by Brian Thompson | Nov 15, 2019 | General, Identity Theft, Uncategorized
Have you ever thought about how installing smart or connected devices such as a residential doorbell or security camera using a Wi-Fi connection can put your personal or business data at risk of being hacked or sold to third parties like advertisers? Personal privacy and the internet of things should be on all of our minds as we continue to become more and more connected.
Day to Day Convenience
An October 1, 2019 article titled Smart Home Devices and Privacy Risk (please see here) states “while ‘smart home’ or internet of things (IoT) devices have become more prevalent and may make every day or business tasks more convenient, they also diminish consumers’ privacy and introduce serious risks, for both users and device developers and manufacturers.”
According to Statista, a leading provider of market and consumer data, there will be 75 billion connected devices worldwide by 2025 (please see here).
Connected Devices
When I think of connected devices I think of business sectors such as
- Utilities (programmable thermostats),
- Residential Security (residential doorbells with surveillance cameras and microphones),
- Smart and Self-Driving Automobiles (onboard computers, infotainment/entertainment systems, and apps) and
- Healthcare (medical devices such as a pacemaker and mobile apps) to name a few.
Benefits
In each instance, these connected business sectors and devices help save money, increase efficiencies and improve our quality of life.
The Risks
The same business sectors and devices can also give hackers and insider threats the opportunity to steal personally identifiable information (PII) leading to any consumer becoming a victim of identity theft.
Think about it, if you can unlock the front door of your house remotely – so can a hacker. If you can start your car or unlock the door locks of your car remotely – so can a hacker?
And if any of your devices or service providers are connected to the cloud to collect, store and/or transfer information – hackers and insider threats can collect, store and/or transfer the same information.
While consumers are excited to have a more connected lifestyle, consumers should also be concerned about the increased risk of identity theft and data breach events.
So what can you do about it?
Consumers can protect themselves in a number of ways including:
- By changing their default usernames and passwords
- Setting strong passwords
- Updating their security software regularly
- Check the device for default privacy and security settings
- Disabling remote access to your IoT devices (where applicable)
Every IoT device comes with a built-in web interface to configure the settings mentioned above. In addition to securing any new smart devices, be sure to configure any existing IoT devices you already have.
Personal Privacy and the Internet Of Things is a concern we should consider seriously and take the precautionary steps needed with these increased risks.
By Mark Pribish
ID Theft Practice Leader
Keywords: #Personal Privacy, #Internet of Things, #Smart Devices, #Identity Theft
by Brian Thompson | Nov 6, 2019 | Identity Theft
But it is your house!?
You have worked hard your whole life. You have paid off your house. Retirement looks comfortable and you are thinking of using some of your home equity to buy a second home. You go to the bank to apply for your loan and the loan officer cannot seem to confirm that you actually own your home. In addition, the tax records reveal someone else not only owns the home you’ve lived in for years but that they have taken out a large mortgage against the house. Suddenly, your net worth has dropped by thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands. So, could ID Theft Cost Your Your Home?…YES
Identity Theft…whether it is your social security number or other personally identifying information that is stolen, it is traumatic. Personally, it was a huge concern when someone stole my identity and purchased 4 cell phones from a Best Buy in Washington state and set up AT&T service! No, I do not have AT&T, I do not live in Washington and I do not have an account with Best Buy. This was an issue I had to take seriously BUT, what if it was my house they took or if they purchased another in my name?
While it is not as common as SS# scams and Tax ID-Fraud, it can occur and can be much more devastating than other types of identity theft for many reasons.
How does it happen?
There a couple ways that mortgage identity fraud can happen:
- Identity Thief gains access to enough Personal Identifiable information to purchase a home in your name. You find out when you eventually look on your credit report, usually when after the damage has been done and you are late on a mortgage you didn’t know existed in your name.
- Even more painful is when the theft occurs in the home you already live in! In this scenario, the thief obtains your information in order to transfer the deed to either themselves or a third party without your knowledge. You move on, unknowingly, paying the mortgage for a house you technically do not own anymore. The thief will then either try and sell the property as if it were theirs in order to get the buyer’s money.
