An 'Ethical Hacker' On Protecting Your Identity

qwqwss writes "Canada.com is running an article by Terry Cutler, a 'certified Ethical Hacker', who wants to get the word out to people on protecting their identities from a growing number of risks. The piece covers shopping online, keeping your personal information contained, and avenues of inquiry if your identity is stolen."

Comments

Hiding your credit report

[Riding Spinners]

1-888-567-8688

Call this one number to opt out of all three bureaus. You can protect yourself from identity theft by taking your name off of the credit bureaus mailing lists. The credit bureaus are one of the biggest offender when it comes to selling your name and information to the credit card companies who in turn send you all those pre-approved applications. One call to the Opt Out Request Line (for Equifax, TransUnion, Experian and Consumer Credit Associates) is all it takes to permanently remove your name from all marketing lists that the credit agencies supply to direct marketers. You can also opt for a two-year period, renewing your request at any time in the future.

Identity theft certainly happens on the Internet, but it's the old-fashioned cons that usually get your SSN and such. Put your paranoia in the right place. Please.

Re:Hiding your credit report

[stefanlasiewski]

That number will allow you to opt out of pre-approved offers of credit who follow the rules of the big credit bureaus (worked great for me).

However, it will not prevent the credit bureaus from selling your name and information to other companies for other reasons, and it will not hide your credit report from anyone.

Also, some credit companies don't use the big credit bureaus, and will instead compile information from other sources. If you have a home loan for example; your name, address and value of the loan are available at some county and state offices.

This article is too Canada-centric

[Neil Blender]

Here in the backwater US, you can get your credit report for free three times a year at http://annualcreditreport.com/ - Check it every four months.

This is pretty much what I do

[WillAffleckUW]

Minor methods like:

a. shredding the account numbers and names/address on your bills or mail.

b. taking out the recycling only on recycle day, and making sure none of it contains identifying materials, but that all those are shredded and then mixed.

c. not taking too much ID with you.

And realizing that you're being phished. I learned a lot of techniques in the Canadian Armed Forces, when they would try to get information out of our systems by trying to pretend they were from someplace that just needed info, or wanted to verify something.

Never trust email, don't trust phoners, and never action things that you didn't originate.

And keep your hand over the other one (shading it) when entering your PIN.

Canada.com is a website for daily newspapers in Canada, FYI. Always right-click to inspect any links and ensure they go to the correct location before clicking them - and always use URLs you made yourself to access your banking and credit info.

Now, I've got an underwater tunnel to sell you if you don't want to follow that advice, and I'm sure other people will tell you about all the lotteries you've won, and how a rich religious minister left you money in [NAME OF COUNTRY] ...

Re:Buy a shredder

[Incadenza]

Just don't ever allow your kids to shred anything, even once. If you do, you may find yourself re-filling your taxes, one piece of sellotape at a time.

Or have a bunch of fanatic Iranian students do it for you. I have a copy of Documents From the US Espionage Den, volume 5 [6 MB PDF] that is a quite good illustration of why US embassies have been incinerating and not shredding their paper waste since 1979.