Identity Theft and how you can help protect yourself while on-line

This is a very complicated topic and I will try my best to make it easy to understand.  We are not going to cover everything here, just the basics.  You have to keep in mind though that identity theft is not new.  It has been around a long time before the Internet became common place.

First, a little example of how easy it is to steal information.

At a previous job we were trying to look at the computer systems and check how vulnerable they were to the staff and people connecting in using the Internet.  So, we went looking for a professional “hacker”.  We had a few people and companies apply, but the one I was most interested in was one individual.  This person while waiting for me brought in a laptop to the meeting room and connected to the network. After we exchanged hand shakes he asked me if I knew how much the President of the company made.  I said no.  He asked me if I wanted to know.

Here, this guy, within 10 minutes, used a password cracker and broke into the payroll system in the company.  Out of all of the applicants, who do you think I hired?

What do I mean by “Identity Theft is Not New”?  Let me give you a couple of non-computer example of Identity Theft. 

Have you ever eaten in a restaurant and used a credit card to pay for the bill?  If the answer is Yes, then you have become vulnerable to identity theft.  The waiter or waitress could easily copy the numbers down with the expiration date and ordered something over the phone.  They could have copied it, and in the past, they could have kept the carbons that made copies of the transactions.

Have you ever thrown away bank statements or bills away at home without shredding them?  If you have, again you were vulnerable from anyone that could go through the trash, especially recycled paper.

Have you ever given out any personal information over the phone without verifying the person on the other phone is who they say they are?  Again, if you answered Yes, you became vulnerable.

Have you ever kept your car unlocked with your insurance card and registration card in the glove compartment?  If you answered Yes, you again might have been a victim.

What do these examples mean?  It means that you should be aware of your activities on and off line.

How big is the problem on line?  An organization called Consumer Sentinel works with various government agencies to help monitor what is going on in the areas of theft and security.  Below are their 2002 findings:

Between January and December 2002, Consumer Sentinel, the complaint database developed and maintained by the FTC, received 380,103 consumer fraud and identity theft complaints. Consumers reported losses from fraud of more than $343 million.

What steps can I take to help protect myself while on line?

A lot of this is covered in an article in my Ebook “Computers 101:  The Questions You Were Afraid to Ask”.  In this article we will cover how to tell when you are safe. 

E-Mail and Chat Room

The first thing you have to be aware of is not to give any personal information in an e-mail, or in a chat room.  This means, social security number, passwords, and credit card number.  I would also be leery if you do not know the recipient when giving your home phone number and possibly your address, especially if you have children at home.  Having your phone number I can easily find out your address on line, and having your address, getting your phone number.  With either of these I can instantaneously get directions to your home.

Individuals who want to steal information use a software program to help them with their cause.  They look for certain types of sequences, such as credit card (16 digits), social security numbers (9 digits), phone number (10 digits), passwords (usually 6 to 8 random digits), etc.  E-mail and chat room are un-secure and transmitted in what is called clear text, meaning that anyone can read it.  There is a security “digital” signature, but both parties have to have it turned on in order to read the other person’s message.  If there is enough interest, I will write an article on how to set that up.

Web Sites

This is a very big topic and a lot of this is covered in my Ebook.  This section will cover:

Cookies

The bottom line is that when you visit sites, many of them place a file on your PC called a cookie.  A cookie is information about you, especially if you have to log onto a site, or if you filled out a form on site.  If you use Internet Explorer and Netscape, cookies are placed on your PC.  It is not uncommon, over time to have a thousand or more cookies on your PC.  Some cookies are good, some are bad.  To delete the cookies currently on your system, go to the Tools menu in Internet Explorer and select Internet Options from the menu, as shown below:

After clicking on Internet Options, the following window appears:

In the middle of the window is a button called Delete Cookies.  Click on it and the following window appears:

Click on the OK button and the cookies will be deleted that are used by Internet Explorer, not Netscape.  Just close the Internet Options window when it is complete.

Spyware

In my Ebook, “Computers 101:  The Questions You Were Afraid to Ask” is a number of articles on Spyware.  This is the number one cause for pop up ads and slowness using Internet Explorer.  Have you ever responded to an ad on the Internet that dealt with financing your home.  In a couple of days, you get more and more pop up ads that have loan information.  Or, how about visiting adult only sites.  You start receiving pop up ads, emails and even while in AOL Instant Messenger, or MSN Instant Messenger, the ads appear.  This is due to Spyware.  This file or files placed on your PC is monitoring what you fill out as well as where you go on line. 

