CPAM Blog

FBI- Phishing Scam Alert for Consumers 2012

2012-01-03T09:12:00.000-05:00

1/3/12, Happy New Year! let's promote crime prevention this year to our community members, family and friends. 2012, will be filled with scams and fraud online, SMART phones, and of course Email. It will be important to keep track of the types of fraud and not to open any suspicious emails or text messages. This FBI report was issued in November of 2011, and we've seen extensive emails with this scam.

Rich Coleman, CPAM

FBI Denver Cyber Squad Advises Citizens to be Aware of a New Phishing Campaign

FBI Denver November 23, 2011
Media Coordinator Dave Joly (303) 630-6060

With the holiday shopping season upon us, the FBI Denver Cyber Squad would like to advise citizens of a new spear phishing campaign involving personal and business bank accounts, financial institutions, money mules, and jewelry stores. The campaign involves a variant of the “Zeus” malware called “Gameover.” The spam campaign is pretending to be legitimate e-mails from the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA), advising the user there was problem with the ACH transaction at their bank and it was not processed. Once they click on the link they are infected with the Zeus or Gameover malware, which is able to key log as well as steal their online banking credentials, defeating several forms of two factor authentication.

After the accounts are compromised, the perpetrators conduct a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on the financial institution. The belief is the DDoS is used to deflect attention from the wire transfers as well to make them unable to reverse the transactions (if found). A portion of the wire transfers (not all) are being transmitted directly to high-end jewelry stores, wherein the money mule comes to the actual store to pick up his $100K in jewels (or whatever dollar amount was wired).

Investigation has shown the perpetrators contact the high-end jeweler requesting to purchase precious stones and high-end watches. The perpetrators advise they will wire the money to the jeweler’s account and someone will come to pick up the merchandise. The next day, a money mule arrives at the store, the jeweler confirms the money has been transferred or is listed as “pending” and releases the merchandise to the mule.

Later on, the transaction is reversed or cancelled (if the financial institution caught the fraud in time) and the jeweler is out whatever jewels the money mule was able to obtain.

The FBI in Denver is asking all consumers to be cautious of opening communications from senders that would not normally send you e-mail or are not from the normal sender e-mail address.

Matt's Safe School Law: Prohibiting School Bullying

2011-12-08T16:17:00.000-05:00

On November 9th, 2011, the Michigan House of Representatives revised the Senate's version of Matt's Safe School Law making Michigan the 48th state to pass legislation addressing "bullying". Over the past six years we've lost students around the country to cyber bullying, traditional bullying (physical, teasing, taunting) and what use to be an issue overlooked in some cases has now become extremely dangerous.

Matt's Law addressing bullying was introduced six years ago and Matt's Epling the father of Matt made a commitment to not let his son's lose be forgotten and he worked with elected officials to get this law on the books for all of Michigan's students. This wasn't without many set backs and a Senate bill that was introduced last month that no one could support and Michigan was recognized as a state that supported bullying which was completely opposite of the intent of the legislation.

The Michigan House of Representatives revised the senate bill and sponsored substitute legislation that was passed and signed into law by the Governor this week.

On September 30th, 2011, the Michigan Bullying Prevention Summit was held in East Lansing and was well attended. I spoke with Mr. Epling and there was a concern then about getting the legislation "right" to protect all children. As I've heard many say "it's not perfect, but it is a good start".

The Michigan schools have 60 days to implement the new law. You can find the details of H.B. # 4163 at the link below.

Legislative Analysis of H.B. # 4163- Matt's Safe School Law

A Tribute to a fallen Officer "Trevor Slot " of Walker Police Department

2011-12-08T16:03:00.000-05:00

On Thursday October 13th, 2011, I was attending the CPAM annual conference when just before lunch Lt. Lee Hoeksema of the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department announced that a bank robbery had occurred in their area and we had lost a Walker Police Officer. You could hear a pin drop in the room. The members from the local agencies were shaken and visibility upset with the loss of an officer from their community.

Chief Catherine Garcia-Lindstrom, CPAM member and Chief of Police for the Walker Police Department and all the staff and community of Walker did an outstanding job through the entire tragic ordeal, and the celebration of life service was amazing. I was so honored to be there in support of Officer Trevor Parker's family and the Walker Police department family.

Our hearts and prayers will be with you all.

