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Latest "Identity Theft Prevention" Posts
I was recently featured in an article by the Otago Daily Times in Dunedin, New Zealand during my stay there. I discuss the importance of protecting you Identity, not only at home, but also when you travel. With over 9 million Identity Theft victims in 2008 alone, you can never be too careful!
One of the first things American public speaker John Sileo did on his return to Dunedin this month was buy a paper shredder.
Not that he is paranoid, he says, but this self-proclaimed expert on identity fraud does not take chances with personal information.
Click Here to read the entire article.
John Sileo became America’s leading Identity Theft Speaker & Expert after he lost his business and more than $300,000 to identity theft and data breach. His clients include the Department of Defense, Pfizer and the FDIC. To learn more about having him speak at your next meeting or conference, contact him by email or on 800.258.8076
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Fraud, identity theft expert, Identity Theft Prevention, John Sileo, Privacy, travel
Detection: Fraud and Identity Theft.
“Consumers are spending considerably more time on fraud Resolution, up to an average of 30 hours in 2008. This increase may be attributed to the increased sophistication of fraud schemes.”
– 2009 Identity Fraud Survey Report, Javelin Strategy & Research
Most cases of identity theft are discovered by the victim, which reinforces the importance of monitoring your various accounts for suspicious behavior. Here are a few of the most common warning signs for the detection of fraud, identity theft or data breach:
The Top 15 Ways Victims Detect Identity Theft
- You receive a data breach notice in the mail from a company you do business with.
- Your bills or statements are not arriving in your mail (or email) on time.
- You notice unauthorized charges on your credit card bill or debit card statement.
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: detecting fraud, Detection Fraud, Fraud, fraud detecting, Fraud Detection, identity theft expert, Identity Theft Prevention, John Sileo, Privacy
What started in 1997 as a research project and a mission as the way to organize the world’s information has turned into the worlds largest search engine. Google has given anyone with an Internet connection access to more information than they realize. With such quick access to information, you need to be careful what you put on the World Wide Web and realize what is contained in your Google History. Remember, posts – and searches – are permanent. Here are a few privacy issues when it comes to Google:
1. Google’s Cookie and Toolbar. When you use their search engine, Google places a self-renewing cookie with a unique ID number on your hard disk. As you search websites, Google records your surfing activity and saves your searches. There are ways to change your Internet options to stop the cookie tracking and you can learn more by visiting www.google.com/support/accounts/.Remember, nothing you do on the Internet is private; it is all tracked, aggregated, analyzed, sold and used for a variety of purposes (many of them good). The advanced features of Google’s new toolbar for Internet Explorer not only updates automatically, but it also tracks which websites you visit.
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Google History, Google Privacy, John Sileo, John Sileo Identity theft Expert, social engineering, Social Networking Speaker
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, was interviewed just last week by Mike Arrington, co-founder of TechCrunch. They discussed privacy and how Facebook is looking to move forward in the future. Zuckerberg made some really interesting comments on Facebook, but I think the most prevalent to Identity Theft would be what he said on the progression of information sharing.
“People have really gotten comfortable, not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people.”
Zuckerberg also said that when Facebook began most people thought: why would I put any information on the internet at all? Now most users don’t think twice about privacy before making posts. Due to the Privacy changes Facebook made in December, your name, profile picture, gender, current city, networks, Friends List, and all the pages you subscribe to are now publicly available information on Facebook. Many people feel that this is a contradiction to what Zuckerberg had said before — that Facebook privacy controls are “the vector around which Facebook operates.” With more than 350 million users on Facebook, privacy is more important than ever.
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention, Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Facebook, facebook privacy, facebook privacy expert, John Sileo, Mark Zuckerberg, social engineering expert, social networking
As we discussed in Electronic Information Privacy – Securing Your Job Part I, if you are an employee at a corporation, association, university or small business, you must realize that protecting electronic information and organizational data is vital not only to your company’s profitability, but for your job security.
Here is a crash course on how to promote information security within your company. The most effective way to build a Culture of Privacy is to break it down into 3 simple steps (most corporations skip the first step, dooming them to failure):
1. Motivate the Individual. Train yourself, your employees and executives on how to protect identity and company information first. Learning the basic principles of privacy at an individual level is a pre-requisite for all subsequent forms of data security, and supplies the necessary motivation to apply the same habits at work. Each employee needs to overcome their own apathy, ignorance and inaction before they are equipped to protect corporate assets. By making it personal, your executives and employees are acquiring the building blocks necessary to construct a corporate Culture of Privacy. Electronic information privacy training is good for their wellness, and is a means to a safer and more profitable end.