These files should be routinely eliminated off of your PC and you should be pro-active and prevent them from going onto the PC to begin with.

I recommend the following products to eliminate Spyware and pop up ads:

Pop-Up Stopper will work all of the time.  Ad-aware and Spy-Bot will need to run manually at least once a week for the free version.  The pay version prevents Spyware from being installed on the PC.

Temporary Internet Files

Whenever you are online almost every site that you visit places temporary files on your PC.  The next time you go to that site it will load faster because some of the bigger files are on the PC.  This is called cache.  You may have thousands of these files on your PC.  To empty the Internet files, go to the Tools menu and select Internet Options.  The following window will appear:

Click on the button in the middle of the window called Delete Files and the following window will appear:

You want to make sure that the Delete all offline content is checked, and then click the OK button.  Depending on how often you do this will depend on how long it will take.  Your mouse will turn into an hour glass.  It make take a couple of minutes.

When it is complete click the OK button and the window will close.

Secure and Un-Secure Sites

It is fairly easy to tell a “secure” site from an “un-secure” site.  A secure site has the following characteristics:

The address starts with https, instead of http as shown below.

The bottom of the Internet Explorer window has a lock on it as shown below.  If it was un-secure the lock would not be visible.

The other way to tell a secure site is if there is a certificate of some kind displayed on the site.  For example, Verisign, probably the most used is shown below:

Sometime a certificate will come up and ask you to proceed.  An example of one is below.

With both of these forms, your data that you enter and receive is encrypted and cannot be viewed by anyone else.  These certifications actually look at what your PC address is and authenticates your user name and password.  These sites are the most secure.

If the site is not secure, then any information you type in can be seen by anyone.  That is why most email lists only ask for your first name, maybe last name and email address.

What can I do to protect my system at home?

The US government has a site that deals with additional strategies to help protect the home user.  There site which outlines the strategies is located at http://www.whitehouse.gov/pcipb/.

Some strategies you should consider are:

Internet Security

The all encompass Internet Security program I recommend is Norton Internet Security and it has all of the functions mentioned above.  You can go to www.symantec.com for more information, or buy it from here:  Norton Internet Security 2004 Professional

The Professional version is about $20 more, but it is like one stop shopping.  You do not need to buy any separate components.

Virus Protection

There are many out there.  Buying the package is one thing.  Keeping it up to date is another.  Please, for your own protection do not forget to keep the product current.  The two top ones are Norton Virus Protection and McAfee.  Best Buy:

Firewall

A Firewall is basically a hardware and or software device that helps prevent people from accessing your PC.  If you use DSL or Cable modem it is not unheard of to have your PC “hit” by other PCs 15 or more times a day.  A Firewall prevents this from happening.

I personally recommend having both a hardware and software solution.  The software solution is Norton Internet Security mentioned above, or Norton Firewall, which can be obtained here:

Norton Personal Firewall 2004 - Windows

The hardware firewall solution that I recommend is probably the easiest to setup and it is from a manufacturer called D-Link.  They have three versions

The four port wired is below:

 Instant Broadband EtherFast Cable/DSL Firewall Router with 4-Port Switch - BEFSX41

There is an article on firewalls, terminology, and how to set them up in the Ebook “Computers 101:  The Questions You Were Afraid to Ask”

Passwords

Passwords are very important and you should never click on a check box on any site that says Remember Password.  This is the number one mistake and is done mainly by being lazy.  If someone went on your PC without you knowing it and you had it remember your password, you just gave them 100% access.  Would you give someone your PIN number for an ATM machine.  I think not.

There is a whole article on passwords and how to select an effective one in my Ebook.

Security Updates and Patches

This is very important to keep up to date.  The majority of PCs that I visit have not been up to date, or never updated at all.  Again, exposure to your PC is vulnerable.  There is a 35 page article on this and how to do it and when in my Ebook “Computers 101:  The Questions You Were Afraid to Ask”

Disconnect from the Internet when not in use

If you connect using a dial up modem, please make sure you are disconnected when you are not online.  If you use cable or DSL modems and you DO NOT have a hardware and software firewall in place, then it is in your best interest to turn the power off when you are not on line.  The software products that these individuals use to steal information can detect thousands of computers in minutes.  You do not want to be one of them.

Other Questions You should ask