Identity theft increases a great deal when you are on the road. Start protecting yourself with these Top 5 Identity Theft Tips while traveling:

1. Travel Data Light. If you don’t have to take it with you, increase your safety and leave it at home. This includes checkbooks, debit cards, excess credit cards, Social Security cards and any excess digital gadgets. Simplicity is Security!
2. Guard Your Devices. Smartphones and tablets are as powerful as laptops. Turn on the auto-lock passcode to keep others out of your information.
3. Surf Protected. Stop using the free WiFi hotspots in cafes, airports and hotels, as they are constantly sniffed by cyber criminals. Instead, setup tethering between your mobile phone and tablet or laptop so that you are surfing safely.
4. Privacy Please! Instead of leaving loads of data unprotected in your hotel room (a major source of theft), hang your privacy sign on the door and let house cleaning know that you do not want to be disturbed. Lowering traffic lowers risk.
5. Mind the Lions at the Watering Hole. Take a minute to watch the video to the left to understand how increasing your awareness in airports, hotels, conferences and restaurants can save you tons of time and money.

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The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) is about to hold Facebook to stronger safeguards regarding user privacy, but in the end, it won’t matter very much because they are leaving Facebook with lots of wiggle room.

Rumor has it that Facebook will soon have to acquire users’ consent before making changes to privacy policies that affect current user data. That is a total contrast to what they’ve done in the past, which is to rewrite their privacy policies to be less protective without so much as giving users a whiff of the changes to their privacy.

It looks like Facebook, much like happened recently with Google, may have to submit to independent privacy audits annually over the next 20 years. At issue is the fact that the settlement will prohibit Facebook from making information that’s already on the site available to  a wider audience without user consent.

Here’s the rub: the ruling doesn’t affect any new features that Facebook adds to their service in the future. It’s likely going to be a retroactive slap on the wrist for rolling back user privacy in 2009.

Privacy is paramount. Dozens of privacy bills have been submitted to Congress this year alone. The Obama administration has called for a “privacy bill of rights” and the FTC last year called for the development of a “do not track” system that would make it easier for Internet users to protect their browsing habits.

Privacy settings and unannounced changes have challenged the reputation of Facebook. It’s not entirely clear if these privacy-settings guidelines are being implemented in the best interest of the end-user, or if Facebook is trying to bolster their privacy concerns, and user reception, in preparation for a pending IPO in April 2012.

John Sileo speaks on social media exposure and corporate risk. Learn more at www.ThinkLikeASpy.com.

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A new study produced by The Ponemon Institute and ThreatMetrix (Mobile Payments & Online Shopping – October 2011) states that only 29% of consumers use mobile banking apps on their smart phones and tablets. Of those that don’t participate, 51% cite security reasons for their lack of participation. In other words, consumers like you and I are not yet comfortable with mobile banking. And our instincts are correct! Why shouldn’t you be comfortable with mobile banking appsquite yet?

Top 7 Reasons Why Mobile Banking Apps Aren’t Yet Safe

1. Because most app stores (e.g., Android Marketplace) don’t review apps for security, it is very easy for criminals to post malicious apps that steal information from your mobile device (like your bank account numbers).
2. The average smartphone or tablet user has installed no security software on their mini-computer (that’s what smartphones and tablets are), meaning that they have only a fraction of the security of a laptop or desktop.
3. Detected malware developed for the Android platform alone has increased by 400% in the past year.
4. The technology that keeps apps separate on your smartphone or tablet doesn’t separate them out into private sandboxes, meaning that one app can read the juicy details stored in the other without much difficulty.
5. Most smartphone and tablet users don’t even have a basic passcode set up on their device, giving anyone with access to it potential access to your bank account.
6. The temptation to use free WiFi hotspots at cafes, airports and hotels lures people into banking over insecure networks (it’s easy to sniff (spy on) what you send over these free, unprotected networks.
7. There is no clear legislation (that I have seen) governing your rights to receive a refund if your bank account is fraudulently emptied due to mobile bank app insecurity. Is the burden of proof on the user to protect their handset and software, or on the bank. Only precedent and real live court cases will answer this question over time.

