News Sources Point Out We Are All Vulnerable to Identity Theft

Conduct a word search for “identity theft” on Google or Yahoo News and you will find new stories being released every day.  Stories about the latest identity theft statistics, you will read about an identity thief that was caught and the terrible harm caused and you’ll see stories on how aggressive these thieves are becoming.

However, the one thing that stands out throughout all of these stories is identity theft impacts all of us.  It doesn’t matter where you live, how much you protect your personal information or how careful you are identity theft is an equal opportunity crime with the ability to impact everyone it attacks. 

The problem is our personal information is every where.  You can’t control what happens when a thief steals your identity from a corporation across the country or from a local office in your community.   

All you can do is be proactive in how you protect your identity should the unthinkable happen.  Proactive means you have purchased whole identity protection to cover all of your identity including complete identity recovery back to pretheft status. 

As I have stated in prior entries, popular credit protection companies don’t protect your whole identity.  Credit protection is just one-third of your identity.

Don’t Fall for the Latest Windows Security Threat

CA security has sent out another advisory.  This one involves a fake Windows Security Center.  This one looks nearly identical to the actual Windows Securiity Center. 

This latest threat is installed by a Trojan and wrongfully warns the user of non-existent infections in the fake security center. 

Go to the CA Security Advisory Research Blog for more information.

As I have stated before, it is necessary to make sure you have professional grade managed protection on your computer to guard against this threat.  Make sure you computer security is up-to-date and your computer is scanned every day.

Even the French Pres Isn’t Safe from Hackers

Apparently small sums of money were taken from French President Nicolas Sarkosy’s bank account after crooks gained access to his online passwords.  Get the full story at Sophos News.   Sarkosy is one of several top profile figures to be hacked.  Others include Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin who’s e-mail account was compromised and Presidential candidate Barak Obama a victim of a milicious spam campaign.

Make sure you computer has professional grade protection to guard against rising spam, phishing and malware attacks.

Have You Fallin For a Fake Antivirus Program?

I knew there were fake antivirus programs available on the Internet.  However, I didn’t know the problem had grown this large:  Security research firm PandaLabs recently announced 30 million Internet users have fallen victim to fake antivirus programs. 

Users are duped by seeing the popup sofware windows that claim the machine is infected and needs protection urgently.  The pop ups may threaten blue screen, and other problems.

Users can get infected with this fake antivirus program in the usual ways including opening e-mail attachments from unknown e-mail addresses or visiting infected web sites,

Unfortunately about three percent of the users on the Internet fall for this scam.  Please share this information with everyone you know.

This is a two pronged problem.  The first is the fake antivirus programs that infect the computer downloading questionable content from peer to peer networks.  The second is the user has given out a credit card number and other personal information that is now available to the thief. 

 How do you protect yourself against fake antivirus programs?  I suggest the following:

1. Make sure you have a professional grade computer protection service updated and scanned.
2. Don’t open e-mail attachments.  In particular, e-mail attachments with “.scr,” “.com,” and “.exe” file extensions are likely malicious
3. Don’t download files from peer 2 peer programs like Livewire and Toreent.
4. If you have these symptoms, do not purchase the fake software or provide personal information.  It is best to run a scan with your known computer security provider or call their tech support for help.

Do You Really Need Identity Theft Protection?

Recently I have read several newspaper articles from so called experts on the subject of identity theft protection.  These experts tell their audience that identity theft insurance is a waste of money and there isn’t hardly anything they do that you can’t do yourself. 

I agree with their premise that those popular advertised credit protection companies’ services are a waste of time and money.  However, identity theft protection should be about two things:

1. Total identity protection monitoring – 67% of all identity theft occurs in areas other than credit
2. Preventing the effects of identity theft once identity theft happens

Depending on who you believe, anywhere from 8 to 12 million people in the United States will lose their identity this year.  Much of the theft will come in areas like medical fraud, checking accounts, mortgage company, doctor or hospital and more.  As many columnists have stated in their articles, credit protection won’t stop this crime.

In order to protect your identity you need whole identity protection with a company that includes whole identity theft restoration back to pre-theft level.  A company that does the recovery work for you.  I’m sure the 8 – 12 million people who spent perhaps hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars dealing with companies that treat them guilty until proven innocent would have loved to have a true identity theft protection company restore their identity back to pre-theft status by doing the work for them.

The effects of identity theft go far beyond money.  The Identity Theft Resource Center states that many victims go through emotional and family issues including depression, marital problems and possibly divorce.  There is a feeling of being violated much like a victim of rape.  And, there is a feeling of helplessness.  Victims feel like its them against the world against the world as they try to resolve this problem alone.

