Shredded bliss: 5 steps to choosing the perfect paper shredder

Protect yourself from identity theft by shredding daily

Modern criminals may be stealing personal information electronically through sophisticated online data mining tools, but small-time crooks sorting through food wrappers and dirty diapers in the quest for discarded paperwork ‘still lurk.

In fact, not shredding potentially sensitive documents before you dispose of them is almost like begging to become one of the Federal Trade Commission’s estimated 9 million victims of identity theft in the United States every year. And with adequate shredders available for as low as $50, there’s almost no excuse — every household should have one.

John Sileo can attest to this firsthand. The identity protection expert and professional speaker had his identity stolen twice, and in one of those instances, a shredder could have made all the difference. “Shortly after buying a house, I put some mortgage documents out in the trash, and didn’t think twice about it,” he says. Later “a woman used my identity to buy herself a home. Eventually, she declared bankruptcy as me.”

Click to Continue Reading

John Sileo became one of America’s leading Social Networking Speakers & sought after Identity Theft Experts after he lost his business and more than $300,000 to identity theft and data breach. His clients include the Department of Defense, Pfizer and the FDIC. To learn more about having him speak at your next meeting or conference, contact him by email or on 800.258.8076.

Related posts:

1. Read about John Sileo in the Denver Examiner
2. WSJ Article Quotes Identity Theft Expert, John Sileo
3. Must Read: 2010 Census Identity Theft

Why pay for Health Insurance when you can steal it?

As the economy dropped severely in 2009, the instances of Identity Theft continued to rise. With desperate times and individuals struggling, Medical Identity Theft and Health Insurance Fraud reports by emergency rooms have been higher than normal over the past several months.  According to Javelin Strategy and Research, in 2009 Medical Record Theft had the longest length of time, 493 days,  between the theft and detection by the insured. This also led to the highest fraud amount of $18,480 and the largest mean consumer cost of $2987. That means the average consumer that suffers from Medical Identity Theft pays almost $3000 of his own money to resolve the theft! This shows how the financial repercussions of Medical Identity Fraud are the largest among Identity Fraud types.

There are more than just financial risks to Health Insurance Fraud. If your name is linked with another person’s medical records, their blood type, medical history and medications are recorded on your chart.  Inaccurate information can lead to ER and hospital mix ups with health complications that could prove deadly.

A new article by NPR discusses the many issues and risks with Health Insurance Fraud and Medical Identity Theft. They advise everyone to get a hard copy of their medical records in case they become a victim and have to prove what their medical history used to look like. No matter the fee to do so, I encourage everyone to keep a copy of this in their locked fireproof safe. Hopefully you’ll  never have to prove your health history, but at least you will be prepared!

Read National Public Radio’s full article that discuss this rising issue.

John Sileo became one of America’s leading Social Networking Speakers and sought-after Identity Theft Experts after he lost his business and more than $300,000 to identity theft and data breach. His clients include the Department of Defense, Pfizer and the FDIC. To learn more about having him speak at your next meeting or conference, contact him by email or on 800.258.8076.

Related posts:

1. Celebrity Identity Theft – Fraud from the Inside
2. Fun Fraud Detection Training
3. Fraud Report: SMiShing Identity Theft

The report of industries affected by data breach shows that Financial Services was the major gainer in 2008.  That industry doubled its percentage of data breach to 30% while Retail is still the most affected industry (barely) at 31%. The shift to data breach in Financial Services will affect all of us more drastically.

According to the study, which Verizon Business compiled using data from the 90 confirmed corporate network breaches it recorded last year, roughly 93% of all records breached came from the financial sector. The company also says that nine out of every 10 of these breaches involved “groups identified by law enforcement as engaged in organized crime.” Verizon says that the 285 million electronic records breached last year were more than the total number of records breached in the past four years combined. The reason for the sharp increase is that attacks on financial firms’ networks have become more sophisticated and successful, the company says. Although only 17% of the attacks studied by Verizon constituted “highly sophisticated” data breaches, these attacks were responsible for 95% of all records breached. Verizon says that cybercriminals are targeting financial service companies’ networks to get customers’ personal identification number (PIN) information in order to withdraw cash directly from their accounts. Cybercriminals are also selling PIN information on the black market, the company says. Read the full report on data breach. (Scroll down when you see “285″). Technorati Profile

Data Breach Speaker John Sileo

Related posts:

1. Data Breach Increases 33% in 2010 and You’re Next
2. Data Breach Protection: Laptop Theft Best Practices
3. Data Breach Expert Sileo Talks to Fox Business

If so, you need to know that 11 people, including a Secret Service informant, have been charged in connection with those retail data breaches. In other words, the spies (in this case, a crime ring syndicate) have been caught.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that your stolen identity is now safe. Most likely, your data was either used or sold off within days of being stolen from the retailer – long before you were even notified of the identity theft.

Nor does it mean that you will receive any compensation or redress for what was taken from you (your money, your time, your name and possibly your reputation).

The companies that were targeted, like TJX, will receive little in return, either. Their collective costs from the data breaches are so high that the government won’t even hazard a guess. The TJX breach alone has been estimated to cost TJX upwards of $1 Billion.

But there is good news. The indictments mean that the Department of Justice is actively pursing and prosecuting large identity theft crime rings, and even catching some of them. This is significant because it sends a signal to future identity theft rings that they cannot work without some regard for being punished for their illegal activities. Unfortunately, since 8 of the 11 people charged operated outside of the US, there is no way for the DOJ to effectively bring them to justice. Which means they continue in their highly profitable and highly illegal business.

It also means that corporations and government institutions will come under immense profit pressure to analyze and fix data security weaknesses like the wireless routers left relatively unprotected by these retailers (they didn’t properly encrypt their wireless networks, leaving access to their systems open to anyone driving by with a laptop computer and sniffing software).

The best news of all, however, is a statement made by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who, commenting on the indictments, said:

Today’s indictments are a reminder of a growing threat that every American faces in the 21st century — the fact that each individual’s greatest asset is their names, their identity.

Chertoff underscores and acknowledges what we, as victims, already understand – that your identity, your name, your personally identifying information, is your most valuable asset in life. It is worth everything you have, financially and even emotionally. As the government begins to recognize the profitability of protecting it’s citizens’ identities, so too will corporate America recognize the unparalleled costs of ignoring data breach, identity theft and the value of it’s customer data, employee records and intellectual capital. And as they come to grips with the financial burden of data breach, they will begin to aggressively educate their workforce on the means to prevent it.

There is hope.

John Sileo
Professional Data Breach Speaker

Related posts:

1. 53 Charged in New Jersey Identity Theft Crime Ring
2. Facebook Hits 500 Million Users: 3rd Largest Country
3. IRS Overwhelmed by Tax Related Identity Theft