Too many consumers have awoken one morning to find messages from a retailer or their bank detailing purchases made through their account of which they were unaware. While the realization that they have been hacked will cause some well-deserved panic for the account holder, it usually only takes a few phone calls to cancel purchases, change a password, and cancel a credit card to put a stop to the problem.

Hashing transforms a key or set of characters into a unique value from the original input, all for cybersecurity data validation and integrity checking. Hashing is a one-way process based on creating a value to associate with a specific data set. Security solutions providers like IDStrong use the highest level of hashing and encryption to protect their users' information. Organizations like IDStrong understand how critical safeguarding their consumer’s credentials is.

The confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA) triad is a critical concept in cybersecurity, including three fundamental principles that help protect information. Organizations seeking a starting point for developing an information security framework would benefit from the triad model.

“Safeguarding personal health information (PHI) is governed under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).” Protecting identifiable health data is the responsibility of everyone who comes into contact with it, including covered entities. Healthcare providers, health plan companies, school districts not covered under FERPA, universities, employers, and federal, state, and local government agencies are mandated to protect PHI data from any security risk.

Ponzo schemes continue to grow in complexity and notoriety. These schemes are not transactions or one-time hacks. “Ponzi schemes are fraudulent business operations that promise high returns with little or no risk, claiming investors' money will go towards a legitimate investment.” Investors believe they will score huge returns from their initial investment, yet most only realize once it is too late that the entire scheme is doomed to fail from the beginning.

LinkedIn is the world's largest professional networking service for accountants, policemen, politicians, advertising professionals, business executives, college students, investment bankers, and consultants. Most use LinkedIn to connect with others and help with career development, new business contacts, and professional networking. However, job scams and other online cybercriminals use LinkedIn features for fraudulent activities.

Google Chat is a popular communication software that allows you to share content and send messages in real time. Individuals use it for personal communication or collaboration with teams at work. However, as its popularity is increasing, people are using it as their primary form of communication.

AT&T reported on July 12 that an internal investigation had revealed that the telecommunication provider had been victimized by a third-party breach,resulting in the compromise of records of calls and texts of nearly all of AT&T’s cellular customers. An AT&T spokesperson confirmed to a news source that the breach resulted from of the data stolen from cloud storage firm Snowflake.

Financial Business and Consumer Solutions (FBCS) was founded in 1982 as Federal Bond Collection Services and currently has over 100 employees. Based in Pennsylvania, the name was later changed in 2014. The company is a licensed debt collection agency offering specialized solutions for creditors across various product verticals to meet their diverse needs. Such creditors include those playing in healthcare, consumer credit, utilities, auto, and education services.