I’ve heard many things that would surprise you about what employees say and do to their bosses, especially after work hours. I had a friend once tell me that they were at a bar where this person was telling this story about how he continued to sabotage his boss at work and that it was finally beginning to pay off. When the guy telling the story mentioned where he worked, it wasn’t too long until it got back to me.

Yes, HR people have friends.

But this is beyond stupid. Ranting about your boss on Facebook when he is connected with you on there? Check out this story:

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Russia, Iran , Syria. These places got nothin’ on your own IT department. That’s right, according to The National Association of State Chief Information Officers the majority of cyber attacks on a company’s computing infrastructure comes from within the companies own IT staff. You may remember Terry Childs the network engineer that locked out the City of San Francisco’s IT department from it’s own computer network. That one example got major media coverage but it happens a lot more than many would think at companies all over the country. Also consider corporate espionage, disgruntled employees, identity theft and employees just out to “have some fun”, it’s enough to give you shivers down your spine. Read more…

You probably use a free e-mail account for taking care of your personal business. For the most part, that is fine. After all, if there is nothing but e-mail forwards from Aunt Maude and pictures of your cat, the impact and motive for cracking your account is low. It is an inconvenience and a hassle but you can survive it.

If you’re like me though, you use your account for many things including personal and business purposes. You stay logged in for long periods of time and that can be a problem as explained on bloggingtips.com:

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In what is strange turn for online crime, a virtual husband and wife broke up and the wife used the user id and password to kill her former husband’s online character:

TOKYO - A 43-year-old Japanese piano teacher’s sudden divorce from her online husband in a virtual game world made her so angry that she logged on and killed his digital persona, police said Thursday.

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How do hackers grab your personal data out of thin air? Agent Peterson said one of the most common types of attack is this: a bogus but legitimate-looking Wi-Fi network with a strong signal is strategically set up in a known hot spot…and the hacker waits for nearby laptops to connect to it. At that point, your computer—and all your sensitive information, including user ID, passwords, credit card numbers, etc.—basically belongs to the hacker. The intruder can mine your computer for valuable data, direct you to phony webpages that look like ones you frequent, and record your every keystroke.

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It seems everybody lately has had some type of credit problem. Whether it is because of a predatory lender, a law suit or you have just been unable to pay your bills you may find yourself subject to judgment by a future employer.

Credit reports have long been a part of background checks, especially when a potential employee may be handling money. So, what do employers look for on your credit report? You may have seen the commercials on TV with the goofy kid singing about his terrible credit report, well it isn’t quite that simple. Read more…

Internet auction fraud is a growing epidemic worldwide, as online shopping has grown significantly every year that online shopping has been available. 51,000 cases of internet fraud cases were reported in 2002. In 2006, that number ballooned to 97,000. The numbers are staggering, but everyone can lower their risk by knowing what auction fraud is, how to detect it, and how to prevent falling for it. Read more…

Microsoft has been scrutinized for computer security for as long as they’ve been making software. Microsoft has dealt with countless reports of security vulnerabilities. When a vulnerability is reported, they work as quickly as possible to develop a patch. However Microsoft has discovered that in many cases, a supposed vulnerability turns out to be an issue with the user, something that no software patch can fix. That’s why over the years the Microsoft Security Response Center has come up with a list of 10 laws that when followed will reduce your odds of encountering computer security incidents. Read more…

If you have seen the new USA series, Burn Notice on USA Network, you are probably already a fan. They usually give some pretty good tips on the show about various things like avoiding surveillance, detaining an enemy, etc. Granted, some are better and more practice than others especially for normal everyday people like ourselves. You can now go on to the website and ask your own questions on the “Ask A Spy” section. I found it a fun little distraction and I bet you will too.

Prompted by an article written by “The Lisa” over at Bruce Clay’s blog entitled “Your Boss Is Not Your Friend”. I wanted to address the issue of conducting social media background checks. In my opinion they do not comply with the FCRA, the governing document of employment screening within the United States. So what do we do if we happen to come across some potentially damaging information about a potential employee, ignore it? What if you were to find out that your employee was secretly planting false information about you, your company or its executives online? If that employee is already working for you then I think you may have grounds for dismissal, but if you are thinking of hiring them can you use this information per the FCRA in a hiring decision? More and more companies are doing so. People have to realize that everything you publish to the interent is being crawled by search engine spiders. That information is in the public domain and usually rather easily accesible. Posting your political views, rants about your job or pictures of you cutting loose on the weekend may not be using your best judgement.