Identity Theft Expert Speaker Protection Prevention Resource Blog

Identity Theft Expert Speaker Robert Siciliano www.IDTheftSecurity.com Comments;

Most of the comments by those polled below are legitimate concerns fraught with desperation and  lack of understanding of the problem.  The proverbial cat is out of the bag. Privacy is dead. Privacy is an illusion. While the masses say they want privacy, the reality is they want cheap goods and convenience. People will give up all their privacy for a free candy bar. While government can and should redact personal data and do what they can to sure up “private information”, the data is already out there. It is up to the individual to understand this and manage their circumstances.

The next generation is growing up via social networks. “Privacy” will be associated with words or phrases such as 8-track tape or “No Doc Mortgage”.

So when someone calls you with your dossier and they use this to extract even more data or to threaten you in some way know what is happening and how. Even if every SSN was redacted, that wouldnt stop identity theft.

HERE;

“Panel proposes expanded privacy in public records”

Iowa governments would have greater authority to black out personal information from public records under proposals recommended by a legislative committee.

Advocates say the proposals would protect citizens from identity theft.

But opponents say the unintended results could be alarming, particularly if the public is unable to differentiate between, for example, a convicted sex offender and another citizen with the same name.

“The public has more to fear from government records containing information about them of which they are unaware than the release of information pertaining to them,” said Bill Monroe, executive director of the Iowa Newspaper Association.

Lawmakers formed the Identity Theft Prevention Study Committee, which met in November, to consider how the release of personal information in Iowa could make residents vulnerable to identity theft.

Public concern heightened this year when privacy advocates complained about a land records site, IowaLandRecords.org. The Social Security numbers of thousands of Iowans from all 99 counties were listed on the site, including those of Gov. Chet Culver and Secretary of State Michael Mauro.

Administrators of the site quickly shut down the ability to view details of the records after the advocates pointed out the problem. The group says removing personal information from all the records - called redaction - will cost the state as much as $2.3 million, which includes $500,000 to update its computer programs.

Culver said in an interview this week that he agrees steps should be taken to redact personal information from public records that can be used to steal Iowans’ identities.

However, he said he was not sure how the state would pay for such efforts. County recorders, for example, have proposed increasing an electronic filing fee from $1 to $3 to pay for the redaction effort.

“I think protecting individuals’ identity is important,” Culver said. “Once it gets to the level of security risk, we should take steps to limit how far we go in terms of disclosing things like Social Security numbers.”

The committee made 11 recommendations, several of which would give governments more power to remove Social Security or bank account numbers.

Sen. Steve Kettering, R-Lake View, a member of the study committee, said there is no simple answer to the problem. Lawmakers must find the appropriate balance between protecting identities and maintaining public records that protect the public through transparent government.

“There isn’t an easy solution, and that’s the hard part,” said Kettering, who noted that detailed records are critical in his profession as president of Farmers State Bank in Lake View.

Open-records advocates generally agree that some sensitive information like credit card numbers should not be released. The problem arises if governments redact information such as dates of birth, addresses or other unique identifiers, said Kathleen Richardson of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council.

Richardson said lawmakers need to establish how frequently identity theft occurs through public records. She believes the problem is rare.

“I think there needs to be a demonstrated need of why we need to vacuum public records,” Richardson said. “We also have to carefully consider what our definition of personal information is and make sure it’s not so broad that it wipes out too much information.”

Sen. Steve Warnstadt, D-Sioux City, said the committee has tried to be sensitive to the concerns brought forward by openrecords advocates when making its recommendations. The recommendations will likely be used to help draft proposals during the 2009 legislative session, which begins Jan. 12.

“The point of this is not to restrict access. The point is to prevent identity theft and personal information from being disclosed from people who don’t have a legitimate reason to have that information,” said Warnstadt, the committee co-chairman.

Robert Siciliano
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e-mail: Robert@IDTheftSecurity.com
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Identity Theft Expert Speaker Robert Siciliano www.IDTheftSecurity.com discusses Health center workers used deceased patient info to apply for loans.

Medical identity theft  means lots of things depending on how the person was victimized. Generally something needs to impact the person medical record. In other cases it may impact their health insurance. The thief may gain insurance money, drugs or medical procedures.

Below is a case that resulted in financial identity theft due to health care professionals having access to deceased clients records. The insidiousness of the crime victimizes the family members after their loved-one has departed. Leaving them to clean up the mess. In the case below the perps got greedy and were caught. If they werent so greedy they may have got away with it over an extended period of time.

