11.1 million adults were victims of identity fraud. 11.1 million people, that's a lot of people! That's almost 5 percent of the total population of the United States.
If that isn't scary enough, the monetary damage from all this fraud was $54 BILLION. That's an average of $4,841 per victim.
According to this survey, small business owners suffered fraud at one-and-a-half times the normal rate.
I see the potential for this to get worst and not better. It's not like all the data we have floating around the web, our multiple PCs, our home networks, our phones, and our wallets is going to decrease over time. This makes it more important than ever that you and I assess our data security on at least a yearly basis.
I urge you to preach the mantra of digital security to your family and friends.
After all, I don't think any of us can afford $54 billion.
Here is a link to an article that tells you just how to protect yourself from fraud.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/protect_and_defend_32_ways_secure_your_digital_life
On the same note, I recently read an article titled "FCC Probes Google."
Here are some key points of the article:
- At issue is Google's admission in May 2010 that its Street View cars had mistakenly gathered data, including email addresses, passwords, and URLs, in the process of photographically mapping the world's streets.
- This information was inadvertently collected from unprotected Wi-Fi networks.
- The FCC has announced that it's launching a probe to determine whether the unauthorized data collection violated the Communications Act.
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