Will mobile banking apps one day provide a secure, viable form of online banking? Absolutely. Are we there yet. No way.

John Sileo is a keynote financial speaker on topics including identity theft, cyber security, fraud trends and trust. His clients include the Pentagon, FDIC, Experian, Pfizer and Homeland Security. Bring him in to motivate data security within your organization. 1.800.258.8076.

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In the work we do to change the culture of privacy inside of organizations, we have discovered a dilemma: iPads are not as secure as other forms of computing and are leaking significant amounts of organizational data to corporate spies, data thieves and even competing economies (China, for example, which would dearly love to pirate the recipe for your secret sauce). Do corporations, then, sacrifice security for the sake of efficiency, privacy for the powerful touch screens that offer a jugular of sensitive information?

Of course not! That’d be like driving a race car minus seat belts and air bags.

iPads provide a competitive advantage, and like generations of tools before it (the cotton gin, the PC), individuals and organizations alike will be forced to learn how to operate this equipment safely or risk the bite of intellectual property vampires. Here are 7 Simple Security Settings to help you lock down your iPad much like you would your laptop.

7 Simple Security Settings for Your iPad

1. Turn On Passcode Lock. Your iPad is just as powerful as your laptop or desktop, so stop treating it like a glorified book. Your iPad is only encrypted when you enable the passcode feature. (Settings/General)
2. Turn Simple Passcode to Off. Why use only an easy to crack 4-digit passcode when you can implement a full-fledged alphanumeric password? If you can tap out short emails, why not spend 5 seconds on a proper password.
3. Require Passcode Immediately. It is slightly inconvenient and considerably more secure to have your iPad automatically lock up into passcode mode anytime you leave it alone for a few minutes.
4. Set Auto Lock to 2 Minutes. Why give the table thief at your favorite café more time to modify your settings to his advantage (to keep it from locking) as he walks out the door with your bank logins, emails and kid pictures.
5. Turn Erase Data after 10 Tries to On. Even the most sophisticated passcode-cracking software can’t get it done in 10 tries or less. This setting wipes out your data after too many failed attempts. Just make sure your kids don’t accidentally wipe out your iPad (forcing you to restore from your latest iTunes backup).
6. Use a Password Manager. Your passwords are only as affective as your ability to use them wisely (they need to be long and different for every site). Keeping your passwords in an unencrypted keychain or document is a recipe for complete financial disaster. Download a reputable password-protection app like 1Password to manage and protect any sensitive passwords, credit card numbers, software licenses, etc. Not only is it safe, it’s incredibly convenient and efficient.
7. Avoid Untrustworthy Apps. Not all applications are friendly. Despite Apple’s well-designed vetting process, there are still malicious apps that slip through the cracks to siphon data out of your device. If the app hasn’t been around for a while and if you haven’t read about it in a reputable journal (Macworld, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, etc.), don’t load it onto your system. Don’t jail-break your iPad to download apps outside of iTunes. Short-term gain equals long-term risk.

Believe it or not, these simple steps begin to give you a level of security that will discourage casual data vampires. After implementing the Simple 7, move on to 5 Sophisticated Security Settings for iPads for even more robust data defense.

John Sileo lost almost a half-million dollars, his business and his reputation to identity theft. Since then, he’s become America’s leading keynote speaker on identity theft, social media exposure and weapons of manipulation. He helps organizations build successful cultures of privacy. His clients include the Department of Defense, Pfizer and Homeland Security. To learn more, visit ThinkLikeASpy.com or contact him directly on 1.800.258.8076.

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Read the full PC Magazine Article.

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The simple answer? Not very secure. Just ask Vanessa Hudgens (nude photos), Sarah Palin (complete takeover of her email account) and the scores of celebrities and power figures who have been victimized by email hacking.