This case represents a flawed system that relys on Social Security Numbers as identifiers and makes no effort to properly identify and authenticate the borrower.

By Valryn Warren

Staff Writer

Friday, December 26, 2008

ENGLEWOOD — Two Samaritan North Health Center employees indicted on identity theft and money laundering charges used information from deceased patients to apply for online loans, police said Friday, Dec. 26.

Linda McDermott-Dorsey and Lisa Kidd, both of Trotwood, were indicted Dec. 23. McDermott-Dorsey is charged with 11 counts of money laundering and one count of identity theft, Kidd with 19 counts of money laundering and one of identity theft.

Englewood Police Sgt. Mike Lang said Samaritan North Health Center did an internal investigation and then called police, after being contacted by an on-line loan company the women are accused to trying to swindle.

“It was really a case of due diligence by the hospital and online companies monitoring suspicious transactions from the same location,” he said. “When we conducted our investigation, the families of the deceased were unaware that anything like this had happened.”

Lang said the women allegedly obtained a little more than $7,000 using information from 24 people over about a five week period, May-June 2007. They checked newspaper obituaries and used the hospital computer system to gather the personal information of deceased persons who had been Good Samaritan Hospital patients, Lang said.

The money laundering charges stem from online bank accounts opened and used to transfer funds. No court date has been set.

Identity Theft Expert Speaker Robert Siciliano discusses FTC Issues Report on Social Security Numbers and Identity Theft. Agency Makes Five Recommendations to Reduce Role of SSNs in Identity Theft

All of this below makes total sense. And each recommendation is a step in the right direction to solve the problem. But until all citizens are properly identified and authenticated, the problem wont go away.  Currently there isnt any accountability. With full authentication, accountability becomes possible. Further, the credit bureaus and others relying on readily accessible SSNs are exasperating the problem. Fraud alerts across the board requiring all credit applicants to authenticate will begin to solve the problem. www.IDTheftSecurity.com

HERE:

The Federal Trade Commission issued a report today recommending five measures to help prevent Social Security numbers from being used for identity theft. Principal among the report’s recommendations is that Congress consider taking action to strengthen the procedures that private-sector organizations use to authenticate their customers’ identities.

“Identity theft continues to be a major problem in this country, with victims numbering in the millions each year and out-of-pocket losses (primarily to businesses) in the billions of dollars,” the report states.

The FTC report states that adopting nationwide standards for how businesses and other organizations verify the identity of new and existing customers would make it harder for identity thieves to use SSNs and other stolen information to consummate their fraud.

“The first step in minimizing the role of SSNs in identity theft is to limit the demand for SSNs by making it more difficult for thieves to use them to open new accounts, access existing accounts, or obtain other benefits or services,” the FTC states in the report. Currently, the only private-sector organizations subject to nationwide authentication standards are financial institutions regulated by the federal banking agencies. The FTC’s report recommends that Congress consider establishing similar standards to cover all private-sector entities that maintain consumer accounts. Such standards would require organizations to adopt reasonable procedures for authenticating customers, but also would allow them to adopt a program that is compatible with their size and the nature of their business, the report states.

The FTC report also recommends that steps be taken to reduce the unnecessary display and transmission of SSNs, but noted that such restrictions must be approached carefully. A number of important functions in the U.S. economy depend on use of and access to SSNs, and the report concluded that overly restrictive attempts to limit the availability of SSNs could unintentionally curtail those functions. Finally, the report recommends steps to improve data security, increase outreach to consumers and businesses on the protection of SSNs, and enhance coordination and information-sharing among organizations that routinely use SSNs.

The Commission vote to issue the report was 4-0. The report was developed pursuant to a recommendation of the President’s Identity Theft Task Force, which was established in May 2006 to develop a coordinated plan to prevent identity theft, prosecute identity thieves, and help victims recover from the crime.

The report is based on extensive fact-finding by the FTC and other federal agencies, including public comments and a workshop the FTC conducted on December 10-11, 2007. The workshop provided a forum for public-sector, private-sector, and consumer representatives to discuss the various uses of SSNs by the private sector, the necessity of those uses, alternatives available, the challenges faced by the private sector in moving away from using SSNs, and how SSNs are obtained and used by identity thieves.

The report issued by the FTC today focuses on the use of SSNs in the private sector. The Task Force agencies have undertaken a series of measures to curtail the use of SSNs by federal agencies as well. Information on those efforts can be found in the President’s Identity Theft Task Force Report, http://www.idtheft.gov/reports/IDTReport2008.pdf, issued in September 2008, which summarizes the steps taken to implement the Task Force recommendations.

