The Spyware Biz Blog

Spammers and hackers are using the inauguration of US President-Elect Barack
Obama to spread malicious software and viruses among unsuspecting computer
users, say security experts.

The Washington Post has reported that Heartland Payment Systems, a payment processor that services “more than 250,000 businesses,” has had more than 100 million transactions compromised via malicious software that was installed on its network; it will likely turn out to be the largest data breach ever reported. The “good” news is that the criminals were only capturing credit card numbers, the names on the cards, and expiration dates—the info encoded onto the magnetic strip on the card. Because no addresses, SSNs or PINs were stolen, the prospect of full-blown identity theft is pretty small—which must explain why Heartland isn’t offering any sort of credit monitoring package as compensation. Instead, their CFO says, “We recognize and feel badly about the inconvenience this is going to cause consumers.”

Yes, it is possible for a criminal to gain access to your Paypal account.?However, it’s also important to keep in mind that despite all of the melodramatic news reports you may hear about the terrible threat hackers pose to online security, foiling those criminals is actually very easy, even for people who aren’t technically savvy.