coli germs resistant to the important antibiotic Trimethaprim which is used to treat bladder infections.

Food Reference provides some tips on chicken safety including thorough cooking, proper thawing for frozen chicken, dealing with marinades and not “pre-stuffing” for later use as well as storage tips.

The thirty year US Treasury bond, discontinued 4 years ago, will again be available next year. Investors may want to consider the 30-year Treasury in a portfolio including shorter maturity bonds from 2 years on up in order to always have some bonds near maturity. “Bottom line: When the 30-year bond is offered next year, it will be worth a close look.” Treasury securities don’t have the default risk of corporate paper, but they still have interest rate risk. With longer term bonds like the thirty year even a small increase in interest rates can significantly hurt the price of the bond in the secondary market, so it’s best to plan based on holding the bond to maturity.

The thirty year US Treasury bond, discontinued 4 years ago, will again be available next year. Investors may want to consider the 30-year Treasury in a portfolio including shorter maturity bonds from 2 years on up in order to always have some bonds near maturity. “Bottom line: When the 30-year bond is offered next year, it will be worth a close look.” Treasury securities don’t have the default risk of corporate paper, but they still have interest rate risk. With longer term bonds like the thirty year even a small increase in interest rates can significantly hurt the price of the bond in the secondary market, so it’s best to plan based on holding the bond to maturity.

Device that fits on a keychain aims to lock out cyberthieves

For Philip Bockrath, who lives in Seattle but frequently travels for work, those questions pop into his head whenever he sits down in front of a strange keyboard, especially a public one.

Lately, Bockrath has found peace of mind in a 2-inch gray fob dangling from his key ring.

The keyfob changes his account password, to control his bank and brokerage accounts, every 60 seconds. So, even if there is a keylogger recording the password he types, 60 seconds after he types it that password is no longer valid.

The tokens are provided by the banks or brokerage firms.

50Pack RSA SECURID KEYFOBS 3YR