Identity Theft Training
John Sileo knows identity theft and data breach first hand – he became “America’s Leading Identity Theft Speaker and Expert” after losing his business and more than $300,000 to these costly crimes. He has provided these Identity Theft Resources to help you protect your organization from suffering from the losses that result from unprotected private information. Visit John’s Identity Theft Prevention Store to learn more.
Hire John to train your employees to prevent identity theft, data breach and corporate espionage
Safe data is profitable data, whether it’s a client’s credit card number, a patient’s medical file, an employee’s benefit plan or sensitive intellectual capital. By the time John finishes his hilarious closing story, your audience will be fully empowered to protect private information, at home and at work.
John’s Most Requested Identity Theft Training Presentations (Keynote Topics)
Think Like a Spy
Information Survival Skills
The biggest threat to our identities (and to valuable corporate data) is our lack of a Privacy Reflex. Few of us have ever been trained to respond appropriately when someone requests our sensitive information. Think of how easily you give your information away on the Internet when someone promises you a free gift. This presentation will give your audience the fundamental building blocks to proactively protect valuable information assets. The result is a safer individual with strategic privacy skills that protect your organization’s bottom line.
Reading Credit Reports
This article provides a more detailed guide to reading your credit report as referenced in Privacy Means Profit.
A credit report is a history of how you or your company borrow and then pay off your credit, including delinquency and bankruptcy. There are currently three main credit bureaus in the United States—Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. If you own a home, have a credit card, lease a car, or apply for or use credit of any sort, this information is reported to one, two or all three of these credit bureaus. In addition, they collect information on how timely you pay your bills, how often you are tardy, how frequently your credit is checked by companies and any changes of address, employment, or personal information.
By monitoring these reports closely, you will know when someone else is using your credit rating to their benefit. If an identity thief opens a new credit card or takes out a loan using your Social Security number, you will see it on your report. The quicker you spot the problem, the less trouble it will cause. Monitoring your credit report is the single most effective monitoring tool available to keep minor identity theft from turning into full-scale identity fraud.
Identity Monitoring Services
CSIdentity Protector Tri-Bureau
Only 25% of identity theft can be detected by traditional credit report monitoring, which means that you need a more sophisticated service than the average offering (LifeLock). If you are time starved, convenience based or just simply want a comprehensive way to detect the inappropriate use of your data, you need to enlist an identity monitoring service. It’s similar to having someone monitor your home alarm system.
Here’s a bit of background. Traditional credit monitoring only detects a portion of identity theft. The remaining theft happens on non-credit loan activities (pay-day loans, etc), as part of public records (court cases, real estate transactions, government filings, etc.), over the internet (bought and sold on identity-for-sale sites), or in relation to medical or criminal records. It is important to monitor these forms of potential identity theft as well as your credit file. CSIdentity’s Protector Tri-Bureau product wins the award for Best-in-Class identity monitoring based on 7 criteria:
Nigerian Scam Takes a New Form
Nigerian scams happen everyday to thousands of victims in various ways: email, snail mail, fax, Facebook and for the first time in our experience, the “Contact Us” page on our website. This is significant because it shows the the technology of the Nigerian crime rings has advanced enough to foil the Captcha device on our website.
Nigerian scams (more accurately known as advanced-fee fraud) have been around for ages and were named because they originated in Nigeria. To create the scam, criminals generally claim that there is a large sum of money that can only be released to a relative of some deceased member of royalty. Victims are asked to provide a bank account into which the money can be transferred and are promised a large percentage of the money for performing the service. In some cases, victims may also be asked to pay a fee or a series of fees for the release of the money. Once the victim has provided account information, the criminals will often drain their bank accounts, and occasionally use that information to open new, fraudulent accounts.
If you have never seen one before I highly recommend you read this. They change frequently and recently have been taking more complex forms, but the intention is always the same: to steal your money in exchange for the prospect of wealth that never materializes. After seeing how they try to lure you into helping them with a compelling story, you will be able to spot them with ease and protect yourself form becoming a victim.
