Britain, America Unite Against Identity Theft Trends
London, UK (PRWEB) October 16, 2011
The world of identity theft is changing rapidly. Earlier this week Experian UK, a unit of one of the world’s largest credit-reporting agencies, hosted the 2011 Identity Theft & Fraud Forum at The Grove, a prestigious five-star resort located on the outskirts of London. The purpose of the Forum was to assemble a cross-cultural collection of thought leaders on identity theft prevention and to focus attention on Britain’s increasing financial battle with identity theft. Keynote presenters included highly regarded American identity theft expert John Sileo, Jairam Sridharan, Head of Retail Assets, Axis Bank of India and Jonathan Walsh, Head of Consulting and Analytics, Identity & Fraud at Experian.
During his afternoon presentation, Mr. Walsh revealed the results of a newly released study commissioned by Experian UK. The study found that cases of identity fraud have doubled in Britain over just the past six months and that the trend is likely to continue unless addressed.
“Britain is determined to identify the latest trends in identity theft and define leading-edge solutions to avert the costly eight ball we are behind here in the States,” says Sileo, who founded ThinkLikeASpy.com and has worked with organizations from the U.S. Department of Defense and Homeland Security to Pfizer, Blue Cross and the FDIC. “Experian UK helped all of us take a huge step in the right direction with the Forum.”
College Students Destroy Financial Future with Poor Choices
College is the perfect period of life to begin sound financial practices including protecting privacy. Not only are college students vulnerable, but they are impressionable and well positioned to learn strong habits that will last them a lifetime. As students launch into independence, we, as parents, hope to give them the best tools possible to insure a bright future. One of the most vital tools is to establish healthy habits that will guard their financial and personal identities for the rest of their lives. People ages 18 -24 are the least able to spot identity theft according to the BBB. That age group needed more than four months to realize someone had damaged their credit history or used their identity. By taking a few precautions, a young adult can avoid the crushing job of trying to recover from having given away the keys to their financial future, which is especially overwhelming while navigating life away from home for the first time.
Identity thieves don’t care a whit if the student has a dime – they just want a clean financial record in order to commit crimes using their credit and future buying power. Unfortunately, thieves are often someone the student trusts: a friend, dorm mate, co-worker, or someone who poses as a sanctioned person on campus. Identity thieves may use personal information to open credit card accounts, access financial accounts, rent an apartment or even commit larger cases of fraud, implicating the student. Here are some tips to get you and your student started down the road to protecting their financial future:
Certified Speaking Professional – Sileo Earns CSP from National Speakers Association
I love my job as a keynote speaker. To be honored as one of only 570 Certified Speaking Professionals on the planet this past month was icing on the cake, and confirmation that we’d finally made it through that which almost destroyed our family.
Just a few years ago I thought I might go to jail for crimes that someone else committed using my identity. I lost nearly everything, including my business, my reputation and lots of money. Who would have thought then that all of the pain we experienced as a family would be turned into a highly satisfying career as an author and professional keynote speaker? Every day I get to go to work with the enviable conviction of empowering people to protect their privacy from identity theft, social media exposure and human manipulation. I get to steer people and corporations away from making the significant mistakes I did. It is vastly fulfilling.
And now, after five hard years on the speaking circuit, to be awarded the CSP by such highly accomplished peers in NSA, the National Speakers Association, satisfies me beyond words. If you’ve heard the details of my story and know how much it cost my family (I was basically absent in their lives for two full years), you’ll especially love how elegantly everything has come full circle. Sophie (my daughter, and the person who woke me out of my victim-induced stupor to become an author and a speaker), whispered to my row of supporters just as I was walking across the stage, “everyone stand up when dad gets his award.”
Why I Love Canadian Accountants
I love Canadian accountants because not only are they some of the warmest people I have met (I speak on identity theft quite a bit in Canada), but they are incredibly eager to learn how to avoid some of the data security mistakes that we have made in the U.S. As accountants, they provide a ton of vital financial advice to their clients, and I can easily see them sharing some of the data security best practices I talked about during the presentation and getting paid well by their clients to do it. And here’s how I could tell their level of absorption: after the speech, they had a slew of detailed follow-up questions. They were curious. You can always tell someone’s intention to act and make changes by their clarification questions. No questions, no interest, no intent to act. Definitely not what I experienced in the charming town of Winnipeg.