Think of using webmail (or any web-based software, including Facebook, Twitter, Google Docs, etc.) as checking into a hotel room. Unlike a house, where you have tighter control over your possessions, the same is not true of a hotel. While you definitely own the items you bring into a hotel room (laptop, smartphone, wallet, passport, client files), you don’t have nearly as much control as to how they are accessed (maids, managers, social engineers who know how to gain access to your room). In short, by using webmail to communicate, you are exchanging convenience for control.

Here are the five most common ways you lose control:

1. The password on your email account is easy to guess (less than 13 characters, fail to use alpha-numeric-symbol-upper-lower-case, don’t change it often) and someone easily hacks into your webmail account, giving them access to your mail, photos, contacts, etc.
2. Someone inside of the webmail company is given a huge incentive to leak your private information (tabloids that want access to a celebrity’s photos and are willing to pay hundreds of thousands for it).
3. You populate your password reminder questions (What high school did you go to?) with the correct answers instead of using an answer that is not easily found on your Facebook, LinkedIn or Classmates.com profile.
4. You fail to log out of your webmail while on a public computer (hotel business center, school, library, acquaintances house), allowing them to log back in to your email account using the autosaved username and password (which by default tends to stay on a system for up to two weeks).
5. You continue to deny the fact that when you store your information in places that you don’t own, you have very little actual control.

If you are sending sensitive information of any sort (text, photos, identity, videos or otherwise), don’t use webmail or social networking to send it. Use a mail program that resides on your own computer and encrypt the sensitive contents using a program like PGP. That gives you a much stronger form of protection than ignorantly exposing your information for all to see.

John Sileo is the award winning author of Privacy Means Profit and a professional speaker on data security, privacy, identity theft and social networking exposure.

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According to Andrea Rock, a senior editor at Consumer Reports who wrote an article about the security gap in the credit card industry (emphasis mine):

“The account information that’s needed to make a transaction on American cards is stored, unencrypted, on a magnetic stripe on the back of each card,”

And that means, until the industry changes, you are at risk. In the mean time, here are a few steps you can take to increase your security:

• Limit use of your debit card. The bank offers you less protection on debit transactions than credit transactions. Additionally, with debit cards, there is a PIN involved, potentially providing immediate cash access to your accounts by clever thieves. If fraud occurs, you are out the money until it is resolved.
• Use your credit card instead.  It’s safer.  Typically, credit card issuers offer zero-liability for losses associated with unauthorized transactions. You also have a longer time frame to catch and report the fraud.
• Set up automatic account alerts so that you receive an email or SMS text anytime a transaction is made. That way, if someone is using your card illegally, you are notified and can shut it down immediately before it becomes a big problem.
• Let your credit card provider know that in order to keep your business, they need to update to the latest security technologies.

John Sileo is the award-winning author of Privacy Means Profit, The Smartphone Survival Guide and The Facebook Safety Survival Guide. Learn more at www.ThinkLikeASpy.com.

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Click Here to Order Today!

The Smartphone Survival Guide: 10 Critical Tips in 10 Minutes

Smartphones are the next wave of data hijacking. Let this Survival Guide help you defend yourself before it’s too late.

Smartphones are quickly becoming the fashionable (and simplest) way for thieves to steal private data. Case in point: Google was recently forced to remove 21 popular Android apps from its official application website, Android Market, because the applications were built to look like useful software but acted like electronic wiretaps. At first glance, apps like Chess appear to be legitimate, but when installed, turn into a data-hijacking machine that siphons private information back to the developer.

The Smartphone Survival Guide gives you extensive background knowledge on many of the safety and privacy issues that plague Smartphones, including iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Windows Phone. Mobile computing is an indispensable tool in the modern world of constant connectivity, but you must protect these powerful tools. Mobile access to the web is here to stay, but we must learn to harness and control it. So whether you are reading this to help protect your own personal Smartphone, or valuable corporate assets, the Smartphone Survival Guide will start you in the right direction.