There are many ways to protect yourself from identity theft. Although, less common than other types of ID theft, it could cost you your home… So it is imperative to understand the risks, where you are vulnerable and to have a place to turn if your identity is stolen. Check out the links below to learn more about identity theft monitoring and restoration.
14 features of Identity Theft Protection Monitoring and the Most Important Feature!
ID Theft Increases Stress and Fatigue
What Do Identity Theft Protection Services Really Do?
14 features of Identity Theft Protection Monitoring and the Most Important Feature!
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by Brian Thompson | Oct 8, 2019 | Identity Theft
I am certain you have heard the warnings that Public WiFi is putting you at risk. We all have heard this but how is a Public WiFi connection leaving you vulnerable to identity theft?
It makes sense to explain WiFi here. Statistically, 3 out of 4 people have used public WiFi in the last 12 months. Most of those people do not know a WiFi signal is just radio waves. Now, think about your car radio, all you have to do is tune the radio to listen in right?! Similarly, with a little know-how, anyone can “listen in” to what you are doing on an unprotected WiFi connection.
The Threats are Everywhere!
Threats are everywhere, not just at Starbucks or your local hometown coffee shop. We see access increasing from coffee shops, hotels, and airports to doctors’ offices, businesses, and retail stores. With good intentions, these locations are attempting to provide better service and access to in-store coupons. WiFi great service for creating incentives or simply a way to make waiting more enjoyable at the doctor’s office. Keep in mind, though, once you have made that connection that same connection can automatically connect anytime you are near that WiFi connection again if your settings are not set up properly on your phone or laptop.
BUT, the WiFi at my local shop has a password.
Yes, passwords are important and some businesses provide their customers with access only through a password. BUT, do you know the guy sitting next to you at your local coffee shop? Maybe, maybe not and he is on the same WiFi you are with the same password provided on that cool, rustic, hometown chalkboard with the clever password. Technically you are on a password-protected WiFi connection but again you still are sharing a connection with strangers who may or may not be “tuning in” to your information. Some places don’t do anything and leave the WiFi wide open and you could connect without even knowing it… again depending on your devise settings.
So what can someone see when they “Tune In”?
Your private information is exposed. Usernames, Passwords, Social Media account details, and everything else important to you that is on your device can be stolen from you out of thin air. The Harris Poll asked individuals about using free public WiFi and 88% of those surveyed mentioned Identity Theft as a potential issue. 39% of the people admitted to connecting to and transmitting sensitive information over public WiFi despite the risks.
What can you do about it?
We all have enjoyed and become accustomed to the convenience of a public WiFi connection. However, the risk is too high to ignore so there are a few things you can do.
- Do not intentionally connect to public WiFi or open password WiFi. Just don’t connect to these networks and you will certainly be less likely to feel the effects of Identity Theft or Breach.
- Change your settings on your device to ask you if you want to connect to available WiFi.
- Use your telephone hotspot and make certain it is password protected.
- Use a VPN, Virtual Private Network, preferably one that automatically recognizes a public WiFi connection and turns on. This option allows you to connect more freely while encrypting your data so that no one can intercept or even see your WiFi signal.
Public WiFi is putting you at risk, more available than ever and extremely convenient. Extremely convenient for the knucklehead in the corner booth just tuning in to your WiFi signal too. If we are serious about protecting ourselves from Identity Theft and Breaches, we need to take precautions. Fix the settings on your phone, use your phone hotspot or best of all use a VPN to protect any connection you choose to use.
ID Theft Increases Stress and Fatigue
Learn how you can protect your company and employees at defend-id.com
by Brian Thompson | Sep 19, 2019 | Identity Theft
Effecting all ages, from small towns to big cities to the entire world, Identity theft can reach everyone. Often considered a victimless crime, ID theft increases stress and fatigue and is definitely not victimless. Data shows that yes institutions are impacted but the impact on individuals, family, co-workers, employers, and friends is great. The impact on the individual is immediate, causing stress and emotional trauma that causes a domino of negative events personally, professionally, and socially.
