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I love Canadian accountants because not only are they some of the warmest people I have met (I speak on identity theft quite a bit in Canada), but they are incredibly eager to learn how to avoid some of the data security mistakes that we have made in the U.S. As accountants, they provide a ton of vital financial advice to their clients, and I can easily see them sharing some of the data security best practices I talked about during the presentation and getting paid well by their clients to do it. And here’s how I could tell their level of absorption: after the speech, they had a slew of detailed follow-up questions. They were curious. You can always tell someone’s intention to act and make changes by their clarification questions. No questions, no interest, no intent to act. Definitely not what I experienced in the charming town of Winnipeg.
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention, Video Tips by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Accountants, Canada, Expert, ICAM, Identity Theft Prevention, Institute of Canadian Accountants, John Sileo, Manitoba, Speaker
Dropbox is a brilliant cloud based service (i.e., your data stored on someone else’s server) that automatically backs up your files and simultaneously keep the most current version on all of your computing devices (Mac and Windows, laptops, workstations, servers, tablets and smartphones). It is highly efficient for giving you access to everything from everywhere while maintaining an off-site backup copy of every version of every document.
And like anything with that much power, there are risks. Using this type of syncing and backup service without understanding the risks and rewards is like driving a Ducati motorcycle without peering into the crystal ball of accidents that take the lives of bikers every year. If you are going to ride the machine, know your limits.
This week, Dropbox appears to have altered their user agreement (without any notice to its users), making it a FAR LESS SECURE SERVICE. Initially, their privacy policy stated:
Posted in Cyber Data Security, Fraud Detection & Prevention, Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Cloud, Cloud Computing, Data Breach, data security, Dropbox, Education, Identity Theft Prevention, John Sileo, Privacy Policy, Security, Seminar, Speaker, Terms of Service, training, Workshop
Identity thieves are increasingly targeting children, in some cases stealing their identities even before they are born.
A TODAY Show/NBC investigation into child identity theft revealed that criminals routinely use a child’s untouched credit record to their advantage and get away with it for years or decades. This story shows how in more and more cases Social Security numbers are being stolen even before the child has been born.
Why is it so easy? Because Social Security numbers are not assigned randomly, meaning that they can predicted with a certain amount of accuracy. A SSN is simply a code that includes the location and date of where and when a baby was born. Thieves have figured out a system to predict these numbers and used them before they have been issued. The federal government maintains that in the next month or so, these numbers will be randomized and harder to predict and therefore, steal.
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: child identity theft, identity theft expert, Identity Theft Prevention, Identity Theft Protection, Identity Theft Speaker, John Sileo
It was recently discovered that there is a significant security hole in the Skype design for Apple Mac users. While logged in to Skype, a security researcher discovered a zero day vulnerability (meaning that the software developer, Skype, doesn’t know that the security hole even exists). This hole can give a hacker temporary remote access to the victim’s Mac via Skype. In other words, it means that someone else can take control of your computer while you are logged into Skype.
Solution: For now, I recommend you update your software with the fix made available on April 14th. To do this, get into your software and click on Skype -> Check for Updates, or you can download the software here. Make sure you check for an even newer update in the coming weeks.
Skype has been alerted to the problem and released the following statement:
Posted in Cyber Data Security, Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Identity Theft Prevention, John Sileo, Privacy Expert, Security Patch, Skype, Skype for Mac, Skype Security, Software Updates, Threat, Zero Day, Zero Day Threat
Based on a recent assessment of 40,000+ SSNs of children, it was found that more than 10% those SSNs were being used by someone other than the child, far in excess of the rate of misuse in the adult population. The study points out the major issues that surround child identity theft and why we need to start paying attention now. It is more prevalent than many think and the threat is growing. Here are a few of the statistics that were found:
- 4,311 or 10.2% of the children in the report had someone else using their Social Security number – 51 times higher than the 0.2% rate for adults in the same population
- Child IDs were used to purchase homes and automobiles, open credit card accounts, secure employment and obtain driver’s licenses
- The largest fraud ($725,000) was committed against a 16 year old girl
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: child identity monitoring, child identity theft, Child Identity Theft Statistics, children, identity theft expert, Identity Theft Prevention, Identity Theft Prevention, Identity Theft Statistics, John Sileo, Theft
Sony just admitted this week that their Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) division, which they though was not affected by the recent breach, has also been compromised. They believe that the hackers stole personal information from an additional 25 million users and that the breach included credit card information.
