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Latest Identity Theft Trend is Stealing Your Business’s Identity to Falsify Accounts
In the past two weeks, I have been contacted separately by two local business owners to share how their business identity has been stolen and used to set up accounts with various companies on which thousands of dollars are charged and they (the actual owners) are left to pay the bills. There are no identity theft statistics on this type of crime, but I am certain that it is just coming onto the trend radar. In further proof that this is becoming a major problem for corporations, the Denver Post ran an article this morning titled “Corporate ID Thieves Mining the Store“.
Here’s how this incredibly easy form of business identity theft works:
Posted in Fraud Detection & Prevention, Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Business Identity Theft, Business Risk, Corporate Identity Theft, Corporate Privacy, data theft, Fraud Training, Identity Theft Prevention, Identity Theft Victim, TIN, Victim, Workplace ID Theft
By Guest Blogger, Mike Spinney, Senior Privacy Analyst, Ponemon Institute
When site reliability engineer David Barksdale was fired from his job at Google for allegedly using his position to cyberstalk teens with Google Talk accounts, it sent a shiver across the Internet. The idea that a creepy geek working for one of the world’s biggest technology companies could use his combination of technical acumen and privileged access to spy on young citizens seemed to raise the worst kind of privacy fears. More than learning information carelessly or ignorantly posted online, Barksdale’s supposed deeds evoked darker images, the sort from which Chris Hansen has made a comfortable living capturing on video. As part of his job, Barksdale had the keys to the digital kingdom and could pry into the profiles and accounts of individuals who trusted Google and used the company’s services to communicate with others in what they believed to be security and confidentiality.
Posted in Fraud Detection & Prevention, Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Identity Theft Prevention, Online Safety, Ponemon, Privacy, Professionals, Spinney
Mobile Data Theft
Technology is the focal point of data breach and workplace identity theft because corporations create, transmit, and store so many pieces of information digitally that it becomes a highly attractive target. This book is not intended to address the complex maze that larger organizations face in protecting their technological and digital assets. Rather, the purpose of this book is to begin to familiarize business employees, executives, and vendors with the various security issues facing them.
The task, then, is to develop a capable team (internal and external) to address these issues. In my experience, the following technology-related issues pose the greatest data-loss threats inside organizations:
- Laptop Theft: According to the Ponemon Institute, 36 percent of reported breaches are due to a lost or stolen laptop.
- Mobile Data Theft: Thumb drives, CDs, DVDs, tape backups, smart phones
- Malware: Software that infects corporate systems, allowing criminals inside these networks
Posted in Fraud Detection & Prevention, Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Cellphone Theft, Data Breach, Data Protection, Identity Theft Prevention, laptop, laptop stolen, lost cellphone, Mobile Computing, mobile data, Mobile Data Breach, notebook, Privacy Means Profit, Sileo, stolen laptop, Technology, Workplace ID Theft
By Michael Berg, CreditCards.com
Most people wouldn’t throw out their Social Security card or toss a credit card in the trash. Yet careful souls worldwide have been dumping old computers by the millions, filling landfills with exactly that kind of sensitive information, where aggressive high-tech criminals can readily scoop it up.
According to the latest statistics from the EPA, 205 million computer products were disposed of in 2007, with a paltry 48 million of those recycled. That leaves plenty of identities in the garbage stream just waiting to be poached.
Indeed, many computers are being mined for Social Security numbers, credit card information, bank statements, investment records and various other tidbits that open the door for everything from credit card fraud to full-on identity theft. While exact numbers are difficult to come by, there’s no doubt it’s happening with ever more frequency.
Posted in Fraud Detection & Prevention, Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: computer disposal, CreditCards.com, hard drive, hard drive disposal, identity theft expert, Identity Theft Prevention, Identity Theft Speaker, John Sileo
The following is an excerpt from John’s latest book Privacy Means Profit. To learn more and to purchase the book, visit our website www.ThinkLikeASpy.com.