The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), a nationally recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established to support victims of identity theft released the initial findings of its The Aftermath®: The Non-Economic Impacts of Identity Theft victim impact survey.
A very interesting account that goes beyond the known financial indicators caused by identity theft. Instead, the report explores the emotional, physical and psychological impacts experienced by victims of identity crime.
The survey participants were actual ID theft victims who contacted the ITRC for assistance in 2017. The survey found that “many of the respondents experienced negative emotional impacts that resulted in real physical consequences. As an example, of the individuals that responded, 77.3 percent reported increased stress levels and 54.5 percent had increased fatigue or decreased energy.”
“Year after year, The Aftermath® survey continues to show that the effects of identity theft are far-reaching: impacting victims’ general emotional and physical well-being, their relationships with others and even how they engage within their work or school environments,” said Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center. “As we work with industry and other stakeholders, it’s crucial to continue to share the emotional, physical and socio-economic impact findings with them so they better understand the totality of the ramifications of this crime, as well as providing encouragement for them to elicit change within their organizations.”
According to the survey, findings included that due to their identity theft incident:
- nearly 46 percent of those surveyed said they felt like they couldn’t trust family
- and 55 percent stated they had trust issues with friends.
- Respondents admitted the identity theft incident caused problems at their place of employment (32 percent) and at school (8 percent).
To access the preliminary findings of The Aftermath® for 2018, you can go to https://www.idtheftcenter.org/aftermath2018/.
Data breaches continue to impact the total number of ID theft victims, affecting more Americans than ever (16.7 million) became a victim of ID theft last year. It is no longer an option to just trust that any entity will hold my information safely. ID Theft Increases Stress and Fatigue, and we need to have a plan for when our information is used fraudulently. Read “What Do Identity Theft Protection Services Really Do? to determine if a program makes sense for you.
by Brian Thompson | Jul 30, 2019 | Breach
In the recently released 2019 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), Verizon found that 43% of breaches affect small businesses and that a third (32%) of breaches involved phishing, a form of social engineering.
Verizon built this report upon the analysis of 41,686 security incidents and 2,013 confirmed data breaches, the Verizon DBIR digs into the overall threat landscape, the actors, actions, and assets that are present in breaches.
The 2019 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) Key Takeaways (please see here) highlights 12 key takeaways including:
- Financial gain remains the most common motivate behind data breaches (71%)
- 43% of breaches affect small businesses
A third (32%) of breaches involved phishing- The nation-state threat is increasing, with 23% of breaches by nation-state actors
- More than half (56%) of data breaches took months or longer to discover
- Ransomware remains a major threat and is the second most common type of malware reported
- Criminals increasingly target Business Executives with social engineering attacks.
- Crypto-mining malware accounts for less than 5% of data breaches, despite the publicity it didn’t make the top ten malware listed in the report
- Espionage is a key motivation behind a quarter of data breaches
- 60 million records breached due to misconfigured cloud service buckets
- Continued reduction in payment card point of sale breaches
- The hacktivist threat remains low, the increase in the DBIR 2012 report appears to be a one-off spike
An interesting takeaway:
Cyber attackers target the network, where executives are “six times more likely to be a target of social engineering than they were only a year ago; and, C-level executives are 12 times more likely to be the target.”
This means that Business Email Compromises (BEC) are proving successful for ID theft criminals and cyber thieves.
Verizon stated that BEC breaches represented 248 (18%) confirmed breaches out of the 2,013 confirmed data breaches. In addition, Risk-Based Security recently announced the release of its Q1 2019 Data Breach QuickView Report highlighting how over 1,900 data breach events — exposing over 1.9 billion records — were reported in the first three months on 2019.
According to Risk Based Security, “no other first quarter has seen this level of activity, putting 2019 on pace to be yet another ‘worst year on record’ for the number of publicly reported breaches.”
The report found “that 67.6% of records compromised in Q1 were due to exposure of sensitive data on the Internet.”
If you are a small business, considering Identity Theft Protection as an Employee Benefit or a breach readiness and response program is worth considering!