Are you "Linkedin as a Crime Prevention Practictioner"?

2011-10-12T19:34:00.003-04:00

Earlier this year I joined "Linkedin" the professional network site (Linkedin) after so many of my professional contacts kept asking "Coleman are you Linked in yet?" and as busy as I am, I asked myself, "should I really have one more website/email address to monitor?" but the trend of social network use to work with others on projects, events and production (for me music and television) I knew I had to jump in and I'm glad that I did.

I am a member of our local Cyber Citizenship Coalition and online privacy has been a consistent theme with my presentations and television shows devoted to the topic. Linkedins format to provide a professional network provides users with the opportunity to find "like" groups or persons of same interest in work your working on. I joined nine (9) groups five (5) of those being in law enforcement and the others in music and television.

The law enforcement groups are "CPTED, Social Media @ Large, Homeland Security Network, Law Enforcement 2.0, and ISCP" . At the time that I joined I was working on a security survey for our local American Red Cross building and the discussions with others in the group about resources, classes being offered where information could be obtained was amazing.

So if you have not ventured into the social media world consider the jump. I use one day a week (Friday's) to review my resources, make updates, prepare for presentations and staying as current as I can, now that is a challenge!

National Drugs Fact Week: October 31st - November 6th, 2011

2011-10-12T15:55:00.000-04:00

The National Institute on Drug Abuse 2011, National Drugs Fact Week is just a few weeks away. This exciting campaign unique approach is that its design for the students to engage each other and work on solutions impacting their school, neighborhood and community. Today students are so wired with technology that the latest legal/illegal drugs (s) are promoted in songs, video clips, and social networks will be seen and heard a number of times before adults even know anything about it..

National Drugs Fact Week 10/31- 11/6, 2011

Schools across the country will be hosting discussion groups in classes and in their respective communities. You can get tips, resources and information on how to host an event in your community.

This is the second year that the Grammy's Foundation has joined NIDA to sponsor a song and video contest for students to write/peform songs with a positive message. The students have strict guidelines on submissions that must be followed to be considered. The top winners will be invited to the 54th Grammys in Los Angeles and it is a free trip!

In addition to my role with Pittsfield Twp's D.P.S., I'm also a professional musician and voted into the Grammy's in 1999, and I'm very excited to help promote this effort and reach out to young people in our community and abroad with how important their message can be to others. My recording "We are CommUnity: America Stand for What is Right" CD project for 9/11, has 81 voices singing with me in a "We are the World" format. I'm very proud of this project and helping the families of fallen police officers, fire fighters, port authority. I use this project as an example of writing positive lyrics and music tracks.

Last year I attended the 53rd Grammy's my daughter who graduated from U of M's Musical Theater program this year and my son, who is a senior in high school, we had a blast! I know the students who attended did as well.

I would encourage everyone to check out the NIDA site and bring this effort to your community!

Money Gram Scams: Ann Arbor.com Article, Rich Coleman, PSCC, Pittsfield Twp.DPS, Det. Don Lupi Saline PD

2011-10-12T13:34:00.000-04:00

Identity theft, scams of all types are impacting residents and businesses by email, phone and snail mail. The Federal Trade Commission (Federal Trade Commission) has posted great information and resources for consumers and law enforcement. There is one report that I recommend all Crime Prevention Practitioner pull and review "The Sentential" published by the FTC a yearly report of "reported" Identity Theft and Fraud, FTC 2010 Sentinel Consumer Report * there are a number of unreported incidents due to pride and embarrassment that they fell for the scam.

The state of Michigan had 33,991 reported incidents of identity theft, fraud and other consumer complaints, (Fraud #27,11, ID Theft # 6,880) You can also assit miltary members and families in your commuity by accessing FTC- Sentinel resource for military families .

Here is a September 19th, 2011, article published at Ann Arbor.com on "The Money Gram Scam":

The often-repeated saying, “If it seems too good to be true, it is” is gaining new traction in the 21st century as scam artists continue to prey on people looking to make an easy buck.

Sometimes it’s a fake lottery, and a random email announces you won. Sometimes it’s a person offering to pay you thousands of dollars more than your asking price for an item on Craigslist. Sometimes it’s a job as a mystery shopper who is sent thousands of dollars and then told to wire it using Western Union or MoneyGram.