Posted in Fraud Detection & Prevention, Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Electronic Information Act, Electronic Information Privacy, Electronic Information Privacy Center, John Sileo Identity theft Expert
Electronic information privacy will eventually be one of the criteria on your job performance review. In fact, it’s not just electronic data that you should be concerned about, but all data. If you are an employee or executive at a corporation, association, university or small business, you must realize that protecting organizational data is vital not only to your company’s profitability, but to your job security. If it isn’t right now, it will be soon.
As a company employee or business leader, it is essential that you clearly understand the relationship between identity theft, data breach and your bottom line. One of the costliest data security mistakes I see executives make is that they initially approach data privacy from the perspective of the company. They don’t recognize the following reality: All privacy is personal. It’s not electronic information privacy. It’s not physical data privacy. It’s personal.
Posted in Fraud Detection & Prevention, Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Electronic Information Privacy, Electronic Information Privacy Center, Information Privacy Act, John Sileo Identity theft Expert
Albert Gonzalez, the Miami hacker who creeped into the systems of Heartland Payment Systems, TJ Maxx and 7-Eleven plead guilty last week to the cyber crimes that stole over 130 million debit and credit card records. He previously plead guilty in September in a separate case where he stole 40 million credit and debit card information. In the latest case he could now serve no less than 17, but no more than 25 years for the theft of payment card details from the compromised systems. Not too tough a sentence for someone who stole from over 170 million of us!
Gonzalez’s attorney claimed a mix of Internet Addiction, Asperger’s Syndrome and alcohol abuse for this identity information theft. Although, when he plead guilty in September, Gonzalez admitted he led an international ring that stole credit and debit card records from U.S. retailers including Naperville-based OfficeMax Inc. and BJ’s Wholesale Club Inc. The question still remains if those that worked with him will even be found, let alone prosecuted. The light punishment doesn’t seem to fit the extensive ring of information theft and identity crimes that Gonzales committed.
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Heartland, Identity Theft Prevention, information theft, Theft Information
Since you can’t protect yourself 100% from identity theft, make sure that you Monitor the Signs! Heading into a new year people make many resolutions that they may or make not stick with, but protecting your identity should always be a top priority. Here are 3 effective tips to help discover and recover quickly if you become the victim of identity theft:
- Create a Dossier – A dossier is a collection of documents that are stored in a fire-safe and that you regularly review and update. It is a paper summary of your identity as the outside world sees it (businesses, organizations and governments). It is made up of several key documents: your credit report, bank and credit card statements, Social Security statement, wallet photocopies and your password list. Virtually any of your vital documents could be included in your dossier as well (birth certificates, marriage licenses, etc.). A dossier is a place where you can quickly access a complete record of your vital information in case your identity is stolen and you will have the necessary account and phone numbers at hand to cancel credit cards, bank accounts and to file credit disputes. And you can do it quickly.
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Credit Report, identity theft expert, Identity theft recovery, John Sileo, Monitor
During your fraud training exercises, fostering an attitude of curiosity (or in the corporate world, a culture of curiosity) is the most powerful critical thinking skill in your arsenal of tools to protect sensitive information. Employees who can think critically and ask the right questions regarding data privacy make up the fabric that supports a Culture of Privacy. Interrogation is the art of questioning someone thoroughly and assertively to verify intentions, identities and facts.
Questions: Who’s in Control? Can I Verify? What are my Options? What are the Benefits?
When spies need information, they ask for it. They “socially engineer” or con their victims with a variety of tools.
The primary tool for evaluating risk once your reflexes have been triggered (Hogwash) is to interrogate the person or institution asking for your information. Interrogation is not meant to be about forceful or physical questioning. I define interrogation as clear, aggressive questioning used to establish whom you can trust, how far you can trust them, and with what information.
Posted in Fraud Detection & Prevention, Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Data Breach, Engineering Social, Fraud Training, John Sileo, Privacy Means Profit, social engineering, Training Fraud