In an unrelated article, Mizuho Investors Securities analyst Nobuo Kurahashi estimated the cost of Sony’s recovery from the data breaches to be approximately $1.25 billion:
Kurahashi estimates that the data breach will cost Sony about Y100 billion, or $1.25 billion from lost business, various compensation costs and new investments–assuming that no additional security problems emerge. The cyber attacks on Sony in recent weeks involved the theft of personal data that include names, passwords and addresses from accounts on its PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment gaming services. Sony has also said that more than 10 million credit-card numbers may have been compromised.
Posted in Cyber Data Security, Fraud Detection & Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: 25 million, 77 Million, breach, Costs, Data Breach, data security, identity theft expert, Identity Theft Prevention, Identity Theft Speaker, John Sileo, play station hacked, PlayStation, Playstation 2, PlayStation Account, Sony, Sony Breach
Sony Corp. on Tuesday admitted that hackers have obtained personal data and possibly credit card information of tens of millions of people who have registered for PlayStation Network, the company’s online game and movie service, as well as its Qriocity digital music service.
PlayStation is a fun game, data breach is not.
As of March 31st, the Sony PlayStation Network has about 77 million accounts. These accounts link users to the network to obtain downloads and access online movies through services like Netflix. While Sony states that not all of the 77 million accounts are active accounts and some individuals have multiple accounts, they are not denying that a breach of information occurred.
The company spokesman, Patrick Seybold, admitted that the hackers not only gained such information as names, addresses, phone numbers, user names, birth dates, email addresses and passwords of registrants; but they are unsure if credit card information was compromised as well. Update: Sony recently announced that an additional 25 million records were breached.
Posted in Cyber Data Security, Fraud Detection & Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: 77 Million, Data Breach, data security, identity theft expert, Identity Theft Prevention, Identity Theft Speaker, John Sileo, play station hacked, PlayStation, Playstation 2, PlayStation Account, Sony, Sony Breach
We’ve all done it before – left the table to get a coffee refill or go to the bathroom and left our laptop, iPad, smartphone or purse sitting on the table. We justify it by telling ourselves that we are in a friendly place and will only be gone a second. Our tendency is to blame technology for information theft, but the heart of the problem is almost always a human error, like leaving our devices unattended. Realizing that carelessness is the source of most laptop theft makes it a fairly easy problem to solve.
My office is directly above a Starbucks, so I spend way too much time there. And EVERY time I’m there, I watch someone head off to the restroom (see video) or refill their coffee and leave their laptop, iPad, iPhone, briefcase, purse, client files and just about everything else lying around on their table like a self-service gadget buffet for criminals and opportunists alike.
Posted in Burning Questions (Video), Cyber Data Security, Fraud Detection & Prevention, Identity Theft Prevention, Video Tips by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: data, data security, Digital, Expert, Identity Theft Prevention, information, ipad, iPhone, IT Department, John Sileo, laptop, protect, Security, Smartphone, Speaker, Starbucks, Theft
Did you know that Facebook can use photos you post on the site in advertisements targeted on the right (advertising) side of your contact’s profile?
Unless you customize your privacy settings, Facebook can share just about anything you post with just about everyone. Using your intellectual property for their financial gain is not a new Facebook issue, but one that should be revisited due to recent Facebook Privacy changes. Here’s the funny part: you gave Facebook the right to use any of your content in any way they see fit when you signed up for your account and didn’t read the user agreement. If you visit the Facebook Statement of Rights page you will see the following:
You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. In addition:
Posted in Burning Questions (Video), Identity Theft Prevention, Video Tips by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Facebook, Facebook Ads, Facebook Safety, Facebook Share, Facebook Tips, Identity Theft Prevention, John Sileo, social networking, Social Networking Speaker