But, in nearly all of those cases, the person on the other computer is running a scam.

Officials in the Saline Police Department and Pittsfield Township Public Safety Department both have 1-inch-thick stacks of paper on their desk, all of them cases of well-meaning people scammed by someone they’ve never met. Pittsfield Township community coordinator Rich Coleman said people across all walks of life have fallen victim to these types of scams, simply because they didn’t read the fine print.
“If it’s too good to be true, it is, particularly as it relates to these types of MoneyGram scams,” Coleman said. “If you get someone telling you, ‘We’re going to send you a check, you keep the portion you’re entitle to, but send us the balance,’ it’s not good. It’s not good at all.”

The scams are reported fairly frequently — about 3 or 4 come into the Saline Police Department every week. However, officials estimate twice that number aren’t being reported because the victims are simply too embarrassed to say anything about it once they realize they’ve been had.
Saline police Det. Don Lupi said the common denominators in almost all of these types of scams are fraudulent checks and money transfer services like Western Union and MoneyGram. He said the unwitting participants in these scams are usually sent a fraudulent check that looks very real and is usually between $1,000 and $5,000.

In one case Saline police investigated this month, the recipient was told he was going to be a mystery shopper. The 73-year-old man would receive a money transfer from a woman in Montana with instructions to buy about $30 of products from Walmart and to wire the remainder of the check, which was generally between $250 and $1,000, to Nigeria and other African countries.

The man did this about 6 times before he was contacted by a Western Union representative telling him he might be involved in money laundering. The Saline man stopped using Western Union after that, but the Montana woman began sending him money orders. He took the money orders to the Saline Post Office and was told they were fraudulent — he never cashed them and stopped all of the transactions.
Lupi said the Saline man didn’t lose any money out of the deal, but was instead sending money from fraudulent checks along to someone overseas. When those checks were discovered to be fraudulent, the woman in Montana would then be responsible for the money.
Both the Saline man and Montana woman would not be charged with a crime because there was no specific intent, Lupi said; the man from Saline and the woman from Montana didn’t know they were committing a crime.

“Because our country doesn’t have a streamlined check verification system, it falls back on the person cashing it,” Lupi said. “The woman from Montana is out the money and someone in Nigeria has the money.”
With the crimes being started, and ended, in foreign countries, there’s a large amount of difficulty in fully investigating these types of scams, Lupi said.
“With most police departments being small and local, we don’t have the resources of manpower to investigate into another country,” Lupi said. “With the mass volume of these that come into all police agencies, the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) doesn’t have the resources to check them out.”
These types of scams leave people like Andy Gammo, the owner of Village Party Store in Saline, in a tough place.

As a Western Union outlet, Gammo’s shop was the place the 73-year-old Saline man was receiving and sending the money transfers at and, though the transactions were a part of a scam, Gammo was simply doing his business.
Gammo said he’s usually on the look for someone suspicious who might be receiving $3,000 and sending $2,400 of it to someone else. He said he’s been made aware of scams in the past and has helped stop them.
“If we don’t catch it, Western Union catches it, but with transactions like that we catch it all the time,” Gammo said.

“We have to be alert all the time, I mean, we’re in this business so we have to be alert.”
There are tell-tale signs a scam is taking place, Coleman said.
One of the main signs is a contact telling you to use immediate service on Money Gram or Western Union, as opposed to next-day service. By sending it immediately, there’s no way the sender can get the money back, Coleman said. While it might seem like a clichÃ©, broken English or worse-than-usual grammar is also usually a sign of a scammer, he said.
If someone is sent a check and believes it might be a fraud, Coleman and Lupi both encouraged people to simply ask for help, either from police or from officials at a bank. There’s also a website Coleman said is a great resource, even if it’s seemingly obviously named — www.fakecheck.org.

There are often specific details as well, such as exactly where to go to transfer the money, break downs of exactly how the money should be spent and what will be received and other instructions make the scams seem legitimate. However, scammers usually give themselves away by sending money before any action is taken.
“There are legitimate companies that do this. They’ll give you money after you do it, not before,” Coleman said.

