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

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

One call to the Opt Out Request Line is all it takes to permanently remove your name from all marketing lists that the credit agencies supply to direct marketers.

And get your name on the "high-value" target list they sell to everyone else, and the "has something to hide" list they sell to the NSA.

Seriously, it is so bogus that in order to "opt out" you have to hand over your personal info -- SSN, address, full name - to the very same people who are abusing that info in the first place. Somehow I just don't trust them to keep it safe and never figure out a new way to abuse it for their own gain.

A real opt-out list would be maintained by a 3rd party with contractual and legal penalties for distributing your personal info. Then the agencies would be required send their lists to the 3rd who would filter out the people who have opted out. That way, even if the agencies were to reverse engineer the list by comparing before-and-afters, they would not know anything about the people whom they missed because they were never on the first list, nor would they get any sort of corrective information (like updated address, corrected spelling of names, etc).

Hell, while I am dreaming, these lists would be opt-in to start with and we wouldn't have these problems.

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.

Re:Hiding your credit report

[Eivind]

Thats pretty close to how it works in Norway. For marketing of any sort adressed directly to you. There is a single govnerment-maintained list where you can opt to not receive direct marketing.

Companies that do direct marketing send their lists in, and get them back without those persons who have opted out. They learn nothing new about you in the process, other than the fact that you've opted out.

For electronic marketing (email, sms, fax) it's opt-in rather than opt-out. In other words, they cannot legally do it unless you've given prior, informed consent to that. The logic is that this in this type of marketing, the recipient typically pays a large part of the cost. Marketers are less likely to abuse say paper-based marketing as that actually costs them to print and distribute. (compare the quality of the marketing in the average paper-based marketing and the average spam you receive to see what I mean..)

For unadressed "distributed to all" marketing there's a small sticker you can put on your mailbox, and you won't get any.

In short, you can eliminate receiving any marketing by following 3 simple steps:

• Register yourself to opt-out of direct marketing. (one phone-call or one visit to the opt-out list.
• Do not agree to receive direct marketing when companies ask.
• Get a small sticker and put it on your mailbox.

I don't even have to read the article...

[Anonymous Coward]

The trick to not worrying about identity theft is to have horrible credit and just about $0 in the bank. I've never got to worry about somebody using my identity. Hell, my identity doesn't even do me any good.

Re:I don't even have to read the article...

[kfg]

Somebody stole my identity once, but a week later I found it lying on my doorstep with a note of sympathy pinned to its blanket.

KFG

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] ...

Online identity theft = FUD?

[porkmusket]

Does anyone else think that online identity theft is exaggerated? I mean, I have seen stats for identity theft in general, but not specifically for online identity theft. It strikes me as an insurance company/bank/credit card company ploy to make money. They take the internet, something a lot people don't understand, paint it as a major source of fraud, and ask you to pay $10/mo for their 'identity protection' services.

I have a feeling that the mjaority involvement of the internet in these crimes is as a vehicle for the transmission or cracking or databases made available by poor security practices.

Re:well..

[Pollardito]

how do i know you verified it on Google and aren't just a co-conspirator with the person that posted the first number?

Re:I don't want to be a killjoy, but...

[pseudorand]

Well, I'd never though of always typing in the wrong pin first to verify that the ATM is actually connected to the ATM network. But I'm also not sure I believe the keylogger keypad connected to wifi thing either. I imagined ATMs were tamper resistant such that the bank would be notified if anything was disconnected.

Simple: post AC!

[mangu]

I can't really understand why /. always has these news about protecting one's identity, but when someone wants to post a comment and remain anonymous they call him a "coward"...

Use Virtual Credit Card Numbers

[dakirw]

Some banks allow users to generate virtual credit card numbers (that can have dollar limits and specific expiration dates) for use with online purchases. Probably not a bad idea to buy things online with one of these generated online numbers (using the purchase amount as the limit).

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.

Re:well..

[BaltikaTroika]

The phone number works. Some Nigerian guy answered the phone. After taking my personal information, he offered me this great deal where I just have to let him use my bank account and he'll give me 40% of some dead guy's 20 million dollar estate.