Kristen Gehrig, director of global marketing for Fellowes Inc. in Itasca, the leading shredder manufacturer, said “few states–and Illinois is not one of them–require destruction of documents. Although several federal laws mandate safeguards for customer privacy, only the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) approved in June 2005 requires businesses to destroy certain types of consumer information. But what we found in our research,” she said, “is that 87 percent of small businesses are not aware of FACTA and their responsibility to make proper Disposal of Consumer Report Information and Records under this act.”

Businesses hatch identity losses all the time with security breaches that can be broken down into a number of categories. What they have in common is that they contain personal identifying information in a format easily read by thieves, in other words, your personal information is not encrypted. Breaches include but are not limited to the following;

* Lost or stolen laptops, computers or other computer storage devices

* Backup tapes lost in transit because they were not sent either electronically or with a human escort

* Hackers breaking into systems

* Employees stealing information or allowing access to information

* Information bought by a fake business

* Poor business practices- for example sending postcards with Social Security numbers on them

* Internal security failures

* Viruses, Trojan Horses and computer security loopholes

* Info tossed into dumpsters- improper disposition of information

The only solutions thus far for consumers have been shock reactive – by then, it’s too late. Identity theft can happen anyplace to anyone. In line at the store, online at home, business practices mentioned above or when you’re buying your morning coffee. If your identity is stolen, you can spend hundreds of hours cleaning up your credit and struggling to get back your good name. That’s because stolen identities are used up to 30 times, with most victims only discovering the theft after they’ve been turned down for a loan or contacted by a collection agency. You may already be a victim, many times over, and not even know it.

Unexpected effects even after the thief stops using the information, victims struggle with the impact of the identity theft crime. This might include increased insurance or credit card fees, inability to find a job, higher interest rates and battling collection agencies and issuers who refuse to clear records despite substantiating evidence of the identity crime. This “aggravation and turmoil” may continue for more than 10 years after the crime was first discovered and subsequently reported.

If you think you know all the tricks in thwarting the identity thief; think again! The criminals will just bide their time and wait for you to forget some available proactive measure and strike you down in the confusion and distraction of everyday existence. If they can’t get you individually, they’ll strike a business that fails to shred your personal information or has some security breach that avails the info needed.

There are many services in the industry that offer proactive identity theft protection with a proven solution that prevents your identity from being stolen before it happens. They protect your identity and personal information for only $10 a month – and one guarantee’s their service up to $1,000,000. They also offer the only identity theft child protection program available in the market, so guarantee your good name today and review the many identity theft services available in the market. The Federal Trade Commission recommends that the small print in all the available services be understood before commitment because, some programs are better than others.

I can’t recommend the course of action you should take to protect you identity. I can however suggest you simply recognize the fact the problem of identity theft is a growing problem. It is bigger than you and I and a proactive service supplementing our own personal initiatives to avoid identity theft; might just be the best decision ever made.

From the email from a friend trying to show you the errant ways of the current administration (or any administration) to your “mutual friend ” from Kenya with a large opportunity in USD $13,509,021.90 bequeathed to you, email forwards and phishing schemes have all made us read our email with a grain of salt in hand.

Sometimes, however, you actually get sent something of some substance. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen In the case of what I’m about to show you, “of substance” isn’t a strong enough descriptor. This is something of huge, epic proportions that most people in IT or HR, business owners, and anyone with a social security number should be worried about.

Enough with the teaser watch this video on copier identify theft and come back to me.

Do I have your attention now?

I would say most people don’t know this threat even exists yet alone know how to control this security loophole. Here are a few tips for controlling personal identity theft for those of you that deal with this information in their businesses and also a few tips for your own identity security.

BUSINESSES

* Protect your business by putting an insurance policy in place to protect your company if your firm falls victim to this scam. (SIG offers this policy under it’s technology insurance products) This is a proactive way of getting in front of a potential disaster that can help protect your company if a breach of data does happen

*  Put into place TODAY a policy with your copier leasing or maintenence company that you want to retain your hard drive if any drive faults occur or you trade in your copier for any reason. You’ll pay a little extra to have this done and the cost of a new drive (this shouldn’t be more than $200.00-$300.00 and I’m being generious here; the drive they showed in the video can be had for less than $40.00) but an ounce of prevention may mean your business never has to experience this risk.

*  If your particular copier offers the feature of data wiping or image encryption PAY FOR IT. Just like the video showed, this can be easily added to most copiers with a hard drive.

* Instruct your HR department /business@#$ o make copies of sensitive data on a local printer with a copying function that does not have a hard drive. Most “all-in-one” printer/scanners do not save images locally. Some devices do store the front page of a fax or copy so always use a cover page.

PERSONAL

* Never use a copy machine at your office or another location for duplication of any of your personal information. Make your copies on a local “all-in-one”
Printer/scanner as these typically do not archive images even though they are connected to a computer. Some devices do store the front page of a fax or copy so always use a cover page.

* Check your homeowner’s insurance policy to see if you have a provision for identity theft. Most companies include this with their policy for a nominal fee (Travelers offers this for an additional $25.00 a year). Check to see what the applicable limits as well as the deductible and if you can endorse them up any higher if desired.

If coverage is not available on your homeowners plan, locate a standalone policy to protect you and your family.

It’s sad that we have to worry about these kind of things, but it is part of living in the digital age. Protect your identity and the identity of your employees and customers by being proactive to avoid any breaches in data security as well as protecting yourself in case a disaster were to occur.

For one, it doesn’t just affect the victim’s credit; it also affects the victim’s medical history, too. Since no credit repair company can adjust a person’s medical records, the fradulent charges end up costing more than just money. Victims of medical identity theft often have a difficult time getting health insurance due to “pre-existing conditions,” regardless of whether or not the “conditions” were actually their own.

Since a credit repair company can’t use the credit restoration process to fix the problems caused by medical theft, the only real course of action people can take are preventative. Here are some ideas that can help you avoid the credit restoration process and forever damaged medical records:

• Invest in a credit protection service. Sure, it’ll cost a few dollars each month, but having somebody watching out for your credit and health history could be well worth the money. Plus, it could save you from having to pay a credit repair company for credit restoration.

• Shred everything that has your information on it. Even if it seems like a benign letter, if it has your name, address or phone number on it, identity thieves can use it to steal your medical or financial identity. Don’t risk throwing papers directly into the trash – always shred them first.

• Monitor your credit report. You can check all three of your credit reports for free, once a year. Be sure to inspect yours closely, and dispute any errors immediately.

The federal government will release its plan to combat identity theft in the U.S. on Monday.
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After nearly a year’s work, the President’s Identity Theft Task Force will release its findings Monday at a press event in the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) offices, the FTC said in a media alert.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20070422/tc_pcworld/131054

The history of identity theft is something that you should really know about, especially in the world of today where identity theft is a huge and in fact growing problem. Identity theft happens to hundreds of people each day, and so you are going to want to learn about the history of identity theft as well as how to try and protect yourself against identity theft in general.

More About the History of Identity Theft

There is much to learn about in regards to the history of identity theft, and in particular, you should know that the history of identity theft goes back a long time. Many people seem to think that identity theft is an issue that only really came to be important as of rather recently, but this is not true at all.

Identity theft has taken place for a long time now, however with the technologically advanced world that we live in now, it is happening that much more now, and it is also much easier for people to commit identity theft acts. After all, you consider how much time the average person spends on the computer, as well as how the average person has at least one credit card, and you can see two major reasons as to why identity theft is more common now than ever before.

You do not have to be a victim to identity theft however, and there are several steps in particular that you can take in order to try and protect yourself against identity theft as much as possible. One of the first things that you are going to want to do is make sure that you do not have more credit cards than you need, and so if you have more than one, pick one that you want to keep and cut up the rest.

You are also going to want to make sure that when you throw out pieces of your mail that you cut it up or rip it up, so that people cannot go through your mail and find out personal information about you. This is especially important with mail from your bank for instance, as people can easily steal your identity with this type of information.

There are many different ways that you can protect yourself against this sort of thing, and so you want to make sure that you are as knowledgeable and as informed as you can be so that you can take the best steps possible in regards to protecting yourself against identity theft.