The Federal Trade Commission works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, visit the FTC’s online Complaint Assistant or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). The FTC enters complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 1,500 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The FTC’s Web site provides free information on a variety of consumer topics.

The press has recently taken issue with CEO of an identity theft prevention company who has given his SSN out for all the world to see. His identity theft protection service is designed to protect the consumer from identity theft.

Because he used the marketing gimmick to drive sales, it has resulted in a never ending battle where identity thieves and others are using his ID to prove a point, that giving out your SSN is never a good idea.

His identity was compromised financially early on and since has been compromised REPORTED 87-90 TIMES.

It is impossible not to give your SSN in a society that needs it for most accounts, insurances etc. Plastering it on a billboard is a great idea when you dont care if your identity is stolen in order to sell a product.

However for the rest of us I’d not recommend it.

The idea is to make the SSN useless by investing in a service that keeps you in-tune, on top of, what is happening regarding your identity by wrapping a security system around your identity.

Stay tuned. Updates on this issue to come.

(BOSTON, Mass. - March 20, 2008 - IDTheftSecurity.com) A single breach announced this week at a major grocery chain in the Northeast U.S. placed 4.2 million unique data records at risk of fraud, a consequence that befell approximately 1,800 of them. News like this should prompt consumers to take the security of their identities seriously, according to a widely televised and quoted personal security and identity theft expert Robert Siciliano, who said industry safeguards seem inadequate to dissuade illegal activity.

"Massive data breaches have become par for course," said Siciliano. "Not a month goes by without a failure of data security affecting hundreds of thousands who did nothing more than to pay for something with a credit or debit card. Consumers who don’t expect their financial data to fall prey to thieves are living in a different time and place. Despite progress in the robustness of industry-wide security standards for retailers, many individual stores and firms flout them."

CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com and a member of the Bank Fraud & IT Security Report’s editorial board, Siciliano leads Fortune 500 companies and their clients in workshops that explore consumer education solutions for security issues. An experienced identity theft speaker and author of "The Safety Minute: 01," he has discussed data security and consumer protection on CNBC, on NBC’s "Today Show," on FOX News, and elsewhere.

According to a March 17th report from the Associate Press, a data breach at Hannaford Bros., a grocery chain that operates 165 stores in the Northeast, released 4.2 million credit and debit card numbers from the relative safety of the firm’s databases. This later led to about 1,800 cases of fraud, revealed the chain, which first learned of the breach December 2007 breach in late February, the Associate Press found.

Readers may view the video below of Siciliano on "FOX News," where he discusses the Hannaford breach and explains effective countermeasures for consumers.

Many breaches in retail, most notably the one affecting 45 million customers of TJX Companies Inc., have been the product of loose security practices; according to a March 18th report in The Boston Globe, however, at the time of the December breach Hannaford was meeting "industry standards regarding how customer data is stored and maintained." The same Boston Globe report noted that some question the wisdom of Visa and Master Card system rules that place the cost burden for such breaches on financial institutions.

"The current security standards for retailers are well-intentioned and a great place to start, but also need major bolstering," said Siciliano. "In the meantime, consumers need to consider paying in cash whenever possible. When that isn’t an option, the use of credit cards is preferable to the use of debit cards, which draw money directly from their own bank accounts and thus heighten a person’s risk for irrevocable financial loss."

Additional YouTube video below shows Siciliano on another "FOX News" segment, where he explains how the ubiquity of Social Security numbers as universal identifiers helps thieves online and off-line. Those wishing to learn how to protect themselves against identity theft may view video of Siciliano at VideoJug.

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About IDTheftSecurity.com

Identity theft affects us all. Robert Siciliano, CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com and member of the Bank Fraud & IT Security Report’s editorial board, makes it his mission to provide consumer education solutions on identity theft to Fortune 500 companies and their clients.

A leader of personal safety and security seminars nationwide, Siciliano has been featured on "The Today Show," CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, "FOX News," "The Suze Orman Show," "The Montel Williams Show," "Maury Povich," "Sally Jesse Raphael," "The Howard Stern Show," and "Inside Edition." The Privacy Learning Institute features him on its Website. Numerous magazines, print news outlets, and wire services have turned to him, as well, for expert commentary on personal security and identity theft. These include Forbes, USA Today, Entrepreneur, Woman’s Day, Good Housekeeping, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, United Press International, Reuters, and others.

