The Houston Family Examiner has written an article entitled “Tips to protect senior citizens from elder abuse identity theft”. In this article, I was pointed to the AARP as one of the sources for information on identity theft for the elderly. There, I found a wealth of useful information to pass along.
The AARP writes articles regulary on Identity theft, such as this one. This article suggests great preventative measures for identity theft including: checking your credit report once a year, never giving out your Social Security Number, shredding personal information (including credit offers), cutting back the number of cards you carry, hiding your PIN when you key it in, keeping information in your home secure (consider a safe) and never giving out your credit card or banking information to anyone unless you independently can confirm they are a legitimate business.
The AARP also offers an Identity Theft Course to help you understand and identify identity theft. The course will help you:
Know what identity theft is
Do a wallet check to protect yourself from identity theft
Take steps to protect yourself from identity theft in your home and on the road
Recognize early warnings of identity theft
Take the first steps if you’re a victim of identity theft
Have the numbers to call to get help or more information
TechRadar.com put together a list of the “10 easiest ways to boost your online security“, a list that mostly focuses on minimizing your risk of infection online. With the rise, and continued threat, of Conficker, a list like this will help you augment your security defenses.
Augment your anti-virus tool
Switch to plain text mail
Don’t click mail links
Vet your email
Switch web browser
Check web sites before you visit (with Web of Trust)
Manage your passwords
Screen all downloads
Know P2P basics
Create a virtual sandbox
Some of this is a little technical, so read on here for full details.
The list is, however, missing one major thing, so I’m going to put that at item zero – UPDATE your software. This includes your operating system as well as the software that runs on it – most of this you can automate, but don’t keep dismissing those reminders to update and restart. At least 11% of PCs are currently unpatched with the latest Microsoft update, making them even more vulnerable to threats such as Conficker.
I know you’ve seen the advertisements for “FreeCreditReport.com,” the catchy commercials prompting people to avoid being victims of identity theft by monitoring their credit reports. The catch – that site wasn’t free, the credit report came free in exchange for a monthly credit-monitoring cost from Experian. According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, all the consumer reporting companies (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) are required to provide you a free credit report upon request every year. As the FTC notes:
The Federal Trade Commission has received complaints from consumers who thought they were ordering their free annual credit report, but instead paid hidden fees or agreed to unwanted services. Don’t be fooled by TV ads, email offers, or online search results. Go to the authorized source when you request your free report.
Well, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) decided to start up their own service, a free one, no catches. Their website? AnnualCreditReport.com. Yeah, if that’s not enough, their ads also parody the Experian ones.
Here’s the same FreeCreditReport.com ad overlaid with warnings to be aware of deals like these:
Checking your credit once per year gives you an opportunity to make sure the information is accurate and up-to-date. Not only that, it helps you spot identity theft. Because your credit is used to evaluate insurance, employment and more, it’s an important step to take in safeguarding your identity.
TRUSTe has published the results of a survey indicating that the majority of people consider online privacy a primary concern.
The survey, of more than 1000 respondents, indicates that 90% of Americans consider online privacy a “really” or “somewhat” important issue. 6% of respondents have had their identity stolen in the last year and 11% have experienced credit card theft in the same time period. 35% feel that information they shared online has led to an invasion or violation of their privacy. That said, an increase in concern hasn’t equally increased the precautions consumers take to protect their personal information. 39% of consumers admit they do not consistently take steps to protect their information.
The survey also looked at online advertising, showing that consumers are becoming more accustomed to behavioral targeting. Only 51% of consumers are uncomfortable with behavioral advertising, down from 57% last year, with users saying they prefer targeted ads from brands they know than intrusive, irrelevant ads.
Despite a softening towards targeted advertising, consumers are wary at advertisers using their browsing history to target them. 48% of consumers now delete their browser cookies at least once a week, up 6% from last year.
Despite the fact that the Garter study showed that only 5% of Americans report cases of fraud to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), that’s still enough data for the FTC to release a report of their own. They put out the Top Consumer Complaints in 2008 showing that the top complaint was identity theft. You can imagine how much higher the figures would be if consumers reporting were higher.
