Financial Archives - John Sileo, Cyber Security Training

How to Opt Out of Junk Mail to Protect Identity

There are complete industries built around collecting, massaging and selling your data – your name, phone number, address, spending patterns, surfing habits, net worth, the age of your children, the magazines you buy, etc. Companies buy bits of your privacy so that they can knowledgeably market products to you that you are likely to purchase. The problem is, that data, once collected, is often breached by hackers who want to know more about you.

To minimize the amount of your personal information bought and sold on the data market, begin “opting out”. Opting out is the process of notifying organizations that collect your personal information to stop sharing it with other organizations. “Pre-approved” credit card offers (i.e., financial junk mail) are a major source of identity theft. Those mailers give thieves an easy way to set up credit card accounts in your name without your consent. They spend money on the card and default on the balance, leaving you with the mess of proving that you didn’t make the purchases. The solution is to opt out of receiving pre-approved credit, home loan and insurance offers as well as mass marketing databases.

U.S. is Dumb About Smart Cards

The typical US consumer still swipes their card, credit or debit, with those same old black magnetic stripes. And, we hold our breath and hope they work, and don’t lead to erroneous (fraudulent) charges we have to defend. The rest of the world has switched to Smart cards, according to Peter Svensson, The Associated Press, in The Denver Post. “The problem with that black magnetic stripe on the back of your card is that it’s about as secure as writing your account information on a post-card”.

Svensson comments “Smart-cards (chip-based cards) can’t be copied, which greatly reduces the potential for fraud. Smart cards with built-in chips are the equivalent of a safe: They can hide information so it can be unlocked only with the right key”.

Motivational Keynote Speech

After a financial conference speech I gave this afternoon on controlling social media data exposure, an executive asked me how long I’d been giving motivational keynote speeches.

My jaw dropped at the reference… “Motivational keynote speeches?”, I asked. “I’ve never really thought of myself as a motivational speaker. I’m more of a content speaker who focuses your organization on playing information offense… using and protecting information to your profitable advantage.” Yeah, I know, sounds like an elevator speech. It was.

The executive then explained his remarks in a very thoughtful way. He said that his organization had stopped hiring traditional “fluffy motivational speakers” when the economy went south, and now only hires content-rich speakers who motivate the audience to take action in a very specific area of need. If he and the rest of the audience came out of the speech ready to take action and clear on what steps to take next, then they referred the speech as motivational. “Every speaker we hire had better be motivational,” he said, “but that’s a given. We bring in a keynoter for their content, and they’d better bring their inspirational A-game as part of the package.”