Watch Tech Geek Curtis Nasalbaum’s Response from the Leonard Nimoy Cruise
Every year, several of my keynote speeches are to ultra-high-wealth audiences. Because they have a lot of net worth to protect, their incentive to prevent identity theft and online fraud is on steroids. But for the average family with a normal amount of wealth, the incentive is just as important, because their wealth (albeit smaller), is just as vital to their lifestyle as it is to the wealthy.
And this isn’t just about wealth. All of us want to be able to keep hackers out of our private and often valuable online accounts, including: Gmail, Facebook, Dropbox, Twitter, Hotmail, Yahoo, banks, investment companies and all types of sensitive communications.
I got my start as an identity theft speaker. I write and speak on the importance of being vigilant about protecting yourself from identity theft and online fraud from many angles: the stress of trying to reestablish your credibility, rebuilding relationships, regaining control of your personal information, perhaps even fighting to stay out of jail as I had to do. So while I’m an identity theft speaker, my motivation is always completely human. We as humans make flawed decisions about how we fail to prepare for things like identity theft. We as humans are the ones that make the difference in fighting this crime. As it turns out, our wealth is at risk.
Because we are distracted during tax season, we are primed to be socially engineered or manipulated by tax scams and can end up becoming the victim of tax ID theft. Here’s how to combat the problem:
When someone asks for your SSN, TIN or other ID, refuse until you verify their legitimacy.
If someone promises to drastically reduce your tax bill or speed up your tax return, suspect fraud and tax ID theft.
If anyone asks you for information in order to send you your check, they are scamming for your identity. The IRS already knows where you live (and where to send your refund).
Snapchat Hacked! Is there any sense of wonder left when another Internet giant (or any corporation, for that matter) gets hacked and loses your private information? No, the mystery died years ago, which is why we’ve basically forgotten about Target already. Of courseSnapchat.com was hacked. Here’s the recipe for how your corporation can be like theirs:
Collect a ga-gillion pieces of user data all while…
Paying lip service to privacy and security measures until…
Your database is hacked, the press circles & customers revolt while…
You pay expensive recovery costs and belatedly decide to…
Implement security & privacy measures that could’ve saved you a ga-gillion.
Breach Happens, no matter how big or how small you are. But breach destroys only when you are unprepared. When it comes to privacy, the most effective medicine is getting burned. Snapchat is lucky to have experienced it early in their lifetime. When will you get hacked? Will it disappear in 11 seconds…
If you are one of the 40 million customers who have used a credit or debit card at Target stores in the United States between November 27 and December 15, you’d better start checking your accounts for fraudulent activity. Target confirmed that the data stored on the magnetic strip of cards (customer names, debit or credit card numbers, and card expiration dates) were taken, along with the three-digit security codes (CVVs) often imprinted on the backs of cards.
The type of data stolen would allow thieves to create counterfeit credit cards and, if pin numbers were intercepted, would also allow thieves to withdraw cash from ATM machines. Only in store purchases are at risk, so online shoppers need not worry.
Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder would not comment on how customers’ data were stored or encrypted prior to the attack, saying that would be part of the ongoing investigation. Target immediately notified law enforcement authorities and financial institutions, and the issue is being investigated by the Secret Service and a third-party forensics firm.
As you head into the holiday season, one of the best steps you can take to protect your bank account is to eliminate the use of your debit card. While delivering a keynote speech in Washington DC last week, someone asked me if I could name ten times when you should NOT use a debit card. I replied, “It’s a trick question because the answer is NEVER!” I seriously do feel that way, but I know there are people who either need to or prefer to use a debit card rather than a credit card or cash, so I want you to be informed about how to use it wisely.
I found these mobile device statistics on our children’s use of technology to be eye-opening. 38% of kids under 2 have used a mobile device – the digital babysitter, I suppose. Anyway, I think it’s important that we know what direction our kids are heading and what we, as parents, are doing to point them there. Part of security involves access: how much they have, how well they are monitored and what the consequences are for improper use.
John Sileo is an author and highly engaging speaker on internet privacy, identity theft and technology security. He is CEO of The Sileo Group, which helps organizations to protect the privacy that drives their profitability. His recent engagements include presentations at The Pentagon, Visa, Homeland Security and Northrop Grumman as well as media appearances on 60 Minutes, Anderson Cooper and Fox Business. Contact him directly on 800.258.8076.
What makes a privacy expert nervous? Glimpsing the size of the iceberg under the surface. When National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden became a whistle blower earlier this year, I think we all knew we were really just seeing the tip of the iceberg about exactly how much information the NSA was gathering on the average American citizen. And it was a pretty large tip to start with.
Here’s a reminder of what started the whole thing. Snowden provided reporters at The Guardian and The Washington Post with top-secret documents detailing two NSA surveillance programs being carried out by the U.S. Government, all without the average voter’s knowledge. One gathers hundreds of millions of U.S. phone records and the second allows the government to access nine U.S. Internet companies to gather all domestic Internet usage (so they are tapping pieces of your phone calls and emails, in other words). The intent of each program respectively is to use meta-data (information about the numbers being called, length of call, etc., but not the conversation itself, as far as we know) to detect links to known terrorist targets abroad and to detect suspicious behavior (by monitoring emails, texts, social media posts, instant messaging, chat rooms, etc.) that begins overseas. As a privacy expert, I understand the need to detect connections among terrorists; the troubling part is the scope of the information being gathered.
It seems I’ve spent a lot of time lately writing about the Surveillance Economy. This may be a strange expression to some, so I’ll define it as the use and exploitation of our location information derived from traffic surveillance cameras, new technologies like Google Glass and cell phone GPS tracking, among others. Recent topics we’ve covered include the NSA PRISM scandal, hacking Google Glass, Homeland Security’s seizures of electronic devices when crossing borders, and even drone use. Some of those may seem to be out there in a world that doesn’t affect us directly, but here’s one that hits very close to home for anyone who owns a vehicle.
The American Civil Liberties Union released a report in July of 2013 entitled You Are Being Tracked that outlines the use of automatic license plate readers. These devices, which can be mounted on police cars or on objects like road signs or overpasses, use small, high-speed cameras to photograph thousands of plates per minute. They effectively collect and store information about not only vehicles of potential or known criminals, but everybody who drives a car!
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I got my start as an identity theft speaker. I write and speak on the importance of being vigilant about protecting yourself from identity theft and online fraud from many angles: the stress of trying to reestablish your credibility, rebuilding relationships, regaining control of your personal information, perhaps even fighting to stay out of jail as I had to do. So while I’m an identity theft speaker, my motivation is always completely human. We as humans make flawed decisions about how we fail to prepare for things like identity theft. We as humans are the ones that make the difference in fighting this crime. As it turns out, our wealth is at risk.
As you head into the holiday season, one of the best steps you can take to protect your bank account is to eliminate the use of your debit card. While delivering a keynote speech in Washington DC last week, someone asked me if I could name ten times when you should NOT use a debit card. I replied, “It’s a trick question because the answer is NEVER!” I seriously do feel that way, but I know there are people who either need to or prefer to use a debit card rather than a credit card or cash, so I want you to be informed about how to use it wisely.
It seems I’ve spent a lot of time lately writing about the Surveillance Economy. This may be a strange expression to some, so I’ll define it as the use and exploitation of our location information derived from traffic surveillance cameras, new technologies like Google Glass and cell phone GPS tracking, among others. Recent topics we’ve covered include the NSA 