Identity theft is a nasty, dirty, terrible thing to happen to individuals and family.  It is not something that you can protect against because your personal information is everywhere.  There newspaper columnists owe it to their readers to show them how to protect against the nasty effects of identity theft.

I recently completed a free report, “The Truth About Identity Theft Protection,” to clarify these issues and show there is a solution to this problem.  I am willing to send you a copy of my report.  I am sure you will find the information eye opening.  Email me at warren@completeinternetprotection.com

Is Your PC a Tool For Cyber Terrorism?

Here’s a story I discovered earlier today titled, “Militants Attack Al-Arabiya Website” with a subheadline that states, “Cyber warfare forces the website to change its domain name.”

Many people don’t realize that organized criminals and terrorists are committing cyber crimes every day.  This is one example of the kind of extortion and crime these groups are capable of committing.  The scary part is that these groups can use botnets that they either rent or develop themselves for cyber terrorism.  The botnets can be made up of PCs from innocent people like you and me without our knowledge and used as weapons by these cyber terrorists. 

According to Vint Cerf, Founder of the Internet, about 150 million PCs currently connected to the Internet are part of Botnets – networks of PCs under hacker control.  More than 170,000 people lose control of thier computers to hackers every day according to Red Herring. 

No question these are alarming facts.  We shouldn’t be surprised, I guess, hackers have been breaking into computers for years.  However, there has been a shift in recent years from targeting major corporations and the government to homes and small businesses because they are easier targets and it yields a lot of money for criminals. 

What are the results of this big shift?  V. McNiven, advisor to U.S. Dept. of Treasury has stated that the proceeds from cyber-crime are now greater than the sale of illegal drugs. 

Hackers rent these botnets to identity thieves and other criminals to spew out spam and phishing e-mails.  Many of these computers store child pornography and other things that the criminal doesn’t want to be found on his or her computer.  Still more are using these computers for extortion and cyber terrorism.

This news story is one example of the kind of extortion and crime these groups are capable of committing.  The scary part is that these groups can use botnets that they either rent or develop themselves for cyber terrorism.  The botnets can be made up of PCs owned by innocent people like you and me without our knowledge and used as weapons by these cyber terrorists. 

Most people don’t realize that over-the-counter and free computer protection software doesn’t protect against this kind of villan invading their computer.   The best solution is professional grade anti-virus, anti-spyward and firewall combined with a managed service to make sure the PC is up to date and protecting securely. 

Make sure your computer is scanned daily to protect against the kinds of tools hackers use to take control of a PC and turn it into a bot.

New Phishing Article Published

Phishing has become such a huge problem.  Sophos Labs reports over a 64 percent increase in phishing e-mails from January 2006 and January 2007. 

In my article, “Phishing Attacks: Ten Simple Steps to Avoid Becoming a Victim,” I tell you important steps you can take to protect yourself from this evil crime.   

You can find other articles I have written at Warren’s Security Articles.   

Identity Theft Isn’t Always About Money

The following post is sad, but has a funny side to it too. 

Identity theft isn’t always about stealing money.  Sometimes there’s something that means more to the person committing the crime. 

Take for example a 33 year old lady living in Green Bay.  She was charged with identity theft last September after she enrolled at a high school pretending to be her 15 year old daughter.  Her daughter, by the way, actually lives in Nevada.    The lady has a history of identity theft, however, this time her motivation in this case was to fulfill a lifelong dream of becoming a cheerleader.  She actually signed up and attended practices and made the squad according to school officials.  This dispite the fact that some people had noticed she looked a little older than the other girls. 

Wow!  That’s weird!  Really weird.

Welcome to Personal Security Defender

Welcome to Personal Security Defender.  I’m Warren Franklin.  I’ve been working in the personal security business for four years.  Prior to that I worked in the radio broadcast industry.  I left the broadcast world because I found a new love in personal security including computer security and identity theft protection. 

Recently, I stated a  free cybercrime and identity theft prevention newsletter.  It comes out twice a month.  You are welcome to sign up and get your copy.  Just go to www.completeinternetprotection.com and sign up.  The Web site also contains valuable information about cybercrime and computer security.

My goal is to share important information that you can use to protect yourself from cyber criminals, identity thieves and any one else who might have an interest in doing harm to you and your family.

There are so many dangers in the world today.  Criminals don’t seem to have any limits.  So, it makes sense that the only one that is going to make sure you and your family are protected is yourself.  It’s my hope to deliver timely information you can use to guard against the bad guys of this world.

You are welcome to share this blog with people you believe can use this information, too.