How to Prevent Identity Theft.

Identity thieves use many different ways to steal your information. They use low-tech methods (stealing your wallet or even eavesdropping at key moments) or they use sophisticated Internet scams to rob people of their sensitive personal data.

That's why it's so important to protect any documents, banking cards, or sensitive numbers that can be used by thieves for their personal gain.

The following are a basic guideline to help you reduce the risk of identity theft, whether you are online or offline:

• Monitor your credit closely. Your credit report contains information about your credit accounts and bill paying history so you can be tipped off when someone is impersonating you. Watch for suspicious signs, like accounts you did not open. You can also consider identity protection services, which range from credit monitoring to database scanning, for extra security.
  
• Keep records of your financial data and transactions. Review your statements regularly for any activity or charges you did not make.
  
• Install security software (firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware software) and keep it up-to-date as a safety measure against online intrusions. Use an updated Web browser to make sure you're taking advantage of its current safety features.
  
• Be wary of e-mail attachments and links in both e-mail and instant messages. Use caution even when the message appears to come from a safe sender, as identity information in messages can easily be spoofed.
  
• Store sensitive data securely. Just as you keep sensitive paper documents under lock and key, secure sensitive online information. This can be done through file encryption software.
  
• Shred documents (both paper and electronic) that contain personal or financial information before discarding them. This prevents dumpster diving and, in the online world, the ability for hackers to bypass information that has not been permanently deleted from your computer.
  
• Protect your PII. Be cautious about giving out your personally identifiable information (PII) to anyone. Find out why the information is needed, and if it's absolutely necessary to give out. Be careful about the details you provide about yourself online, such as on social networking sites.
  
• Stay alert to the latest scams. Awareness and caution are effective methods to counter fraud. Share security tips you learn with your friends and family.
  

You may ask, "What do I do if I think I may have already given my information to a scammer?" Helpful sites like the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) have you covered! Refer to the ITRC's fact sheet, " I Gave My Info to a Scam Artist, Now What" to find out the immediate steps to take, tips for dealing with authorities, and additional resources. On the ITRC's website, you'll also find specific information to help guide you through a variety of identity theft issues — including safety tips and tactics aimed specifically at college students, job seekers, and travelers.

Hopefully you find this helpful & I think this is Keith signing off. Have A Happy New Year.

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Adobe exploits continue to be found.

Adobe Reader has been hit again. Hackers love Adobe. Adobe has over the last several years claimed many of the top security vulnerabilities due to its rich format which gives hackers many easy routes to take over computers. The following link give you the full story.


http://www.dailytech.com/EWeek+Ads+Infect+Users+Thanks+to+Adobe+Flaw/article14407.htm


If Adobe scares you after reading the above article, here is a link to an alternative called Sumatra PDF reader.

http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/free-pdf-reader.html

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Google, Microsoft Duped Into Serving Malware Ads.

Hey, what do you know, I'm not posting something about Facebook. LOL.

It appears that Google's advertising subsidiary DoubleClick and Microsoft’s MSN ads service both have admitted to falling for a clever scheme by some nasty black hat hackers. Malicious banner ads for both services were found to be trying to perform drive-by download exploitation and install malware on users' machines. See even the big boys can get scammed. Click on the following link to find out more.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=20373

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Facebook Places - good or bad?

I know that this post is a little late, but I had to do my research first.

Several months ago Facebook unveiled a location-based application that allows users to instantly log where they are via GPS, and display the results on Facebook in a manner very similar to Foursquare (www.foursquare.com)
People using the Places application are also asked to tag any 'friends' that may be in the same location, with Facebook Photo.
Facebook was keen to address privacy concerns with the new application. Anyone can remove their name from a posting, and settings can be adjusted to limit the number of people who receive the Places notifications, but how many of us really pay attention to the "Settings" tab.

Foursquare counts around 2.5 million users in its base, Facebook has 500 million. This means that Facebook is positioned to introduce the benefits of location sharing to a new and much wider audience, Don't worry though, every single one of the 500 million on Facebook are honest.
In an effort to protect privacy issues, Facebook has decided to set privacy settings to 'friends only'. I don't know about you, but there are a few "friends" I don't want knowing where I'm at. LOL.

Seriously though, there is a difference between true Friends & Facebook friends. Most people have 100 or more Facebook friends, but how many would you trust with watching your house while your out of town or even picking your kids up from school because you are running a little late?
Tim could have been very cool back in High School, but now he uses all that time he spent on Saturday nights down in his parents basement on the computer to steal peoples personal & financial information. He then sells it to his old Dungeons & Dragons buddy who is a B & E guy.
If Tim wants your info, he will get it, so don't make it easy for him.

I have noticed alot of my Facebook friends using this app to post their location. "John is at Walmart and probably won't be home for a while and since he is single and has no dog, no one is watching his stuff. And by the way, check an earlier post and you will see John in a picture playing "Call to Duty - Black Ops" on his Xbox 360 on his brand new 52 inch plasma screen TV." What do you know, John also listed his full address on his profile page. He may even have left a fully fueled moving truck in the driveway.

As with anything, privacy is one of the most important things to guard. My advice, whether you chose to take it or not, is to be careful what and when you post stuff. Something like, "I just got back from Walmart" is ok, but just don't go to Walmart at the same time and on the same day each week. That is called a routine and makes it easy to plan a visit to your home.
If you go on vacation or just a day trip, tell your Facebook friends about it when you get back and not when, where, and how long you are going to be gone before you even leave.

As always, I hope this helped or at least made you rethink your Facebooking practices.

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Armor for Social Butterflies

Those of you that have followed me from the beginning (about a year), know that I'm on Facebook, but I don't fully trust Facebook. See the "Facebook" section on my blog page for more info (6 posts). Don't get me wrong, I know Facebook isn't the only one out there, it's just the one I have the most experience with.

In my ever continuing quest to protect myself as well as pass on tips I come across, check out the attached link for some great tips on how to stay safe on social networking sites. Hope you find it as informative as I did.

One last thought, only 16 more days until Christmas and it still isn't too late to order a custom built computer from yours truley. LOL.

Have a Merry Christmas & A Joyous New Year.

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