As summer nears, many families are excitedly contemplating their vacations. For top executives, though, getaways seldom enable them to put aside work matters. This usually equates with use of hotel Wi-Fi to keep up to speed on essential projects.  

 

Most hotels now offer complimentary Wi-Fi connections to their guests. By using one's cell phone or other electronic devices, that crucial message or file is just a few keystrokes away - at no extra charge. However, that same hotel Wi-Fi can also provide a "target-rich" environment for an experienced hacker hoping to gain access to data. This vulnerability is especially true for devices lacking proper encryption and strong passwords.

 

Accounts vary, but there are estimates that between one-fourth and one-third of security breaches occur on hotel networks. Cybercriminals aren't so much interested in the individual laptop or email address as they are in stealing the victim's online ID, thereby gaining access to the upstream resources accessible by the victim. The target isn't the laptop itself, but company servers, emails, and other remote resources.

 

In their efforts to make Wi-Fi networks widely accessible, hotels have . .. Read More

Horror stories abound about smooth talking con men talking people out of their money. To pick up the newspaper is to be practically assured of reading about another account. Often, the swindler can fool smart, accomplished people into going along with some scheme that, in hindsight, seems completely implausible.

 

In one case worked by ResultQuest investigators, a West Texas rancher with a gift for gab was able to amass a turboprop aircraft, luxury cars, and a country estate by swindling a lender out of millions in loan proceeds supposedly secured by many thousand head of cattle. As it turned out, the collateral was only a fraction of the inflated count. The crook had merely driven the city-dwelling loan officer in his customized Ford dually pickup to the same featureless Panhandle pasture from several different directions. He distracted the banker with jokes and tall tales in order to conceal the circuitous meanderings and count the same herd on the same land numerous times. When the loans went bad, and the bank went to collect, the inflated count was discovered. It was also found that the rancher had earlier done the same thing to a cattle investment firm that had sued. If the lender had thought to check, it would have discovered this lawsuit.    

 

In another case, a smooth-talking con man bought out a ... Read More