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Identity Theft Prevention Tips?
metalhed77 asks: "I have a ton of bank statements I need to dispose of and am wondering what I should do with them. Googling for solutions I just find banks advising me to tear them up, which seems like more an inconvenience to a thief than a real preventative measure. What do Slashdot readers do with their sensitive documents? With so much data theft occurring in today's society, what else do you all do to protect your personal data?"
Buy an inexpensive crosscut shredder
Dreamers, shapers, singers, makers... Elric, the Techno-Mage
Burn the papers. Keep a pile of them, and once every few months, toss them on a fire. It's the only solution for the paranoid.
You have more to worry from electronic theft than you do from somebody digging through your trash, though. Your SSN and everything else are on file with your credit card companies, banks, etc., and all too often they get cracked. Not a whole lot you can do there, other than avoiding business with them altogether.
Depends where you live, but sometimes you can use a chimney or BBQ (well, dunno about a BBQ.) I wouldn't recommend burning a big pile of paper. If you have a Chimenea you can burn it there. (I don't mean your actual chimney, but that could be an option for small amounts.) Anyway, fire would probably be the best place, BUT you need keep an eye on it. Don't just walk away! -P
Buy a cross-cut shredder. As mentioned by someone else, if you're too cheap for that, fire will work as well.
The one thing that people don't necessarily think of is checking their mail in the first place -- I know an older couple whose mail kept getting stolen, and the thief was using the information contained in the mail to do all kinds of things in their names.
If at all possible, ask the companies sending you bills and statements whether there's a paperless option -- I've heard that many companies are now providing statements online with the option to stop mailing you a physical copy. Someone can't steal what isn't produced in the first place.
Somebody get that guy an ambulance!
Some banks will help you, for example letting you use their cross-shredder or document-disposal bins.
Make some mulch. Shredding them would work too. After shredding them just spread them across your garden and spray it down with a sprinkler, or turn them in your compost pile. This is also a great way to dispose of cardboard boxes after a big move.
A good worm farm can take care of a NYT subscription pretty easily.
Direct away from face when opening.
hankaholic asks, "I have a ton of nails I'd like to pound into a board for a project I've got going. Googling for solutions I just find hardware stores advising me to hit them with a sturdy object, which seems like more an way to damage a blunt object than a real nail-driving measure. What do Slashdot readers do with their nails? With so many construction techniques in today's society, what else do you all use to get those nail-based projects off of the drawing board?"
Somebody get that guy an ambulance!
As has already been stated ad-nauseum, cross-cut shredding it the easiest option.
If you are REALLY paranoid, burning can be better, but even burning does not completely detroy a document. Skilled forensics teams can take charred pieces of documents and add chemical agents that keep them from further disintigrating. If you absolutely must completely destroy a document, burn it and then put the ashes into a bin with a bit of water and mix it until you are left with a gritty paste. Good luck putting THAT back together!
Shades of Grayden
I think you are being excessively paranoid about identity theft via stolen bank statements, stolen mail, etc. And, should this happen, this type of outright theft is very obvious and is thus the easiest to resolve. However, most identity theft happens when somebody who already knows you (ie, family, close friends) uses the information that they already have about you to open accounts in your name. This is the kind you should really watch out for, both because it is so common and since it is nearly impossible to clear up.
To something outrageous like Napoleon Bonaparte. Then anyone stealing your ID will be considered a loon.
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
Now, consider what's on your bank statement. Can the thief learn enough just by looking at your statements to pose at you? Obviously not. He can certainly use the statments to find out things you'd rather people not know. (Which is why it bothers some people that federal officials can browse online bank statements without a warrant.) And with a bit of work, he can use bank statements and other sources to assemble enough information about you to pose as you. Any inconvenience you add to the process, no matter how trivial, makes you slightly less vulnerable. The question is, how much effort should you expend to add inconvenience? To answer that, you have to consider just how much you have to protect.
I have to admit that I throw my bank statements in the trash without even tearing them up -- I have such a bad credit rating no sane person would want to steal my identity. If I were slightly better off, I would tear the statements up. If I were a lot better off, I'd buy a good shredder. And if I were really rolling in cash, I'd hire a document disposal service to convert my paper records to pulp before disposal.
But all of these measures can be circumvented. Shredded documents can be reassembled with enough patience and computer time. Sidney Bristow can use her feminine wiles to infiltrate your disposal service. You can't absolutely guarantee that nobody will steal your private records -- you can only make it not worth their while.
Many companies are now using secure disposal services that assure that the shredded documents are recycled into oblivion without any thief being able to get to them. If you talk it up right, your boss or your bank might think this is a great perk they could offer you (no cost to them but an obviously valuable service to you).
Don't worry about detecting the camera, just destroy its ability to work.
Start with newspapers (or better yet create some papers that look real, but really have fake data you WANT them to read) and a few logs.
Start your fire normally.
Once the logs are burning use a fan/bellows to crank up the heat.
Do this for some time, long enough to melt any cameras directly in the chimney.
Suddenly close the doors and damper. The heat of the former fire will keep smoke for a long time, this will build up soot in the chimney.
After some time re-build the fire, but just a small one.
Stir the shredded versions of your documents.
Slowly put the confetti in the fire.
Let the fire go out and everything cool. Keep watching.
Stir the ashes.
The small fire is important. A large fire will create enough of a draft to drive some of the paper up the chimney and out.
If it's "sharing" rather than "theft" on kazaa, then it's "identity sharing" rather than "identity theft" as well...
A while ago, I ran into this blog story about preventing identity theft... The "call up the credit bureaus and file a social security # fraud alert" tip is probably the best.
[o]_O
I can't find the URL but you can easily find it by googling. You scan your statements and email them the resulting files in whatever format you like. This site sheds the files into pieces no bigger than 3 or 4 bits each. it's really cheap and no thief without his own beawolf cluster will have a chance of reconstructing your data. good luck...
No, my friend, you are thinking of scissors. Scissors destroy paper, paper covers rock and rock breaks scissors.