Visit Siciliano’s Web site, www.IDTheftSecurity.com; blog, www.realtysecurity.com/blog; and YouTube page, http://youtube.com/stungundotcom.

The media are encouraged to get in touch with Siciliano directly:

Robert Siciliano, Personal Security Expert
CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com
PHONE: 888-SICILIANO (742-4542)
FAX: 877-2-FAX-NOW (232-9669)
Robert@IDTheftSecurity.com
www.idtheftsecurity.com

The media may also contact:

Brent W. Skinner
President & CEO of STETrevisions
PHONE: 617-875-4859
FAX: 866-663-6557
BrentSkinner@STETrevisions.biz
www.STETrevisions.biz

(BOSTON, Mass. - Sept. 28, 2007 - IDTheftSecurity.com) Last week reports indicated that two of the three major credit bureaus had resolved to allow credit freezes, a major weapon consumers need to combat identity theft and credit card fraud. According to Robert Siciliano, a widely televised and quoted personal security and identity theft expert, the tool is a basic right that others also ought to allow in light of data breaches that have continued to expose millions of consumers’ personal data to possible theft.

“The credit freeze is a basic consumer right,” said Siciliano. “The delay in its availability to consumers has been a major source of consternation to those in the security industry, who help clients deal with the aftermath of identity theft. Yes, the credit freeze costs money to offer, but anyone with a credit history deserves the ability to freeze her records prior to, and in the event of, suspected fraud. Evidently, smart organizations are beginning to understand.”

CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com and a member of the Bank Fraud & IT Security Report’s editorial board, Siciliano leads Fortune 500 companies and their clients in workshops that explore consumer education solutions for security issues. A longtime identity theft speaker and author of “The Safety Minute: 01,” he has discussed data security and consumer protection on CNBC, on NBC’s “Today Show,” FOX News, and elsewhere.

On Sept. 21, USA Today reported that major credit bureau TransUnion had reached a decision to allow consumers in all 50 states to apply freezes to their credit. According to the article, consumers would be able to begin exercising the important identity theft and fraud-preventing option by Oct. 15 of this year. The next day, Sept. 22, ConsumerAffairs.com reported that Equifax had decided to do the same and planned to offer the freeze in October, as well.

“Without a doubt,” said Siciliano, “those possibly affected by recent, large-scale data breaches will breathe a sigh of relief that the credit freeze is now an option.”

Just a week earlier, an article in the Sept. 14th edition of Wall Street & Technology reported on a data breach at TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. According to reports, which also ran elsewhere, the lost information included names, physical addresses, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers for more than 6.3 million customers. The Wall Street & Technology article stated that the affected company turned to ID Analytics for help.

“With numbers like this consistently making it into the news,” said Siciliano, “it’s likely that just about everyone in the country already needs the credit freeze. The sooner all credit bureaus offer it, the better off all consumers will be. Legislators and those in industry must work together to protect the consumers and citizens alike.”

Readers may view YouTube video below of Siciliano on “FOX News,” explaining how the ubiquity of Social Security numbers as universal identifiers helps thieves who obtain information following data breaches. Those wishing to learn how to further protect themselves against identity theft, may view video of Siciliano at VideoJug.

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About IDTheftSecurity.com

Identity theft affects us all. Robert Siciliano, CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com and member of the Bank Fraud & IT Security Report’s editorial board, makes it his mission to provide consumer education solutions on identity theft to Fortune 500 companies and their clients.

A leader of personal safety and security seminars nationwide, Siciliano has been featured on “The Today Show,” CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, “FOX News,” “The Suze Orman Show,” “The Montel Williams Show,” “Maury Povich,” “Sally Jesse Raphael,” “The Howard Stern Show,” and “Inside Edition.” The Privacy Learning Institute features him on its Website. Numerous magazines, print news outlets, and wire services have turned to him, as well, for expert commentary on personal security and identity theft. These include Forbes, USA Today, Entrepreneur, Woman’s Day, Good Housekeeping, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, United Press International, Reuters, and others.

Visit Siciliano’s Web site, www.IDTheftSecurity.com; blog, www.realtysecurity.com/blog; and YouTube page, http://youtube.com/stungundotcom.

The media are encouraged to get in touch with Siciliano directly:

Robert Siciliano, Personal Security Expert
CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com
PHONE: 888-SICILIANO (742-4542)
FAX: 877-2-FAX-NOW (232-9669)
Robert@IDTheftSecurity.com
www.idtheftsecurity.com