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Latest "Identity Theft Prevention" Posts
Albert "Segvec" Gonzalez
Operation Get Rich or Die Tryin is the name that Albert Gonzalez gave to his scheme of stealing more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers from you and me. Today, Gonzalez, along with two unnamed Russian conspirators, was indicted in the state of New Jersey. Gonzalez, known by his alias of Segvec, was part of a cyber-crime ring that hacked into the computer systems of at least five major companies, including Heartland Payment Systems, 7-Eleven, TJMAXX, Hannaford Bros. Super Markets and Dave & Busters.
This is likely the largest case of identity theft ever prosecuted, comprising more that 130 million card numbers
Tactics: Gonzalez and his conspirators reviewed Fortune 500 Companies, performed reconnaissance on their retail stores, determined weaknesses in their payment systems and then utilized malware (malicious software) to intercept credit card numbers, expiration dates and names as they were transmitted from company to company
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: albert gonzalez, Credit Card, get rich or die tryin, Heartland, segvec
According to the Christian Science Monitor and other reputable media sources, the marines have banned social networking sites, including Facebook and Twitter. Currently, the Pentagon is reviewing its entire policy on the use of social networking sites. Can you imagine the enemy discovering troop locations or military tactical data via social networking? Ironic timing, as just a few weeks ago I was delivering an identity theft speech at the Pentagon and recorded a short video about this problem.
Facebook Privacy & The Pentagon
The Christian Science Monitor ran the following quote from a memo distributed Tuesday to all Marines:
The very nature of [social networking sites] creates a larger attack and exploitation window, exposes unnecessary information to adversaries and provides an easy conduit for information leakage that puts [operational and communication security] personnel and the [Marine Corps network] at an elevated risk of compromise.
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention, Online Privacy, Video Tips by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: facebook banned, Identity Theft Speaker, John Sileo, marines, social networking, social networking sites banned
Last week, identity theft expert John Sileo spoke at the Pentagon.
Because his speaking and travel schedule is so heavy at the moment, he hasn’t taken the time to slow down and blog about it. But John wanted to share what it’s like inside the brain of American military power, so we are publishing this post on his behalf. The following is a series of excerpts from comments he made by phone and from a digital recorder he had running as he toured the facility, met with members of the Department of Defense, and presented an identity theft speech to civilian and military leaders. We’ve altered the verbatim audio where necessary to make it understandable.
You can’t tell it’s the Pentagon from the outside because it’s too large…
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: identity theft expert, John Sileo, pentagon
Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo on Traveling Safety.
Traveling Safety has become a study of its own ever since the advent of identity theft. Your biggest concern may no longer be physical in nature (pickpockets, hotel theft, muggings); the value of the personal identity you carry as you travel is worth far more than the cash in your wallet.
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Identity Theft Prevention, Identity Theft Speaker, John Sileo, Must Read, traveling safety
The TJX security data breach is our fault.
TJX Cos. has been ordered to pay $9.75M in a data breach security lawsuit. The data breach settlement will be awarded to 41 states because TJX failed to protect customers’ financial information from a massive computer breach announced in 2007 that exposed millions of customers’ personal and credit card data to hackers.
The settlement amount is probably the largest ever, and it is comically low.
TJX lost somewhere between 40 and 90 million customer records, and there is a good chance yours was one of them if you shop at T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods or A.J. Wright. If only 10% of those breached records were ever used to commit identity fraud (let’s say 7.5 million records, to be conservative), at the average cost of identity theft recovery ($700), the damage to you and me is approximately $490 Million. So TJX paid about a 2% penalty for failing to protect our data. They value the safety of our being a customer at about 2%. They care about their own profits about 98%.
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: breach privacy, data breach security, identity theft expert, John Sileo
Security awareness programs (data security education) are drastically lacking in American corporations, and it is leading to an increase in data breach and workplace identity theft.
Look at these numbers about employee data security just released by the Ponemon Institute. They appeared in a post by the Ponemon Institute’s Founder, Larry Ponemon (the quote is theirs, the emphasis, mine):
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: John Sileo, Larry Ponemon, Ponemon Institute, security awareness program, security awareness programs
Laptop anti-theft, or protecting your mobile data, is a MUST for corporations and consumers. Almost half of workplace identity theft takes place because of mobile data. And the average value of the data on your laptop can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to a corporate spy or experienced identity thief. At the higher end of the scale, the value of the 26 million Veteran identities on a laptop lost over a year ago was estimated to be worth more than $100 million. Those are the types of computer security risks that can make your business unprofitable. But there are solutions.
Broken Window Theory: By removing graffiti and repairing broken windows in crime hot-spots throughout New York City, the NYPD was able to drastically reduce the entire city’s overall crime rate (not just the quantity of graffiti and broken windows), including thefts, burglaries, muggings and murders. In other words, certain actions that we take (e.g., focusing on crime hot-spots rather than on every type of crime) can have a disproportionately positive effect on achieving our goal (e.g., lower crime rates). Business translation: you get a far higher return on investment for certain well-planned tactical strikes than you do for far more expensive strategic initiatives.
My point? In the world of workplace identity theft and corporate data breach, laptop computers are the biggest broken window. Not only do laptops account for a disproportionate amount of data theft, but training the organization to properly protect mobile computers has a radiant effect on all other types of identity protection. Good habits in one area breed good habits in others.
Stop the theft of corporate laptops (or personal laptops with corporate data on them) and you have eliminated approximately 50% of the entire data breach problem at a fraction of the security cost.
Laptop theft generally occurs in transit: airports, hotels, cars, commuter trains, conferences, off-site meetings, vacations, coffee shops, etc. Build laptop anti-theft training into your organizational culture of privacy:
7 Laptop Anti-Theft Tips for Travelers
Technorati Profile
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Posted in Burning Questions (Video), Identity Theft Prevention, Video Tips by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: anti theft tips, laptop anti theft, laptop theft security, Sileo, stolen laptop, stolen laptops
If I’ve learned one thing as an identity theft expert these past few years, it’s this: As bloggers with something to gain (monetarily) from our daily posts, we do everything we can to veil our advertisements deep within the text. Nearly every blog post has some financial gain tied to it: Google AdWords down the right side of the column, gentle product sales, magazine subscriptions, you name it.
That’s the trade-off: bloggers give you content and in return, you agree to watch our commercials. With a few exceptions (truly altruistic and non-commercial blogs, which do exist), anytime someone tells you that they gain nothing financially from their blog, tell them HOGWASH! They are simply hiding behind their content. When you get something of value, you are paying with something of value. When you read the Wall Street Journal, you agree to at least browse their advertising (however passively). When you read my blog about identity theft prevention, you learn that I speak to corporations and organizations around the world about data breach and identity theft.
Posted in Burning Questions (Video), Identity Theft Prevention, Video Tips by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: identity theft expert, John Sileo, larry winget, Must Read
Here’s a statistic that’ll get your attention! 285 million records were compromised in 2008 according to a new data breach study from Verizon Business. The report claims that organized crime is responsible for a large increase in the number of breached corporate electronic records.
The report of industries affected by data breach shows that Financial Services was the major gainer in 2008. That industry doubled its percentage of data breach to 30% while Retail is still the most affected industry (barely) at 31%. The shift to data breach in Financial Services will affect all of us more drastically.
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Data Breach, Data Breach Speaker, verizon business