If you are ever in Winnipeg, say hello for me and go buy some Chocolates at the little sundry stand in the middle of The Forks market (see the video). You won’t be sorry.
Dropbox a Crystal Ball of Cloud Computing Pros & Cons
Dropbox is a brilliant cloud based service (i.e., your data stored on someone else’s server) that automatically backs up your files and simultaneously keep the most current version on all of your computing devices (Mac and Windows, laptops, workstations, servers, tablets and smartphones). It is highly efficient for giving you access to everything from everywhere while maintaining an off-site backup copy of every version of every document.
And like anything with that much power, there are risks. Using this type of syncing and backup service without understanding the risks and rewards is like driving a Ducati motorcycle without peering into the crystal ball of accidents that take the lives of bikers every year. If you are going to ride the machine, know your limits.
This week, Dropbox appears to have altered their user agreement (without any notice to its users), making it a FAR LESS SECURE SERVICE. Initially, their privacy policy stated:
… all files stored on Dropbox servers are encrypted (AES-256) and are inaccessible without your account password. (Quoted from PCWorl)
Currently, the privacy policy says that Dropbox can access and view your encrypted data, and it might do so to share information with law enforcement. Why is that important? Because it means that the encryption keys that keep your files private are actually stored on Dropbox’s server, not on your own computer. This puts the keys to your data (and every other Dropbox user) in the hands not only of Dropbox employees and law enforcement, but vulnerable to hackers. When the encryption key is located on your computer, at least the risk is spread over Dropbox’s user’s network.
Facebook Nigerian Scam Costs Victim $300,000+
At this point, we are all pretty used to the classic Nigerian Scam. Someone who is recently wealthy needs your help to gain access to the funds. They will let you keep $1 million if you will simply send them your bank account number so he can transfer $30 million to you. Its a dream come true to most!
What happens when that same scam is used on Facebook by one of your friends, by someone you trust? The results can be disastrous. One woman was scammed out of $366,000 because she felt sorry for the scammer’s sob story. The woman contacted the local authorities after realizing she had been conned by her Facebook “friend”. Police arrested six male suspects in Kepong, all allegedly connected to the Facebook scam: two Nigerians, two Bangladeshis, and two Malaysians. Investigators only managed to recover $5,000 in cash of the victim’s money, although they also seized 18 ATM cards, seven cell phones, and a laptop.
At least in this case the men were apprehended. In most scams of this nature there is no chance of finding the scammers and the money is long gone. Even when one of your Facebook friends asks you for something (money, help, information), your first reaction should be healthy skepticism. Verify that what they are saying is true (call them before sending money). Often times, a thief will take over a friend’s account or create a false account in order to gain your trust and eventually, your money.
Are You Begging to Get Fired?
We’ve all done it before – left the table to get a coffee refill or go to the bathroom and left our laptop, iPad, smartphone or purse sitting on the table. We justify it by telling ourselves that we are in a friendly place and will only be gone a second. Our tendency is to blame technology for information theft, but the heart of the problem is almost always a human error, like leaving our devices unattended. Realizing that carelessness is the source of most laptop theft makes it a fairly easy problem to solve.
My office is directly above a Starbucks, so I spend way too much time there. And EVERY time I’m there, I watch someone head off to the restroom (see video) or refill their coffee and leave their laptop, iPad, iPhone, briefcase, purse, client files and just about everything else lying around on their table like a self-service gadget buffet for criminals and opportunists alike.
I trust deeply in the honesty and integrity of the people I know well, but if you are trusting your Starbucks crowd with this amazingly valuable data, you are going to get a steaming hot lap full of trouble. Data thieves target places like this because it is an upscale, trusting clientele. Just ask Ben Bernake, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, whose wife got taken at a Starbucks.
5 Steps to Avoid Facebook Destruction in Business
How should my business balance the risks of social media with the rewards of this increasingly dominant and highly profitable marketing medium? That’s the very insightful question that a CEO asked me during a presentation I gave on information leadership for a Vistage CEO conference.
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:
Sileo In the Media
Privacy Project Newsletter
Tools and tips for bulletproofing yourself against identity theft, data breach and corporate espionage. Subscribe to the newsletter and get John Sileo's 7 Survival Strategies for Starving Data Spies for FREE!
