It is often thought that Viruses and Malware are the biggest threats to your personal information, but there is even a greater threat that often goes undetected. Social Engineering is a technique used by people to gather your personal or secure information without you even thinking twice about giving it away. Social Engineering is most often performed over the phone, but could just as easily be done via email, text messaging, or any other form of communication; you can be Social Engineered by anyone.

In the most basic form, Social Engineering is when someone poses as someone else (i.e. a trusted friend or colleague) to trick you into divulging sensitive information.  ”Hey, this is PayPal, please follow this link and re-enter all your banking details — its ok, really!”

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Internet service providers Global Crossing and Hurricane Electric shut down the San Jose, CA, web hosting provider "McColo" on Tuesday after it was determined that the ISP was aiding criminals in the sending of Spam, perpetrating online fraud, and providing access to child pornography.  McColo was used by some of the most active and prolific spammers in the world; the suspension of its services has resulted in a 75% decrease in spam, worldwide!

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