The FTC report showed that, for the 9th year in a row, identity theft was the number one consumer complaint category. Of the 1,223,370 complaints received, 26% were related to identity theft.
The report breaks down the identity theft complaints into type. The most common form of reported identity theft is credit card fraud (20%) followed by government document/benefits fraud (15%), employment fraud (15%), phone or utilities fraud (13%), bank fraud (11%) and loan fraud (4%).
In related news, research in the UK indicates that 1 in 3 Britons is expected to be a victim of card fraud in 2009 – a 33% increase over 2008. You can read more about that here.
A number of great articles for consumers, about technology, security and identity theft, caught my eye this week. Rather than talk only to one or two of these articles, I wanted to point to some of them for you to check out:
ConsumerReports.org creates 7 online blunders that can ruin your computer or identity
Lifehacker has put together a consumer-oriented laptop security post that is well worth a look.
The post, entitled “How to Set Up a Laptop Security System“, is aimed at consumers of all sorts, particularly students, and what steps can be easily & cheaply taken to keep your gear and its information safe.
Recommendations include:
Get a laptop lock
Set up a laptop alarm – ones like this or this can go off if the power cable is unplugged or the mouse is moved
Turn your built-in webcam into a security camera
Use a laptop retrieval system like Absolute’s LoJack
Encrypt your laptop
Here’s a video one of the Laptop Alarms, iAlertU, in use:
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is warning victims of Hurricane Ike and Gustav, and donors to the recovery, to beware of identity theft scams.
The FTC works to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices, and to educate consumers about these practices. One such warning involves being extra cautious in the wake of current events, particularly those that pull at your heart strings. Many people will take advantage of natural disasters like Ike and Gustav to create bogus fund-raising operations.
The FTC advises consumers to give to charities that have been around for some time, as they are best prepared to delivery assistance, and to ensure (among other things) that you are donating to the charity you intended to. They recommend a checklist of things to do to prevent becoming a victim of fraud.
In addition to charity fraud, victims of Hurricane Ike and Gustav are cautioned against becoming victims of home repair fraud. They recommend taking the time to check the references of your contractors and to be responsible with your payment process. The FTC reminds consumers not to sign an insurance check over to a contractor.
In order to get relief benefits or replacement documents, victims of the hurricanes will need to share personal information. Be cautious of scams of people claiming to be government officials - check their IDs and know that the government never charges application fees.
Here are some resources from the FTC:
FTC Charity Checklist – to ensure your donation dollars benefit the people and organizations you want to help
Lifehacker, a great “tips” specialist site, recently published a handy list: Top 10 Ways to Lock Down your Data. Their list is more relevant to consumers than business users, who have legal regulations to comply with, but is a great run-down of personal security tips.
Ask yourself, have you done these 10 things?
Use KeePass. Love KeePass. Be secure
Encrypt your data whole or piecemeal
Secure your wireless network
Theft-proof your laptop (and its files) (also use LoJack or Computrace!)
Boost your browsing and downloading privacy
Get smarter on security questions
Plan for the worst
Hide data inside files with steganography
Use virtual credit cards for iffy online buys
Wipe that iPhone (or BlackBerry) before trading in
Check out Lifehacker for the full details on these tips, and even the how-to’s on getting secure. Some great tips in there! One of the tips also led me to this witty article: “Workin’ at the Internet Cafe: Laptop Dilemma“.
And for more about Absolute Software’s Computrace laptop security solutions, click on the graphic below or go here.
And in news this week, a cluster of 200 PlayStation gaming systems, the PS3s, were used to hack SSL certificate. Read more here.
Archive
Laptop Security Blog 
The Houston Family Examiner has written an article entitled “Tips to protect senior citizens from elder abuse identity theft”. In this article, I was pointed to the AARP as one of the sources for information on identity theft for the elderly. There, I found a wealth of useful information to pass along.
TechRadar.com put together a list of the “
Despite the fact that the Garter study showed that only 5% of Americans report cases of fraud to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), that’s still enough data for the FTC to release a report of their own. They put out the 
