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Imagine spending your whole life working hard, saving wisely and spending conscientiously—only to have your comfy “nest egg” taken away by unscrupulous scammers or even your own greedy relatives in your golden years. Sad to say, this is a scenario that is far too common; up to 80% of scam victims are over 65, according to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. A 2009 study by MetLife’s Mature Market Institute estimates that seniors lose approximately $2.6 billion per year to elder fraud, or what they call financial abuse, meaning fraud by outside scammers or theft by family members and acquaintances.
And this issue will take on even more importance in the years to come as the senior population in America grows. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 37.3 million people 65 and older in the United States as of 2006. This group is expected to double in size within the next 25 years. By 2030, almost 1-out-of-5 Americans – some 72 million people- will be 65 years or older.
Posted in Fraud Detection & Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: “elderly fraud”, Elder Fraud, Elder Fraud Expert, Fraud Expert, Fraud Speaker, John Sileo, Senior Fraud
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsezLe4l4fE&rel=0]
Today’s Burning Question for online privacy expert John Sileo:
“Who is the bigger spy, the NSA or Google?”
I thought that was a really fascinating question. Of course, it comes because in the last couple of months the NSA has been outed by Edward Snowden, the former NSA employee. The NSA (National Security Agency) has been spying on our phone calls- who we’re calling and when, our emails- who we’re emailing and what about, and even our social media posts.
The latest scandal is called “Muscular”. Somehow, the NSA has gotten between the transmissions of Google and Yahoo. In other words, the NSA has been “sniffing” the emails going back and forth between the two largest email providers in the US and this has angered the tech giants like Google, Yahoo, and Facebook.
Posted in Burning Questions (Video), Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: "Online Privacy Expert", Big Data, Google Surveillance, John Sileo, MUSCULAR, NSA Surveillance, PRISM, Privacy Expert, Yahoo Surveillance
I found these mobile device statistics on our children’s use of technology to be eye-opening. 38% of kids under 2 have used a mobile device – the digital babysitter, I suppose. Anyway, I think it’s important that we know what direction our kids are heading and what we, as parents, are doing to point them there. Part of security involves access: how much they have, how well they are monitored and what the consequences are for improper use.
John Sileo is an author and highly engaging speaker on internet privacy, identity theft and technology security. He is CEO of The Sileo Group, which helps organizations to protect the privacy that drives their profitability. His recent engagements include presentations at The Pentagon, Visa, Homeland Security and Northrop Grumman as well as media appearances on 60 Minutes, Anderson Cooper and Fox Business. Contact him directly on 800.258.8076.
Posted in Social Media Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: children, Mobile Device Statistics, Mobile Security, Mobile Security Expert, Mobile Statistics, Sileo
Are you prepared for CryptoLocker, the next wave of Internet virus?
CryptoLocker is the next generation of internet virus that is currently circulating all over the world in large numbers. Once a computer becomes infected it will lock all your files plus any network files it has access to, even your server. Once the files are locked it will give you a three day countdown to pay the ransom, usually $100 or $300. If the time expires your files are locked with no option to pay the ransom.
Currently there are only two known methods to remove the infection, restoring your files from a backup or paying the ransom. Please be aware that paying the ransom is not guaranteed to work. We don’t condone paying the ransom as it supports and encourages these cyber criminals.
Posted in Uncategorized by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
By Mike Spinney, HoGo (Document Protection Simplified)
John Sileo is a kindred spirit when it comes to fighting the good fight against data breach and identity theft. I met John about seven years ago when we were both part of a joint project to raise awareness over the issue of physical document protection and we’ve been friends ever since. I admire what John does to help make people more aware of their personal risk and take steps to prevent identify theft. A two-time victim of identify theft, John has refused to wallow in his victimization and instead has become a privacy expert in his own right and taken his powerful, personal message to audiences around the world raising identity theft prevention awareness as one of the issues premiere speakers.
