Why you need to protect yourself from identity theft

  If you have been following the news for the last couple of weeks you may have read about two major security breaches that have been going on for months and years and nobody was aware that their private information was at risk.  I will talk briefly about both of them.

                             The Heart Bleed Bug

  The heart bleed bug is a flaw in the encryption standard used by a majority of websites. They recently found a programming error that would allow a hacker to trick the computer at the other end into sending your 
confidential information to a bogus computer. This made it possible for hackers to steal the encryption keys, the codes used to turn encrypted data into readable information, allowing the hackers to intercept encrypted data moving to and from a site's servers. Which gave them access to your information.

   Most of the articles that I've read about the Heart Bleed Bug are very technical in nature but the bottom line is this is potentially a very serious problem that we all may have been facing for two years and not realized it.

                       What can you do to protect yourself

  Since the vulnerability has been going on for about two years and using it leaves no trace, assume that your accounts may be compromised.  You should change your online passwords especially for services where privacy and security are major concerns.


              Michael's arts and craft stores are hacked 

  Michael's stores incorporated said Thursday about 2.6 million credit and debit cards about 7% of all debit and credit cards used at its namesake stores may have been affected in a security breach.

  The compromised data includes customer information such as payment

card numbers and expiration dates but there is no evidence that other personal information such as names, addresses or pin numbers were at risk Michael's said.

  Aaron brothers is a subsidiary of Michael's and they also reported that they were attacked with about 400,000 cards potentially affected. About 3 million customers have been impacted by the data breach that lasted over eight months.

                              ITRC
  I've mentioned in previous blogs the Identity Theft Resource Center and the report they produce that lists every company or organization that has had a security breach this year. As of April 15 there have been 233 companies or organizations that have had security breaches. That has resulted in 5,171,507 records that have been compromised. If you open up the link below  you will be able to review the affected companies and see if you have done business with any of them.

   The message I am trying to deliver in this blog is that everyone in this day and age should have a identity theft protection program.
As you can see the two incidents mentioned above were going on for months and years and you have either no or very little knowledge of them. If you will take the time to review the ITRC report I believe you'll be shocked when you see the names of the companies, charities and agencies listed there. The first link is to their homepage, the second link takes you directly to the report.


           http://www.idtheftcenter.org/
                      http://www.idtheftcenter.org/images/breach/ITRC_Breach_Report_2014.pdf 
  
                    Other links of interest
                 

                                                  richardbentley.us

                https://sites.legalshield.com/aasites/Multisite?                      site=hub&assoc=rdbentley

                 http://seniorscamspodcast.com/index.html

                 http://infocard.cc/101_Marketing_Podcasts.html

                         http://101smallbusinessmastermind.com/Master_Mind_Pages.html
                         

Five ways to protect yourself from identity theft

     There are a number of ways for you to become a victim of identity theft, sometimes it's accidental such as you lose your wallet or the theft of your pocketbook and sometimes it's the  devious route through fictitious emails requesting personal information over the phone.  And then there is the much-publicized hacking of  major corporations billing systems to get your credit card information and other personal information. Identity thieves are getting more sophisticated in their attempts at stealing our identities.

     The information I am providing you today comes from the Identity Theft Resource Center website. I have spoken of them in previous blogs and their website is one of most comprehensive sites on identity theft that I have read.

             http://www.idtheftcenter.org/ 


                                  
        Protect your personal information

Social security number, health insurance policy number, and other pieces of key data are unique to you. Before you give them to anyone whether you know them or not verify the reasons for needing the information.

                  Don't toss it in the mail

Do not use your curbside mailbox for mail that contains sensitive personal information (checks, health insurance statements or tax documents) drop them off at your local post office.

               Don't make it easy to steal from you

     Make sure to review your financial statements thoroughly each month or if you can, set them up online so you can  review them a minimum of once a week. Shred everything, if possible sign up for paperless billing if that service is offered to you.

           A password is only as good as you make it

     When developing a password you should avoid using the obvious such as birthdays,street addresses, names of family members or the infamous 1234 or password. There should be a minimum of eight characters using uppercase, lowercase, numbers or symbols. You should change your passwords frequently and try not to use the same password on different accounts.

      Because they ask, doesn't mean you have to tell   them.

     Finally don't fall for the oldest trick in the book: the direct question if you get an email or you are speaking with someone on the phone and they ask you directly what is your social security number don't give it to them.  It doesn't matter if it's a company you

recognize and you have done business with them before or the  person on the other end of the line is a complete stranger. Remember your SSN is not an identification number and should not be used to verify your account information and anyone who presses you for that information is probably not someone you should give it to. 

     I hope you find this to be informative and beneficial. I encourage feedback and would like to have this blog become more interactive. 

                    Richard Bentley
                    richardbentley.us


                 Other websites of interest
         http://seniorscamspodcast.com/index.html                http://infocard.cc/101_Marketing_Podcasts.html