Memphis Blues Can Give Your Life Purpose (If You’ll Listen)
Why am I stuck in Memphis? I’ve been in four airports in the past 24 hours, which is how long I’ve been trying to get home to Colorado. I started in Fayetteville, North Carolina yesterday at lunch after an amazing day at Ft. Bragg speaking to soldiers (I got to try on the parachute uniforms of the mighty Golden Knights – don’t I look dorky?). But my flight left three hours late, so I missed my connection in Atlanta. I went to Atlanta anyway, because there aren’t many flights out of Fayetteville and I couldn’t picture myself staying in the 100 degree heat and 42,000% humidity for an entire weekend.
In Atlanta, I unsuccessfully stood by for three flights, all of which were closed to those of us with no mileage status on Delta. (Insight: I’ve gained a deep and bitter empathy with all of those travelers who don’t get the status perks we spoiled business travelers normally enjoy – flying as part of the herd humbles you like a lame dog left behind by the pack.) So Delta finally agreed to put me up in the Best Western. But the Best Western van (last of the night at 12 midnight) didn’t have any seats left, so I had to ride with the luggage in the back of the van.
Document Shredding
Fellowes Powershred
Workplace identity theft isn’t caused by paper documents because we have gone paperless, right? Rubbish. Paper rubbish, in fact.
You and I both know that we use as much paper as ever. We sign up for electronic statements and then print and file them, along with important emails, financial documents, etc. Paper documents are more plentiful than ever, and they pose a significant risk of workplace identity theft and data breach.
According to a recent study* conducted by the Alliance for Secure Business Information (ASBI):
80% of large organizations surveyed indicated that they had experienced one or more data breaches over the previous 12 months. 49% of those breaches involved the loss or theft of paper documents. The average breach recovery cost $6.75 Million!
5 Steps to Good Privacy Habits
People will do something—including changing their behavior—only if it can be demonstrated that doing so is in their own best interests as defined by their own values.
—Marshall Goldsmith, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
People don’t change bad habits until they have a compelling reason. Too often that compelling reason is the result of a habit’s negative outcome; but the promise of positive rewards resulting from the establishment of good habits can be a strong motivator. In the workplace, aligning responsible information stewardship with personal and professional gain can set the stage for good privacy habits.
Here are 5 steps you can take towards perfecting your own Privacy Habits:
- Tighten up online passwords. Create strong, alphanumeric passwords. Instead of your password being Sunflower make it $uNf(0w3R. Don’t use common password reminders such as your dog’s name, street address, or mother’s maiden name. All of those would be easily uncovered by an identity thief.
- Buy a Shredder – and use it. By shredding anything that has your name, address, birthday, social security number, or account numbers on it, you will be less likely to have your identity stolen through the trash. Make sure that the shredder you chose is kept in a convenient location – if you can’t get to it fast, you won’t use it!
Facebook Installs a Panic Button for Children
According to a recent Yahoo! article, Facebook has created a new “Panic Button” for London users to help protect children on the social networking site. This new function gives the youngsters the ability to easily report a problem or suspicious activity to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and Facebook.
The Panic Button will automatically appear on the homepage of users between the ages of 13 and 18 years old. Recently Facebook has been scrutinized because of their relaxed privacy controls and lack of protection for all users, including children. This marks another effort by Facebook to attempt to calm users concerns and team up with other organizations to offer protection to younger participants. In the US, Facebook is teaming up with the Parent Teacher Association to help keep children informed and safe while using the website.
Facebook vice-president Joanna Shields added: “There is no single silver bullet to making the Internet safer but by joining forces with CEOP we have developed a comprehensive solution which marries our expertise in technology with CEOP’s expertise in online safety”.
It is important to be educated when dealing with any form of social media or social networking website. You should know the ins and outs, pros and cons, risks and rewards to using these online tools. For more information on Facebook Safety and protecting your children online, check out our Facebook Safety Survival Guide.
Sileo In the Media
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