Camp Pendleton & LA AFB Identity Theft Workshop
Thank you to all of the Marines at Camp Pendleton and the Airmen at LA AFB for attending my identity theft workshop.
During my speech, I promised to give you easy-to-complete action steps to protect your identity against theft, as well as that of your loved ones. I’d like to deliver on that promise by directing you to a full page article I’ve written specifically for you: John Sileo’s Military Identity Theft Protection Kit. If you have additional suggestions for protecting military IDs that I haven’t covered in this article, please include your comments at the bottom of the post. With your input, this conversation should contribute to the financial stability of our armed forces – which is vital, because, as you are aware, financial readiness is mission readiness.
For those of you who asked to purchase a copy of my book, Stolen Lives, you can do so at www.ThinkLikeASpy.com. Be sure you choose the Speaking Engagement Shipping option in your shopping cart as it will give you free shipping.
Here are answers to several additional questions that were asked after my speech:
- Does freezing your credit affect your ability to make charges on your credit card? Absolutely not! It only affects new accounts being set up (car loans, home loans, etc.) using your credit profile. It will not affect any existing accounts that you have. You will still be able to make purchases on your credit or debit card without any additional hassle.
Is Online Banking Safe from Identity Theft?
I am starting to reconsider my opinion that online banking is safer than traditional banking. Primarily because I have been hearing horror stories during some of my identity theft seminars. But now I am seeing it in the mainstream media. Case in point: read this short article in this morning’s USA Today about Hackers Swarming Bank Accounts. I’m open to your opinions, but I feel like the thieves are starting to win. In a YouTube video post I did some time ago about online banking, I suggested that if your computer is well-protected, you are better to bank online.
Online Banking & Identity Theft Video
But lately, it seems like the thieves are a step ahead. What are your thoughts? Have you had any troubles with identity being compromised because of the types of threats discussed in the article?
Workplace Identity Theft Economies of Scale
Identity theft speaker John Sileo on why identity theft is moving into the workplace.
It feels as if there has been a directional shift in the past year regarding the source of data theft. From the stories I hear after every identity theft speech I deliver, the crime of data theft, identity theft and intellectual property theft are becoming more organized and moving much more into the realm of workplace identity theft and corporate data theft (i.e., it’s happening at work even more than out of our homes). The information being stolen is still often times consumer-based, but it is being compromised more often at the business level.
I think one factor contributing to this shift into the working environment has been the decline in the value of identity information. The average social security number or bank account number is worth far less on the black data market than it was even a year ago. This means that in order to make large sums of money, the thieves need to increase volume.
Instead of stealing identities one at a time, they are going for mass-data thefts, like the one that hit Heartland Payment Systems a few weeks ago. Naturally, these large thefts tend to involve more technology breach (stolen laptops, sniffed networks, botnets, malware, hacked servers, etc.) because that is where high concentrations of data live. Just like the rest of business, it’s all about economies of scale!
Loyalty Discount Cards + Sileo Identity Theft Seminar at Andrews AFB
Thanks to everyone who attended my identity theft seminar this morning hosted by the Department of Defense at Andrews Air Force Base. For the list of identity theft prevention tips I referred to during the speech, please proceed to the bottom of this post. But before you do that… During the workshop, an audience member asked me a simple question:
Do Loyalty Cards (like the ones you sign up for in the supermarket to get store discounts) make me nervous?
They don’t, but that is because I take precautions to protect my privacy. Here’s how loyalty cards work:
Identity Theft Expert: Theft Runs Rampant as Economy Tumbles
At the Privacy Project, our success is your nightmare (unless you are my speaking agent).
Business at the Sileo Group and engagements as an identity theft speaker are up 400% compared with the same period last year. I am booked for exactly 4X as many identity theft prevention and privacy leadership speeches in the first quarter of 2009 as I was in 2008; and 2008 brought me more work than I could handle on my own. Some of this is due to an extensive contract with the Department of Defense, but not all of it.
I’m not sharing our success to blow my own horn, though admittedly, it is satisfying to finally share some good news with you after having lost so much to this crime.
I’m sharing because our success gave me cold sweats at 3am this morning.
Why? Because the strength of my business is inversely proportional to the safety of yours. My business is thriving because identity theft is thriving, and that is not my purpose for being in business. I am in the identity theft prevention business to put myself out of a job. When I say it keeps me awake at night, I’m being sincere. At 3am this morning, I spent several hours deciphering the underlying causes responsible for the exploding demand for identity theft speakers… even as the meetings and speaking business has suffered drastically at the hands of the spiraling economy. And then it came to me; I realized that the answer was contained in the question…
The 7 Deadly Sins of Privacy Leadership: How CEOs Enable Data Breach
Technology is not the root cause of identity theft, data breach or cyber crime.
We are.
Too often, technology is our scapegoat, providing a convenient excuse to sit apathetically in our corner offices, unwilling to put our money where our profits are. Unwilling, in this case, to even gaze over at the enormous profit-sucking sound that is mass data theft. The deeper cause of this crisis festers in the boardrooms of corporate America. Like an overflowing river, poor privacy leadership flows inexorably downhill from the CEO, until at last, it undermines the very banks that contain it.
The identity theft and data breach bottom line?
Sileo In the Media
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