There are other scams to look out for as well, including fake jobs on Craigslist, an Internet classifieds site.
In July, 17-year-old Saline woman was sent a check for $3,490 after she accepted a nanny job she found on Craigslist. She was told to deduct $300 for herself and buy toys for the children with the rest, but was then told to send $2,898 to a Vermont man through Western Union, according to a police report. After she sent the money, the Saline girl never heard back from the original woman who had made contact with her.

In 2008, another Saline man accepted a “job” as a mystery shopper and bought $60 in products from various national corporations and was told to evaluate the experience, as a first assignment. His second assignment was to evaluate either Western Union or Money Gram by transferring $1,997.72 and, in a separate transaction, $178.98. The man was paid $250 for his job, but would be out of the money once the checks he transferred were determined to be fraudulent.
“You’re still responsible for the money, and the bank will deduct it out of your account if the check is fraudulent,” Lupi said.

Kyle Feldscher covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.

The History of Crime Prevention: The Orgin of Community Policing

2011-10-11T23:04:00.002-04:00

In 1990 when I attended the Crime Prevention school with the Detroit Police department, I was excited, nervous and curious about what to expect. That was the first time that I met Sgt. Gary Chatman, if you've met him, you know he lived crime prevention and when he engaged you one-on-one, he wanted to know if you had the drive to be the best crime prevention officer/practitioner that you could be and wanted to be, he was determined to get the best out of you during that two-week period.

I was fascinated by the first several days of learning historically how crime prevention concepts and practices were created. I now have the opportunity to present to the Eastern Michigan University Criminal Justice and Sociology classes on crime prevention and share the origin and the individuals who helped shape where we are today.

See if you remember this early start of Police work:

The English Experience Oliver Cromwell, 1655
Thomas deVeil 1729
Henry Fielding, mid 1700’s
• *Henry created the 1st steps in the formation of “responsible” police work.
International Centre for the History of Crime, Policing and Justice

Henry Fielding, mid 1700’s
•Henry created the 1st steps in the formation of “responsible” police organization.
•Two goals:
–Stamp out existing crime
–To prevent outbreaks of crime in the future
–Created a criminal-justice system, 1st to establish the magistrates' role.

Three Objectives were established:
•1.) The development of a strong police force.
•2.) The organization of an active group of citizens a body of citizens householders, and
•3.) The initiation of action which would serve to remove some of the causes of crime and
the conditions in which they flourished.

Sir Robert Peel 1822
Origins of the Metropolitan Police:
Formation of the Metropolitan Police started when Sir Robert Peel was appointed Home Secretary in 1822. Except for a brief period in 1827, he continued in the post until the Tories lost power in 1830. Peel had experience of creating police institutions; when he was Chief Secretary for Ireland (1812-1816), he had established the Peace Preservation Force.
From the beginning of his time as Home Secretary he made it clear that he wanted to reorganize policing in London. The question is – why?

Sir Robert Peel:
The Metropolitan Police Act’s foundation-
He wanted a single, unified force under central control that could be used to maintain order without having to call for the aid of the army. Soldiers were trained to use lethal weapons. A police institution could be trained to restore order without guns and sabres.
A uniform system of police for the entire metropolis would mean that provision was not so dependent upon the wealth of a parish. Wealthy parishes could afford more watchmen, better watchmen, and pay them better than the poorer ones.

Recently historians have begun to recognise and understand a new desire for order and tidiness on the streets of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century cities. A new, centrally-directed police made it possible to enforce such a policy across the metropolis.

Source: International Centre for Crime and Policing

Relations between police and the public:

•Examining the interaction between the police and public is important for two reasons. First, the presence of police officers on the streets of London was symbolic of the power of the State. Remember, when the Metropolitan Police was established in 1829 the central State played a much smaller role in society. Local government was far more important in the day-to-day affairs of the average citizen, hence initial opposition to the notion of centralized police control in 1829.

Police and Public Order

•The old time parish constables had to present offenders before magistrates for 'nuisance' and they prosecuted people for riding horses, or driving carriages, carts and wagons dangerously.

•

The new police continued these old practices, but given their numbers and their central direction they were able to enforce new levels of decorum on the streets and this, some historians have argued, became one of their key duties in the years following their creation.

