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Laptop theft and mobile data theft (tape backups, iPhones, BlackBerries, USB drives) account for nearly half of the cases of serious corporate data breach and workplace identity theft. Your corporation’s data breach protection will be significantly improved by educating your staff on the following mobile data best practices:
Before you save sensitive data to any mobile device, it is your responsibility to:
- Determine if your organization allows you to remove the data in question from the office in the first place. Are you allowed to save that database, Excel file, Word document, customer list, employee record, intellectual capital, etc. on your laptop, thumb drive or other mobile device?
- Decide if it is absolutely necessary to remove it from the more highly-controlled and secure environment of the office. In many of the major cases of reported data breach, the data stored on the mobile device did not actually need to be there in the first place.
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Best Practices, Data Breach, Data Breach Protection, Identity Theft Prevention, Identity Theft Video, Laptop Protection, laptop theft, Workplace ID Theft
“It lies at the core of a great deal of what we do protecting our financial security, our personal security, and our reputational security,” Chertoff said. “And what I’m referring to is how we manage and protect our personal identities because I’m going to submit to you that in the 21st Century, the most important asset that we have to protect as individuals and as part of our nation is the control of our identity, who we are, how we identify ourselves, whether other people are permitted to masquerade and pretend to be us, and thereby damage our livelihood, damage our assets, damage our reputation, damage our standing in our community.” — Michael Chertoff
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: chertoff, Identity, National Security
I promised a down-loadable file of identity theft prevention tips during an identity theft seminar I gave for Walter Reed Army Medical Center yesterday, sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense. But first, I wanted to thank everyone at WRAMC for hosting both me and Suze Orman. Thank you for the wonderful turnout (1500 of you!) and thoughtful questions. I was invited back to your installation by Colonel McHugh, so I look forward to seeing you again.
As promised, here is the condensed version of identity theft prevention tips that will help you immediately begin the process. I have also included a clickable version below.
Hooah!
John
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: identity theft prevention tips, identity theft seminar, walter reed financial readiness
Identity Theft is a huge and growing problem. According to the recent 2009 Identity Theft Fraud report by Javelin Strategy & Research, victims increased 22% in 2008 to 9.9 million. When businesses are involved, the companies face billions of dollars in theft, millions of dollars in fines and, perhaps most important, the loss of customer trust.
The large impact that identity theft has on individuals lives and corporations’ bottom lines has made inexpensive biometrics look attractive for authenticating employees, customers, citizens, students and any other people we want to recognize. The most recent debate is on whether the pros outweigh the cons. (To see some of the materials that influenced this article, please visit George Tillmann’s excellent article in Computerworld).
Biometrics uses physical characteristics, such as fingerprints, DNA, or retinal patterns to positively verify individuals. These biological identifiers are electronically converted to a string of ones and zeros and stored on file in the authenticator database.
Posted in Fraud Detection & Prevention, Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: "Identity Theft, Authentication, Biometric, Biometric Identity Theft, Biometric Security Risks, Biometrics, Business Identity Theft, Finger Prints, John Sileo, Retinal Scan, Verification
Tapping Cell Phones: Identity Theft Solutions
Last week at an identity theft speech for the Department of Defense, I met two soldiers who alerted me to the new security risk of Cell Phone Tapping. SigInt (or signal interception) has long been a part of warfare and espionage. But the possibilities erupt with the advent of cell phone tapping. Imagine the conversation of a soldier being overheard by the enemy – deployment details, troop locations, command structure, strategic and tactical information. The prospect is terrifying for our national security.
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: cell phone, software, surveillance, tapping
LifeLock has been the victim of identity theft, and it will ultimately improve their product.
Over the weekend, LifeLock, the identity theft prevention marketing machine, lost a piece of who they are (were) when a judge stripped them of their most fundamental prevention tool — automatic fraud alerts on consumer credit reports. The net result is that LifeLock is having to strengthen it’s underlying identity theft monitoring architecture to fill the marketing hole, moving its product closer to superior identity surveillance services such as CSIdentity Protector.
I have never been the strongest supporter of LifeLock. Why? Because most every protection they offered out of the gate were steps you could take for yourself, for free. For example:
- Place a Fraud Alert on your credit files. (A stronger solution is to Freeze Your Credit with Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.)
- Opt Out of financial junk mail.
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Identity Surveillance, Identity Theft Monitoring, LifeLock
In a New York Times Magazine article entitled Facebook Exodus, Virginia Heffernan questions whether Facebook users are losing interest like kids lose interest in a new toy. Heffernan cites the reasons her friends are defecting:
- It makes us too nosy, too focused on other people’s dirt (our “friends”)
- Some fear stalkers
- Some feel their privacy is being compromised
- Some disappear without a word
In addition to this, I would add:
- It takes a lot of time away from real-life interactions
- We remember why we weren’t in touch with those old friends from high school – they wouldn’t even talk to me then!
- People are tired of having more of a relationship with a screen than an actual human
- It encourages others to talk about you in an open forum, which is fine if everyone loves you
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention, Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: facebook defection, facebook exodus, facebook privacy
Identity monitoring is more than just monitoring your credit.
Why do so many people believe that credit alerts will protect them from the ever-growing threat of identity theft? According to the Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov), credit monitoring detects less than 20 percent of identity theft.
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: identity monitoring
I just returned from doing an identity theft speech for the Department of Defense, and after the speech, a woman asked me a great question broader than just identity theft:
Do users of personal (not job related) email have a right to expect privacy? Does an email communication constitute a form of publication?
Email Privacy
Unless you own the servers that the mail is being processed on and transferred to, you have no right
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: email privacy, Identity Theft Speech
Laptop theft and mobile data theft (tape backups, iPhones, BlackBerries, USB drives) account for nearly half of the cases of serious corporate data breach and workplace identity theft. Your corporation’s data breach protection will be significantly improved by educating your staff on the following mobile data best practices:
