Understanding and Preventing Identity Theft

Tech blogs and magazines are all over the RSA security conference being held in San Francisco. There are reporters at the conference trying to break the biggest topics of the conference before anyone else can, laying bets on whether or not the first Vista security exploit can be released before the end of the show.

One of the big topics expected to be the focus of the RSA conference involves data security. Eric Lundquist, a reporter for the technology magazine eWeek, stressed the logic and need behind a shift toward protecting data instead of focusing on securing devices. In a recent article, Lundquist cited the data break-ins at TJX Companies (parent company of T.J. Maxx and other retail outlets) as just one example of how unprotected data can "shake the foundations of companies and industries".

Big news and I'm sure we can all agree something useful will result from it, but for those of us who aren't part of a large corporate culture or members of the tech genius behind a business, none of this seems to apply to us. We don't have to worry about trade secrets being stolen, or databases of customer information being breached.

Except that data security does apply to us. You know those fears you have niggling in the back of your mind about identity theft? Yup ... data security. According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, more than 55 million Americans were put at risk by security breaches - leaving them vulnerable to identity theft - between February 2005 and March 2006.

Identity Theft vs. Payment Fraud

There is so much being tossed around in the news about identity theft that the world can seem like a much more frightening place than it actually is. The biggest reason for the unnessecary fear is that two different problems are being lumped together: identity theft and payment fraud.

Identity theft and payment fraud are two different things - learn what you can do to protect yourself.

Credit: woodsy

Copyright: woodsy