Fighting crime in the 1800’s

•Up until the end of the eighteenth century crime was associated with acts of personal depravity. Explosive economic and demographic growth and resultant urban changes in early nineteenth-century Britain led contemporaries to view 'change' as a social force in its own terms. Linked with notions of 'change' were fears about the collapse of 'traditional values' such as the break-up of extended families as society moved from a rural to urban base, and the sinister spectre of the 'poor'. The criminal, especially the offender drawn from the poorest section of the working class, symbolized these changes.

1st Record of Crime statistics

Criminal statistics began to be collected for England and Wales from 1810, but the first figures collected went back to 1805.

Isn't it amazing that from this start modern day policing's use of terminology, methods, and concepts has not changed. The use of technology and equipment for officer's safety has continue to save lives and assist in enforcing laws.

CPAM Conference 2011: The Art of Networking, are you Ready?

2011-10-11T21:26:00.000-04:00

CPAM Conference 2011: The Art of Networking, Don't miss the opportunity!

I attended my first CPAM conference in 1990, and I have not missed one since. After graduating from the Detroit Police Departments Crime Prevention School ( I just found my picture of the group wow have we changed!) and I remember the sessions that gave us insight into current crime prevention trends, interpersonal issues, safety on the job, the impact of International, national and local crime trends that we would have never thought we'd use in our crime prevention tool box today.

I have kept every conference folder and the resources I've obtained used in some type of program or replicated what was provided. I've learned it's not always the books/manuals or protocols that work, but it's the "people person and active listening skills" used to share those crime prevention concepts and ideas for residential, businesses, faith communities, and fellow workers in creating a successful "eyes and ears" for the community.

I'm excited that at our agency, Pittsfield Township's Department of Public Safety under the direction of Matt Harshberger, we've implemented and introduced to our community a "Community Patrol Unit" with two officers. I'm really excited Officers's Hornbeck and Cassette have joined CPAM and now benefit from the resources and networking that I have for the past twenty-three years.

CPAM's membership has been impacted my budget cuts and fiscal constraints over the past five years. We've had the Michigan's Chiefs of Police Presidents provide an overview of the state of Michigan's law enforcement services at our conferences and what we heard then is true today, we have to do more with less. It's the reality, but our citizens want to know that we'll be there when they need us.

Our efforts with the promotion of Neighborhood, Apartment, Business and Faith Community watch is more important today than ever before. Our schools need S.R.O's and our students, families, and staff want and need our assistance in maintaining a safe environment because of the incidents of school violence, bullying both cyber/traditional.

So what does the CPAM conference mean to you? For those that know me I've shared every program I've ever created, that is how I learned,,, bring your zip files and share with each other and those that are new to who we are, we welcome you and know for a fact we are "Crime Prevention Practitioners"!

Rich Coleman, Leg. Rep. CPAM

"Prezi" a new online tool for Crime Prevention presentations

2011-10-11T21:18:00.000-04:00

Crime Prevention personnel a new tool for presentations "Prezi"

We all have presentations that we do the research, prepare our notes, get the facts and points of interest on paper or in a Power Point, and now it's time to give that presentation, but oh no, I forgot my zip file, disk, or the computer doesn't work, something has gone wrong again!

Well, one of my fellow presenters SRO Jason Gold of A2 PD that I just helped with a project turned me on to Prezi @ http://prezi.com a program designed for presenters to upload their files and presentations into a format that has exciting screen transitions and will help to keep your audience engaged with your topic. It also saves you from those challenging times that you can't get anything to work right.

Having access to the Internet you can go to your "free account" that you set up and open your presentation. I'm always looking for ways to help me prepare for the next presentation. I know it works this was fun! Check it out

Rich Coleman, Leg. Rep. CPAM

"Click Jacking" The latest online threat that can harvest your personal information

2011-10-08T01:16:00.000-04:00

Cyber Security Update: 10/7/11 "Combatting Click Jacking by updating your browser"

10/8/11, Michigan Cyber Security Summit: Today of all of the workshops this information really caught my attention presented by Mr. Brett McDowell, Security Analysis for PayPal. "Click Jacking" is a format used by those involved in hacking, planting malware and creating webpages that look like the companies but has been changed and the page has buttons and links embedded that will send you to other sites and harvest your keystrokes and information that you put into the site because you assume it is where you want to be.

The goal of the updated browser (all formats) is to prevent malicious framing of content. The browser update with the "X Frame-Options"has been added to all of the browser updates.

