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Internet scams, phishing, identity theft and other attacks that exploit your personal data are always a threat when you shop online, set up an email account, use a credit card, manage an online bank account or carry your Social Security card. There is hope, however, for fighting these threats, and you can start by taking back control of all of your personal data. The 50 tips and tools in this list will help you understand how these scams originate, how to protect yourself online and offline, and how to track down your personal data on the Internet. Web Privacy Protect yourself and your data online by choosing a secure Web browser, understanding the dos and don'ts of wireless security, and correctly managing passwords.

"Hackers can use maliciously rigged PDF files to hack into corporate systems hosting the BlackBerry Attachment Service, according to a warning from the makers of the popular smartphone. Research in Motion (RIM) issued an advisory with patches for multiple flaws in the PDF distiller service and warned and an attacker could exploit the issues by simply e-mailing a booby-trapped PDF file to a BlackBerry user. The vulnerabilities exist in the PDF distiller of some released versions of the BlackBerry Attachment Service component of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server:"

Recent hacking attacks on Sony Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. grabbed headlines. What happened at City Newsstand Inc. last year did not. Unbeknownst to owner Joe Angelastri, cyber thieves planted a software program on the cash registers at his two Chicago-area magazine shops that sent customer credit-card numbers to Russia. MasterCard Inc. demanded an investigation, at Mr. Angelastri's expense, and the whole ordeal left him out about $22,000.

"On January 20, 2009, Heartland Payment Systems reported discovering malicious software in its payment processing system, a security breach of potentially massive magnitude given that the company's handles 100 million transactions per month for more than 250,000 businesses. While the monetary and data loses following from the penetration of Heartland's systems -- the compromise that lasted for months -- are still being determined, the financial impact on Heartland's stock price alone was devastating. " The breach, in conjunction with the economic downturn, led to the loss of about $500 million in shareholder value, more than three-quarters of the company's market capitalization, two months after the news was announced. And then there's the cost of more than several dozen breach-related lawsuits filed against the company this year and related expenses. According to slides presented in August at a National Retail Federation Conference by Robert O. Carr, Heartland's founder, chairman and CEO, the breach cost the company $32 million in legal fees, fines, settlements, and forensics during just the first half of the year.

The discovery of documents with students' personally identifying information stored in an unlocked room has launched protests against the university's chief information security officer. Students at Binghamton University in New York are circulating a petition to remove the university's chief information security officer following the discovery of boxes full of documents listing personal information of students and parents in an unlocked storage room. The existence of the unsecured documents was discovered March 6 by a reporter working for student radio station WHRW and disclosed on March 9. For that investigative work, the student reporter could face criminal charges. Binghamton University has had other recent problems with information security. In the past year, according to an article written by Robert Glass, the WHRW news director, university employees accidentally e-mailed the Social Security numbers of 338 students to another group of 200 students, sent the personal information of exchange students -- passport scans and birth certificates -- to student groups, and disposed of information about more than 70 former graduate students in trash bins atop a pile of shredded documents. Those breaches led the university to create an information security council, with a full-time information security officer, to prevent further incidents, according to Glass. Glass did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A University spokeswoman characterized the hiring of Terry Dylewski as the university's chief information security officer as a reflection of the school's ongoing concern about information security rather than a response to past breaches. Asked about the status of the students' petition to remove Dylewski, as reported by Broome County Fox affiliate WICZ TV, she said that question should be directed to the students. The spokeswoman said the university is treating the incident as a possible crime and that a criminal investigation is ongoing. She sai

TSA terrorist watchlist changes affect travel industry, document coordination requirements, security & privacy concerns. Over-strengthening one set of regulations and ignoring others simply means that the terrorists will move to safer (for them) modes of attack.

The Transportation Security Administration is getting ready to take over responsibility from the airlines for checking passengers' names against terrorist watch lists, and is advising travelers to start booking airline tickets using their full name as it appears on their driver's license or passport.