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Here’s a spooky thought: there’s a good chance your online reputation could outlive you on the web – and still be vulnerable to attacks.
Have you ever wondered what will happen to your digital information after you’re gone? It’s a morbid topic, but no less important than dividing up your estate or making plans for your life insurance. Even once you’re no longer posting or “liking” on networks like Facebook, it’s possible that your name will stay active, unless you take plans to deactivate it. And if you don’t, you leave it to the whims of whichever company controls your data – or hackers that manage to steal it.
Some systems already exist to help cope with this situation. Facebook lets you turn the page of a recently departed loved one into a memorial site. Google has recently announced a service currently called “Inactive Account Manager” to allow you to set up “retirement” plans for your profiles after they go a certain amount of time without being used. This is worth considering even if you have no plans of shuffling off this mortal coil any time soon, as it’s a way of keeping forgotten email addresses and other services from cluttering up your computer and impacting your online reputation.
Posted in Digital Reputation & Trust by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Online Reputation
Some fundamental fraud awareness training can help in your everyday life: the next time someone’s talking about your information, watch their face.
We’ve looked at ways to combat electronic criminals, and while it’s true that cyber security is important, it’s also wise to stay alert when dealing with living, breathing people. There are many everyday situations in which your most personal information might be in the hands of a stranger, whether you’re making a purchase, confronting a possibly fraudulent employee or performing a bank transaction. In her book “Body Language Confidential,” author Traci Brown identifies many basic things you can do to check if someone is trying to scam you right in front of your face.
Let’s start with the face. One key indicator is when a person rubs or scratches their face after being asked a question. This might seem like a fairly obvious giveaway, but you’ll be surprised how often you’ll see this little move in action. According to Brown, this is a physical reaction to lying, which raises the potential scammer’s blood pressure.
Posted in Fraud Detection & Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: fraud awareness training, Fraud Detection
Do you manage a blog or company site powered by WordPress? If so, your online data security may be in jeopardy.
Any popular site for hosting content can be a natural magnet for the devious intentions of hackers. Wordpress is free and easy to use, and its popularity has made it a victim of security breaches before.
In the most recent case, the culprit seems to be a botnet – a collection of internet-connected programs communicating with other similar programs in order to perform tasks. This botnet prays on the careless and naive by targeting any site with a login that contains the word “admin” or other default-sounding names and by predicting passwords. It goes to show that when it comes to crafting your digital identity, applying even basic computer tricks taught to kids in elementary school these days can help protect your rights and information.
Posted in Cyber Data Security by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Data Security Expert, online data security
Despite its claim to being aware of social media privacy, Facebook continues to mine user activity for ad data. Now, it’s expanding beyond the boundaries of its site – and even your browser.
Though it claims to respect user privacy and keep its targets protected, Facebook is offering advertisers on its site a new way to narrow its audience through demographics based on specific purchases called “Partner Categories.” Beware of the rather innocuous official announcement which says that a local business could use it to find customers who may be willing to give them their business, according to recent purchases. The feature would accomplish this using third party data collection companies like Acxiom to build predictions based on what you have bought.
Previously, advertisers showed ads to us based on the interests we expressed on Facebook. Now, they have the added ammunition of knowing every product and brand we’ve purchased through our desktop or mobile.
Posted in Social Media Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: data security, Social Media Privacy
To this somewhat hopeful cyber security expert, it appears that Mary Jo White, the new chairwoman of the SEC, is interested in making investors’ online security a priority. Will it make you safer? Not without action. Shortly after being officially confirmed in her new role this week, White held a meeting to establish stricter identity theft prevention measures – an initiative that was started back in 2011. Specifically, the measures encouraged businesses to disclose their security vulnerabilities and any history of prior cyber attacks for the purpose of better informing constituents.
White’s initiative was sparked in part by West Virginia Senator John Rockefeller, who has reached out to her to increase efforts in this area. In a letter to White sent this week, Rockefeller urged the SEC to put stronger regulations in place to help enforce cyber security. His statements of concern requesting “formal guidance from the SEC” hit the nail on the head.
Posted in Cyber Data Security by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Cyber Security, Identity Theft Prevention
Though businesses of all kinds have reasons to be concerned about their susceptibility to identity theft and fraud, contractors working for the government should be fine, right? Well, not when glitches lurk.
There are enough threats to private information floating out there without us accidentally opening the floodgates. If proper security is kept up at all times, it creates a higher standard that can allow for less laziness and more protection. Unfortunately, even the government can’t keep the possibility of dangerous security gaps at zero. Contractors working for the feds may have learned this the hard way last month, when a flaw in software used by the General Services Administration left valuable information vulnerable to identity theft and fraud, potentially including Social Security and bank account numbers.
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: identity theft and fraud, identity theft expert
Everybody knows that online privacy is in the eye of the beholder. Just as the government is working toward lessening attacks on our internet from other countries, the FBI is stepping up its game on the home front – and it wants to look at your Gmail when you send it.
So much of preventing the unwanted use of your data is simply knowing that you are being watched online by others. The FBI already has the ability to check copies of messages sent through Gmail and other providers after the fact, but it wants more: the chance to monitor such interactions as they are happening. Andrew Weissmann, the organization’s general counsel, has asserted that live online services of many different kinds are being used to perpetrate illegal purposes, requiring more surveillance. And the feds are not stopping there, also championing to gain access to messages sent on iPhones.
Posted in Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: "Online Privacy Expert", online privacy, online privacy protection
All Facebook Home will cost you is … well … your right to social media privacy on your Android phone. That’s a steep price to pay for Facebook Home saving you the extra step of clicking through a mobile app to access photos, updates and messages.
Facebook recently announced its new application “Home,” which will essentially replace the standard home screen of a user’s Android phone, giving users all Facebook, all the time. If you thought this social media colossus had control over data before, wait until users start willingly handing over their home screens. By doing so, they’re offering up valuable information contained in their mobile phones.
Facebook makes it very cloudy to know what you’re actually giving away. And though it may not be as much as the doomsayers predict, it surely is more than you’ll want to willingly contribute. For instance, Facebook’s new feature “Chat Head” combines Facebook messages with SMS. Even if it’s not collecting voice data from calls, it will likely gather data such as who you’ve called, how long you talked and how often that number is called.
Posted in Social Media Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: cyber data protection, Social Media Privacy
If you’re on the fence about the merits of fraud protection, just trust me: if it can happen to a Supreme Court Justice, it can happen to you.
At the very least, credit card fraud is more than a nuisance. It’s a major crime, and while the immediate effects may be a block to cash flow, it can strongly impact the way a cardholder is perceived, especially when that person has a reputation to uphold. As with other types of identity crime, many may assume the “sheer number” defense – the idea that there are so many targets out there that no hackers would waste their time on them. But if you’ve got a credit card, you’ve got something to lose. There’s no bounds to who can be hit by such an attack, whether it‘s a barista serving coffee or the member of the U.S. government on the other side of the counter.
Posted in Fraud Detection & Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Fraud Protection, online privacy
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