John Sileo’s Smartphone Survival Guide was recently mentioned in the New York Times.

John Sileo is the President of The Sileo Group and the award winning author of four books, including his latest workbook, The Smartphone Survival Guide. He speaks around the world on identity theft, online reputation and influence. His clients include the Department of Defense, Pfizer and Homeland Security. Learn more at www.ThinkLikeASpy.com.

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Think of your move into social media (Facebook/Fan/Business Pages, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) like you would approach the task of helping your fifteen-year-old daughter prepare to drive on her own. You love her more than anything on earth and would do anything for her (just like you will go to great lengths grow your business), but that doesn’t mean you just hand her the keys. Trying to forbid or ignore the movement into social marketing is like telling your teen that they can’t get their license. It isn’t going to happen, so you might consider putting down the denial and controlling those pieces of change that are within your power. The task is to maximize the positives of her newly bestowed freedom while minimizing any negatives; the same is true in social media.

Here’s a simple plan to follow that will help keep you safe and productive:

1. Understand the Risks & Rewards. Just like you need to know the risks of a teen driving (peer pressure, alcohol, inexperience, inferior equipment), you need to fully understand the risks of operating this powerful piece of equipment we call social media or social networking. Privacy Concerns: Users who fail to customize their Facebook privacy, security and sharing settings are giving away massive amounts of information to other Facebook users, Facebook Vendors (e.g., Farmville), Facebook itself and potentially competitors, thieves and social engineers. Over Exposure: You can share too much on Facebook, including posts, photos and videos that you later regret uploading. If done improperly or without thought, this can lead to increased risk of identity theft, reputation hijacking, burglary or fraud. Reputation Damage: AFLAC fired comedian Gilbert Godfrey as their spokesperson for making a negative comment about the insurance giant on his wall. How you and your employees use social media directly influences your reputation.  Account Takeover: Imagine a pornography crime-ring taking over your fan page for a day. It’s usually not this extreme of a case, but accounts are constantly being compromised and used for nefarious and illegal purposes (sending SPAM, peddling pornography, covering crimes). Just because there are risks doesn’t mean you abandon the medium. It means that you prepare for them, just like training your daughter to drive defensively, break properly on ice and make smart choices about who gets in the car.
2. Define Your Destination. Many businesses that utilize social media don’t actually know why they are using it, other than it’s the thing to do. But using it effectively takes a huge time and knowledge investment, so make sure you define what you want to achieve before you invest. Are you there to make friends, to network, to increase visibility, reshape your reputation or improve customer service? Driving without a destination in mind might be fun, but it will ultimately get you nowhere.
3. Choose the Right Equipment. Once you have defined your objective, you will have a better idea of which social medium to use (Facebook, Fan Page, Twitter, etc.). If your objective is to get your daughter safely from one place to another, you will choose a very different car than if you are trying to enhance her image with friends by buying a sports car. Trying to be part of every last social network means that you will use none of them effectively. Choose one or two platforms and take the time to perform the final two steps.
4. Fasten Your Seat belt. An hour spent understanding and modifying the default privacy and security settings (which are very lax by default) on Facebook or another social site can save you and your organization tragic amounts of data loss and abuse. Our refusal as a society to take this simple, available step to protect our information is the equivalent of not fastening our seat belts while driving. Is it slightly inconvenient and a occasionally uncomfortable? Yes. Does it drastically increase your safety? Without question. With great power comes great responsibility, and we must start communicating that to others around us.
5. Educate Your Driver. This knowledge, from awareness to customization, is only effective if it is passed on to others. You might know how to drive safely, but that doesn’t mean your daughter has picked it up by osmosis. The same is true inside of your organization; it’s not good enough for you do drive safely, the other members of the team must do the same – and not just for their own good, but because it also helps you be safe. After all, just like your daughter will ride in another teen’s car (and you want them to be well trained), your contacts will be handling your data in a social context (think of the picture of you at a St. Patrick’s Day party they consider posting) and need to know how to treat it.