This framing of content has impacted retail sites, banks, all sites providing for E-Commerce through "https" have the threat of their site being impacted and are working to correct this threat.

The first line of defense is with the user" YOU" you must activate updates for Microsoft explorer, Mac's, Fire Fox, Google Chrome, and others all have this new code but it won't work if you have not updated your browser.

I've updated all of my computers in my home prior to this post and I will be sharing this as much as I can, please do the same. A link to a Fire Fox solution, a little technical but you'll get the gist

Rich Coleman, Leg. Rep, CPAM

Michigan Cyber Summit, National Cyber Security Month Oct. 2011

2011-10-08T00:47:00.000-04:00

10-7, The Washtenaw County Cyber Citizenship Coalition in conjunction with Governor Synder, Homeland Security, The White House Cyber Security Director, Ic3, Google, AT & T, Comcast, Microsoft and all of our state and national partners hosted a full day of presentations, panel discussions, and networking about all facets of cyber security. Our website http://washtenawcybercoalition.org/ has information about the conference, resources for businesses, families, and schools.

The national theme "Stop,Think, Connect" was repeated throughout the day and the threats of virus, trojans, and mailware is real with every site visited on the Internet and or downloaded. This national theme has PSA's, and wrist bands and more that are available for your community use.

I will be providing Internet safety tips for the next several posts from the presenters with links and information that can be used for prevention practitioners, schools, and families. I had an opportunity to spend time with Jacqueline Beauchere, Director of Trustworthy Computing, Microsoft Corp and National Cyber Security Alliance Board Member from Microsoft and she provided me with a website link (www.microsoft.com/security) that has resource materials for download, PDF files and more available for all interested in cyber security. Look for more resources and details. Bookmark our Washtenaw County site for updates and resources.

Rich Coleman, Leg. Rep. CPAM

2011-10-08T00:11:00.004-04:00

CPAM- The place to network and learn from your peers

I joined CPAM in 1989, and after graduating from the Detroit Police Departments "Crime Prevention Training School" I was ready to bring the knowledge and excitement of putting in place creating an atmosphere for neighborhood, apartment, business and faith community watch programs. Working with other CPAM personnel it was important not to re-invent the wheel.

We used information from the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC-http://www.ncpc.org) , National Missing and Exploited, The National Sheriff's Association, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, C.P.T.E.D, Community Oriented Policing, and many more as tools to build on our knowledge base to help our program.

If you are in law enforcement coordinating crime prevention, C.O.P.s officer or a civilian as I am working for an agency this organization is one that you'll benefit from. The conferences, training, networking is such a valuable tool in doing your job but most of all your community benefiting from.

The 2011 CPAM Conference is being planned and members and those thinking of joining can help sustain and continue to build on the maintaining this great organization by being an officers and serving on the board of directors. Please visit the website for details on joininging as well as applying to be on the board.

6/16/11, Rich Coleman, Leg. L. CPAM

2011-10-08T00:10:00.001-04:00

10-7, Elected Officials have camped out in the Capitol to protest that this legislation has not been brought to the floor. We'll be monitoring this effort for the families of Michigan.

Cyber Bullying- MI House of Reps proposed 2011 legislation

6/20, CPAM personnel/School personnel, SRO's and parents. Michigan's elected officials are working to address the issues related to traditional and now cyber bullying incidents. Due to the increase of bullying being reported online and by text messages. These new laws being proposed will require that schools report to law enforcement and the parents of the individual involved with bullying and the victim be notified. If anyone needs an example of a community presentation send me a note and I'll forward what we've done for our local schools here in Pittsfield Twp. and several national resources that I'll highlight in future posts.

R. Coleman, CPAM

Harassment /Stalking

• Michigan Penal Code # 750.411h

• #750.441s Posting messages through electronic medium

• House Bill #4251-Create government cyber bully PSA and maintain an awareness campaign.

• House Bill #4252- Mandate school and law enforcement “cyberbully” reporting.

• If a law enforcement officer or agency gets a report of “cyber- bullying” of a minor, it must report this to the parents and school (s) of both the bully and the victim.

• If the school official becomes aware of cyberbullying they must report to all parties.