Locking up sensitive documents is one of the most important and underutilized ways to protect company data. Of the individuals surveyed by the Ponemon Institute, 56 percent state that over 50 percent of their company’s sensitive or confidential information is contained within paper documents. Since 49 percent of all breaches involved paper, locking up what cannot be eliminated or destroyed is essential. To get you firmly into the business mind-set of thinking like a spy, start with this simple three-step classification process:
1. Classification: Set up a classification scheme. For example, you might have four levels of access: public, internal, classified, and top secret.
- Public documents are the only documents meant to be seen by outsiders (the public). This might include sales and marketing materials, websites, public filings, and the like.
Posted in Fraud Detection & Prevention, Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Classification, Document Protection, Document Security, Documents, Locking Documents, Privacy Expert, Sileo, Top Secret
John recently did a second radio interview on business identity theft for New Construction Strategies hosted by Ted Garrison. The construction industry, like most industries, battles with data theft on a daily basis. Insider theft, cyber crimes, social networking exposure – these are just a few of the areas that businesses need to defend against in the information economy. Listen to the interview to learn more.
| “Privacy Means Profit” John Sileo with Ted Garrison |
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Data breach, identify theft, and corporate espionage can cause huge damage if you don’t stop them upfront because the impact goes right to your bottom line. “We spend thousands of dollars on our computers but we don’t necessarily put the money into protecting the data that is on them,” reports identity theft expert John Sileo. Listen Sileo explain how this can destroy your company and how to prevent this disaster.
Posted in Fraud Detection & Prevention, Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Business Identity Theft, John Sileo, Radio Interview
John recently did a radio interview on business identity theft for New Construction Strategies hosted by Ted Garrison. The construction industry, like most industries, battles with data theft on a daily basis. Insider theft, cyber crimes, social networking exposure – these are just a few of the areas that businesses need to defend against in the information economy. Listen to the interview to learn more.
“DODGING THE HIT FROM IDENTITY THEFT: WHY YOU SHOULD CARE”
John Sileo with Ted Garrison |
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Data breach, identify theft, and corporate espionage can cause huge damage if you don’t stop them upfront because the impact goes right to your bottom line. Listen to John Sileo, author of Stolen Lives, describe the horrors of not protecting yourself as well as what you must do to protect yourself.
Posted in Fraud Detection & Prevention, Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Business Identity Theft, John Sileo, New Construction Strategies
The following is an excerpt from John’s latest book Privacy Means Profit. To learn more and to purchase the book, visit our website www.ThinkLikeASpy.com.
For businesses, shredding is low-hanging fruit (one of the easiest sources of data breach to eliminate). But businesses are so often focused on electronic forms of data breach that they fail to heed the following statistics highlighted in a recent Ponemon Institute study conducted for the Alliance for Secure Business Information:
- More than 50 percent of sensitive business data is still stored on paper documents.
- Forty-nine percent of data breaches reported in the survey were the result of paper documents.
- Sixty percent of businesses admitted that they didn’t provide the proper tools (e.g., shredders) to safely discard documents that were no longer needed.
- The average data breach recovery cost according to this survey was $6.3 million.
Posted in Fraud Detection & Prevention, Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Document Shredders, Identity Theft Prevention, Privacy Means Profit, Shred, Shredding, Sileo, Workplace ID Theft
Privacy Means Profit (Wiley) available in bookstores today!
Here are The Top 5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Buy It:
You love sharing bank account numbers, surfing habits and customer data with cyber thieves over unprotected wireless networks
You never tempt hackers and con artists by using Gmail, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Docs, or other cloud computing platforms to store or communicate private info, personally or professionally.
You bury your head in the sand, insisting that “insider theft” won’t affect your home or business.
You’ve already hardened your laptops and other mobile computing devices in 7 vital ways, eliminating a major source of both personal and corporate data theft.
You have a “thing” for identity theft recovery costs and would rather invest thousands in recovery than $25 in prevention.
If you want to defend yourself and your business against identity theft, data breach and corporate espionage, then buy a copy of Privacy Means Profit.
Posted in Cyber Data Security, Digital Reputation & Trust, Fraud Detection & Prevention, Identity Theft Prevention, Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: identity theft expert, Identity Theft Prevention, Identity Theft Protection, Identity Theft Speaker, John Sileo, Privacy Means Profit, Think Like A Spy, Wiley, Wiley & Sons
