The U.S. Census 2010: Don’t be Counted as a Victim of Online Fraud

It’s been ten years already; can you believe it? I’m talking about the U.S. Census. It’s been ten years since the last one. Time to do it again. No, it wasn’t on my calendar either. To remind all of us and to encourage us to participate, the U.S. Census Bureau is spending $340 million to get the word out. There was even a Super Bowl ad.  
 
The Census Bureau will not be the only ones trying to get our attention and encouraging us to help them collect data. Cybercriminals will be doing the same thing. But they’ll be trying to fool us into thinking they are the Census Bureau. And the data they’ll be collecting will be a little different. It will be personal information they can use to rip us off.
 
How do I know this? First, the census is a perfect dodge for cybercriminals. After all, people are already expecting to have to reveal personal information about themselves, and with a little bit of social engineering, criminals could easily use this as a springboard to victimize computer users. And second, in today’s threat landscape, spammers, scammers, and every other sort of online evil-doer seemingly jump all over every major (and even minor) event in an attempt to use social engineering to fool computer users into becoming their prey.   
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