There is nothing gained by ignoring or denying this social movement. It won’t be stopped and you will be part of it, either directly or indirectly. In turn, your business will be affected by how the employees and executives approach and even leverage the energy of social media. If you’re not out there educating your drivers, they are off doing it on their own anyway, seat belt-less and clueless.

John Sileo trains organizations on information leadership, including social media control, identity theft prevention and reputation management. His satisfied clients include the Department of Defense, FDIC, Pfizer and Homeland Security. To bring John in to speak to your organization, contact his staff on 800.258.8076 or watch him entertain audiences with vital content at www.ThinkLikeASpy.com.

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Denver, CO (PRWEB) March 7, 2011

Smartphones are quickly becoming the fashionable (and simplest) way for thieves to steal private data. Case in point: Google was recently forced to remove 21 popular Android apps from it’s official application website, Android Market, because the applications were built to look like useful software but acted like electronic wiretaps. At first glance, apps like Chess appear to be legitimate, but when installed, turn into a data-hijacking machine that siphons private information back to the developer.

In response to this new threat facing iPhone, BlackBerry, Droid and Windows Phone users, identity theft expert John Sileo has just released “The Smartphone Survival Guide: 10 Critical Security Tips in 10 Minutes.”

“Once you download a Trojan app” says Sileo, “the thief has more control over your phone than you do. Your privacy is an open book… your identity, contact list, files, emails, texts, passwords… all of it. This doesn’t just threaten the individual phone owner, it threatens the organizations they work in and the data they handle every day.”

At the heart of the problem is the breathtaking convenience and efficiency provided by mobile phones that have become “Smart” because they also function as computers, books, GPS devices, payment systems, web browsers, radios, iPods and so much more. Unfortunately, blinded by the thrill and functionality of the latest app, users rarely take the time to vet the software that can be installed in seconds, from anywhere.

“There are no significant barriers to entry, for either us OR the thieves,” says Sileo of the app-based model of acquiring new software. “You can read about an app on a web page, download it and be using it in under a minute. And you probably didn’t even have to pay for it… at least with cash.” You’re paying dearly, Sileo

maintains, by trading away private information, surfing habits, bank account numbers or company financials.

The Smartphone Survival Guide outlines the major threats posed by mobile phones with internet access and gives a range of solutions for drastically lowering risk. Sileo points out that most data stolen off of Smartphones isn’t just a technology problem:

“Despite the intoxicating power of technology, the underlying problem is always a human problem. Don’t waste energy trying to fix the gadget – that’s someone else’s responsibility. Focus on the behaviors that allow employees to maintain a healthy balance between productivity and security. Deliberate, focused training has the highest ROI, not obsessing over the latest data leakage.”

The Smartphone Survival Guide describes a range of solutions in a quick and accessible fashion, such as:

• Turn on auto-lock password protection and corresponding encryption.
• Enable remote tracking and remote wipe capabilities in case the phone is lost or stolen.
• Minimize app spying with security software and smart habits.
• Customize geo-location and application privacy permissions.
• Be wary of free apps – users are almost always paying with private data.
• Before downloading an app, ask a few questions: How long has the app been available – long enough for someone else to detect a problem? Is the publisher of the app reputable? Have they produced other successful smartphone applications, or is this their first? Has the app been reviewed by a reputable tech journal?

Smartphones and the data on them are obviously at risk, but it remains to be seen whether users will alter their behavior before it’s too late. If not, it will be but one more example of human choices leading to technological data hijacking.

John Sileo is the President of The Sileo Group and the award winning author of four books, including his latest workbook, The Smartphone Survival Guide. He speaks around the world on identity theft, online reputation and influence. His clients include the Department of Defense, Pfizer and Homeland Security. Learn more at www.ThinkLikeASpy.com.

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