Posted by Ritchie at 9:38 AM

2011-10-08T00:07:00.004-04:00

Dept.of Homeland Security- 4 ways to safeguard mobile devices

6/21/11, The Dept. of Homeland Security has provided a number of great resources that I'll share in this blog. Mobile devices are replacing desktops and laptops and the more we use them the "hactivist" have found ways to get access to your personal information. See the attached article for tips on protecting your mobile device. R. Coleman, CPAM

4 Ways to Safeguard Mobile Devices

DHS: Cybercriminals Increasingly Target Mobile Devices

Information Security Media Group
June 20, 2011

The Department of Homeland Security has issued four tips to keep smartphone users safe from cybercriminals. In its blog, DHS offers this advice:

Access the Internet over a secure network: Only browse the web through your service provider's network such as 3G or a secure Wi-Fi network.
Be suspicious of unknown links or requests sent through email or text message: Do not click on unknown links or answer strange questions sent to your mobile device, regardless of who the sender appears to be.
Download only trusted applications: Download "apps" from trusted sources or marketplaces that have positive reviews and feedback.
Be vigilant about online security: Keep anti-virus and malware software up to date, use varying and strong passwords, and never provide your personal or financial information without knowing who's asking and why they need it.

DHS says nearly half of Americans are expected to own a mobile device by year's end. Citing experts, DHS says smartphones and mobile devices will surpass computers as the primary target for cybercrime within three years.
"If a hacker can gain access to a mobile device, they can easily find e-mail addresses, stored passwords, banking information, social media accounts and phone numbers, allowing them to steal your information, your money and even your identity," DHS says, as part of its Stop Think Connect cybersecurity campaign.

National Night Out 2011, It's still an important community event!

2011-10-08T00:07:00.003-04:00

National Night Out 2011, It's still an important community event!

The National Association of Town Watch started the National Night Out (NNO) event in the early 90's. This events intent/purpose is to heighten crime and drug prevention awareness, it is yet a relevant and important message for our communities.

CPAM embraced NNO with it's member agencies and members of retail, law enforcement and the private sector. Grants to assist with NNO were also budgeted for members to apply for to support their efforts and law enforcement joined to created a community wide event that "all agencies could treat as one event". It was great to plan and pull off the events with everyones help.

During this planning time every agency had a crime prevention officer or C.O.P's officer involved in their community and this was the perfect group to help bring the community out to participate and join in the effort to increase the "eyes and ears" block-by-block.

Budget constraints and department downsizing has changed how many agencies participate in the NNO event. Many agencies can't create over time so those that can participate help plan with their respective communities.

The NATW (http://www.nationalnightout.org) has great resources for those that have a budget but you can also do this event with a limited budget and volunteers, the most important aspect has always been, meeting with residents, presenting a message that "we're here for you when needed" , and providing resources from non-profits and services to the community.

R. Coleman, Leg. Rep. CPAM

2011-10-08T00:04:00.002-04:00

Identity Theft & Fraud- Data breaches, Is your Smartphone at risk?

"Data Breaches" to national/local businesses, banks and online threats, and Smartphones are on the rise. Everyday we read about another major businesses such as Citi Bank, Sony, Google's Gmail, Epsilon, RSA Security, SecurID, Lockheed Martin all being illegal accessed by "hacktivist" (CU Info Security 6/10) and putting personal information at risk for fraud.

Federal and State laws are being enacted to assure that consumers are notified of a possible data breach in a timely fashion and encouraging consumers to check their credit reports and monitor suspicious activity on credit cards or calls about purchases being made and shipped to unfamiliar addresses.

In December of 2010, the Kaspersky Lab Security News Service posted a report called "Enterprise Mobile Security Survey",(http://www.threatpost.com/) that is an eye opener about the impact on businesses that are using Smartphones for E-commerce decisions and the lack of security software on the devices.

All sectors of business, schools, and organizations are creating "acceptable use policies -AUP" in order to make employees/users aware of how to protect their Smartphones, avoid visiting non-approved websites that may have malware or trojans that can access their systems and turning off features when not in use.
Identity Theft and Fraud interview with WXYZ Channel 7, Detroit MI.-
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2011-09-01T14:01:00.002-04:00

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2010-12-08T12:01:00.000-05:00

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Identity Theft & Fraud- Data breaches, Is your Smartphone at risk?

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Welcome to the CPAM Blog

FBI Denver November 23, 2011
Media Coordinator Dave Joly (303) 630-6060