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: digital privacy expert, Document Protection, Document Protection Simplified, Hogo, Mike Spinney, Privacy Expert, Privacy Keynote Speaker
What makes a privacy expert nervous? Glimpsing the size of the iceberg under the surface. When National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden became a whistle blower earlier this year, I think we all knew we were really just seeing the tip of the iceberg about exactly how much information the NSA was gathering on the average American citizen. And it was a pretty large tip to start with.
Here’s a reminder of what started the whole thing. Snowden provided reporters at The Guardian and The Washington Post with top-secret documents detailing two NSA surveillance programs being carried out by the U.S. Government, all without the average voter’s knowledge. One gathers hundreds of millions of U.S. phone records and the second allows the government to access nine U.S. Internet companies to gather all domestic Internet usage (so they are tapping pieces of your phone calls and emails, in other words). The intent of each program respectively is to use meta-data (information about the numbers being called, length of call, etc., but not the conversation itself, as far as we know) to detect links to known terrorist targets abroad and to detect suspicious behavior (by monitoring emails, texts, social media posts, instant messaging, chat rooms, etc.) that begins overseas. As a privacy expert, I understand the need to detect connections among terrorists; the troubling part is the scope of the information being gathered.
Posted in Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: John Sileo, NSA, NSA Surveillance, online privacy, Privacy, Privacy Expert, Sileo, Surveillance Expert
Hospital Associations Choose Engaging Keynote Speaker on Data Privacy & Security
Healthcare Organizations and the patients and clients they serve are among the highest risk groups to be affected by data breach, identity theft and privacy abuse. With the implementation of Healthcare Exchanges (Obamacare), and the electronification of patient records, the industry is wide open to scammers, fraudsters and criminals.
A simple Google search on the term data breach healthcare reveals hundreds of hospitals, doctor’s offices and medical facilities that have had their databases hacked, their patients’ and employees’ identities stolen and their organization’s private information and intellectual property compromised. Data theft is bad for customers, time consuming for the healthcare organization and a public relations nightmare for the industry. John Sileo knows the healthcare industry’s pain first hand, as he is generally the person contacted by the hospital after they have been breached.
Posted in Cyber Data Security, Identity Theft Prevention, Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Does your digital footprint expose your secrets to the wrong people?
National Public Radio and the Center for Investigative Reporting recently presented a four part series about privacy (online and off) called, Your Digital Trail. To get the gist of how little privacy you have as a result of the social media, credit cards and mobile technology you use, watch this accurate and eye-opening explanation of how you are constantly being tracked.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqWuioPHhz0]Marketers, data aggregators, advertisers, the government and even criminals have access to a vivid picture of who you are. NPR calls it your digital trail; for years, I’ve referred to it as your digital footprint. Let’s take quick look of what makes up your digital footprint.
Posted in Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: digital footprint, Digital Footprint Expert, Digital Trail, Engaging Speaker, John Sileo, online privacy, surveillance
It seems I’ve spent a lot of time lately writing about the Surveillance Economy. This may be a strange expression to some, so I’ll define it as the use and exploitation of our location information derived from traffic surveillance cameras, new technologies like Google Glass and cell phone GPS tracking, among others. Recent topics we’ve covered include the NSA PRISM scandal, hacking Google Glass, Homeland Security’s seizures of electronic devices when crossing borders, and even drone use. Some of those may seem to be out there in a world that doesn’t affect us directly, but here’s one that hits very close to home for anyone who owns a vehicle.
The American Civil Liberties Union released a report in July of 2013 entitled You Are Being Tracked that outlines the use of automatic license plate readers. These devices, which can be mounted on police cars or on objects like road signs or overpasses, use small, high-speed cameras to photograph thousands of plates per minute. They effectively collect and store information about not only vehicles of potential or known criminals, but everybody who drives a car!
Posted in Online Privacy, Sileo In the News by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: “Surveillance Economy”, Expert, identity theft expert, John Sileo, Sileo, Speaker, surveillance
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