Consumers are continuing to have their identities stolen at an alarming rate. In the UK, 89,000 cases were recorded in the first 6 months of 2017.
Consumers are continuing to have their identities stolen at an alarming rate. In the UK, 89,000 cases were recorded in the first 6 months of 2017.
Consumers are continuing to have their identities stolen at an alarming rate. In the UK, 89,000 cases were recorded in the first 6 months of 2017. While this may seem like a big number, compare that with the 15.4 million identity theft cases that occurred in the USA in 2016!
Most people think that ID theft will never happen to them, it’s always someone else who will be defrauded. The reality is that most people have no idea if they’re at risk or not, ID theft isn’t a security risk you can touch and feel like a broken door or smashed window.
Unlike traditional physical crimes, you can’t see the damage that’s been caused, know who was behind it or how many people have handled your stolen information.
It was only 5-10 years ago when identity theft was largely committed via physical means. The classic examples of identity theft occurred when:
- Your mail was stolen by a fraudster who then forged your signature
- Your personal information was thrown out in the trash and found by a fraudster
- Your debit or credit card details were copied via a tampered ATM/Cashpoint
These methods are now decreasing in favour of theft via the Internet. There have been countless data breaches in the news in recent years and as a result, a huge amount of personal information has been leaked into underground markets.
Even my own account with 3 major websites has been breached. I’ve noticed a rise over many years in the number of strange emails I get and mysterious password reset attempts on my accounts. This is a direct result of the data breaches I’ve been caught up in.
The first thing anyone should do to find out if they are at risk of identity theft is to use our free security scanner. It takes 5-10 seconds and will tell you if you’ve been involved in a data breach and if you have vulnerabilities that could be taken advantage of by hackers.
Many news organisations, the big banks, and others will offer free disposable advice for people to protect themselves. At DynaRisk we want to use our security expertise to actually tell you how to protect yourself.
Here are two things you can do right now:
1. Check your Facebook privacy settings on a PC
a. Log into Facebook
b. Click the drop down arrow in the top right corner of your screen & click Settings
c. Click Privacy and review your settings. Consider majoring your profile visible to only Friends by clicking the Edit link beside each item.
Remember, your date of birth, mother’s maiden name, the name of your pet and your address may all be available on your profile and are answers to security questions that hackers need to steal your identity.
2. Install a password manager & change your passwords
a. If you scanned yourself with our free security scanner, you’ll now know if you’ve been exposed in a data breach.
b. If you have, install a password manager such as KeyPass and make sure your passwords for sensitive websites like your email account, bank, etc are unique. Even if you haven’t been exposed yet, it will only be a matter of time so it’s still a good idea to install a password manager.
While doing these simple steps will help reduce your risk of identity theft, it’s best to find out your personal Cyber Score to see where you stand and what else you can do to protect yourself.