How to Protect Yourself From Identity TheftETC! 2007Matthew Kinzie Director, IT Stanislaus County COE

Agenda• Definition Of Identity Theft• Facts about Identity Theft• What if you’re a victim of Identity Theft?• Steps to protect yourself from Identity Theft

Definition - How do you steal a person’s Identity?• From the Wikipedia:

– “Identity theft (or identity fraud,) occurs when someone wrongfully acquires or uses another person's personal data, typically for their own financial gain. Sometimes it is referred to as "identity fraud" since the criminal impersonates rather than 'removes' the victim's identity.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_theft)

Definition – Use• Typical Uses of Fraudulent data:

– Financial gain: Credit Cards, Bank Accounts, Bank Loans, Phone service, utilities

– Concealment: Work in U.S. Illegally, Commit Crimes– Obtaining medical services

• People get medical services using another’s identity to get insurance

• The theft’s medical records get intertwined with the victim’s – could cause serious medical complications for the victim

Definition –Source• Common sources of identity theft:

– Wallets, Mail, credit application forms, employer records– Less common:

• Pretexting – caller impersonates someone else to get information from organizational representatives.

• Phishing – e-mail asking for confirmation of account numbers, passwords, SSNs

• Pharming – attacking internet service provider to redirect commonly used web pages

• Vishing – phone message, mail, or e-mail asking you to call number where you’re prompted to enter Account Numbers, SSNs, etc.

Statistics From 7/2/06 Modesto Bee

2002 2005

# ID Thefts 10.1 Mill 8.9 Mill ▼

$ Amount $53 Bill $56 Bill ▲

# Hours/Victim 33 40 ▲

Resolution $/Victim $555 $422 ▼2004 2006

$ Lost/Victim $5,249 $6,383 ▲

Facts - Why should we care?• From 7/2/2006 Modesto Bee Article:

– California has:• Most Identity Theft Cases – up to 20% of all cases nationwide• 3rd highest rate of Identity Theft – 122/100,000

– California school districts (from CBEDS/Ed-Data):• 6.3 Million students• 643,000 active employees and many more retirees/ex

employees.

What do you do if you’re a victim?• What victims need to do

– Contact a Credit Bureau & place fraud alert (note credit will be harder to get):

• Equifax: 1-877-576-5734; www.equifax.com       • Experian: 1-888-397-3742; www.experian.com/fraud       • TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; www.transunion.com

– Close fraudulently opened accounts

– Report crime to FTC: • www.ftc.gov/idtheft or 1-877-IDTHEFT

– File Police Report

Steps to protect yourself• Monitor credit reports every 4 months

– 1 free credit report from each of 3 agencies a year:• www.annualcreditreport.com (no “s”)

• Credit Freeze Vs. Credit Monitoring Services• Shred all credit card applications and other garbage that

have identifying information• Never give out Social Security Number, Birth Date, any

account number unless you initiated the call and feel comfortable with the receiver

Steps to Protect Students• Keep paper records of students containing sensitive data the

minimum amount of time possible.• Shred all paper reports containing sensitive student data. • Do not download sensitive data to a laptop hard drive.

– If you do “Shred” rather than delete the file as soon as you no longer need it.

• Do not browse sensitive data over wireless connections (unless through a “VPN”)

• Update windows patches frequently• Use a firewall• Run Anti-Virus, Anti-Adware (Ad-Aware), Anti-Spyware (Spybot)

frequently

Protecting students: Passwords• Good Passwords are:

– Not shared– Easy to remember (so you don’t write it down)– Hard to guess (so hackers can’t figure it out)

• Very Personal – ideally something embarrassing that you wouldn’t want to share (so you don’t share it!)

• No words in dictionary, family member (especially pets) names, birthdates, addresses, etc.

• Hacker’s dictionaries have words with letters replaced by common numbers, e.g. w0r6 (word), 1ik3 (like), 43at (heat).

– Long• How do I make something like ipattF50otusoA easy to remember?

Good Passwords• With so many password protected Accounts, how do I

remember all those passwords?– Combine 3-4 characters & numbers to represent the account.

Combine that string with a common set of characters that you use in all passwords.

• What about passwords that expire periodically?– Adding a number that represents the current month is easily

guessed.– Logical themes that have a sequence such as the order of the

planets, phrases in a verse, etc.

Safe Transactions

Safe Transactions - IE Version 7

Summary• Monitor:

– Credit Reports Once Every 4 months– Activity in Online banks, credit cards, brokerages at least Monthly

• Hide your Identity:– Shred Credit Card Application forms and any paper with

personally identifiable information.– Give personal information only to people you trust.– Use Strong Passwords, don’t use sites that do not allow strong

passwords.

Questions?