Double Agent Three-Oh-Twelve

I am now officially a Double Agent within the Geek Squad and my assigned badge number is 3012.

Double Agents are the individuals assigned to Geek Squad Precincts located in every Best Buy who are charged with policing technology and protecting citizens against malicious software both in the store as well as in their home. If you’ve seen any of the Geek Squad commercials, the Double Agents are the ones driving the Geekmobiles, black and white Volkswagen Beetles, to do in-home visits for clients with computer issues.

I’ve already been through the first two days of ride-along training with a highly experienced Double Agent, an experience that’s actually left me convinced that this position is a good match for my talents. I like the challenge of going to new houses or businesses every day to face some new problem that will keep my computer kung-fu skills sharp. And seeing the relief on a client’s face when you’ve come to them personally and fixed their problem is very rewarding.

Really the biggest downside of taking on the new position after having worked within the in-store Precinct is that I won’t have as much time around those Agents anymore. They’re a good bunch of guys and girls who always kept you on your toes. I intend to make regular visits back to the Precinct when I can, so they’re not completely rid of me yet.

10% of All US XBox 360s Sold on EBay

NASDAQ.com has a press release online from eBay’s President and Chief Executive Meg Whitman, in which Whitman claims that 40,000 XBox 360 videogame consoles have been sold through the popular online auction site.

According to Microsoft, a total of 400,000 units have been brought into the US for sale, which means that one out of every ten systems purchased on launch day were later put up for sale by people looking to double, if not triple, their purchase price.

Cybercrime More Profitable Than Illegal Drugs

Yahoo is currently running a Reuters article claiming that cybercrime generated more illegal revenue than drug trafficking in 2004 and shows no sign of slowing down.

The article quotes Valerie McNiven, a US Treasury adviser, as saying, “Last year was the first year that proceeds from cybercrime were greater than proceeds from the sale of illegal drugs, and that was, I believe, over $105 billion.”

As anyone who’s spent any time in the online world can tell, there are plenty of avenues for shady people to make money at the expense of others. The obvious sources include spam emails for less than reputable products, but there’s also profit to be made in compromising the computers of unsuspecting owners in order to track online movement to sell to underhanded marketers, display unwanted advertisements, or even use those machines as spam relay points to send out millions of emails on behalf of the spammers.

Phishing, the term given to attempts to trick people into giving criminals sensitive information such as passwords or credit card info, is also generating billions of dollars of illegal revenue. If you ask around, just about everyone you know with an email account has probably gotten a fraudulent email claiming to be from eBay, Paypal or numerous banks asking for passwords and the like.

As always, we live in a “buyer beware” world. Always be wary of clicking on links in emails claiming to be from companies and avoid opening any attachments added to emails claiming to be from your internet service provider. If you think the company in question is legitimate, you can always close that email and log in directly through their website in your web browser, to prevent being sent to a false website.

And as always, make sure you have anti-virus and anti-spyware protection. My personal recommendation is a combination of Trend Micro’s PC-Cilin and Webroot’s Spysweeper, both of which are available in most retail stores near you.