Choosing An Identity Protection Solution

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When making a purchase, word of mouth is often the best way to arrive at a comfortable decision. But what do you do when the product is weighty and complex, as with a mortgage, mutual fund, or insurance policy? You go to the experts, who know the ins and outs of an offering.

My expertise is identity theft protection. And frankly, I’m confused by what many other companies are offering. I understand the gist of most of what they do, but what they are best at is smoke and mirrors. There is a fundamental lack of transparency in the identity protection industry.

Identity protection, first and foremost, needs to be transparent. You should know what you are getting and what it does and why it is a benefit to you.

Most identity theft protection services offer “monitoring.” But they don’t say what they monitor or how they monitor or what benefit that monitoring will provide you. Monitoring can mean searching the web with readily available free search engines, or it can mean searching for your data on a specific set of websites. Monitoring can also refer to credit monitoring, in which the provider has a relationship with one or more credit bureaus and alerts you if there is activity on your credit report.

These services also say they will help you recover from identity theft, but in the fine print they tell you that recovery is limited to what they protect if their service fails.

An identity theft protection service should inform you when your personally identifying information, such as your name, Social Security number, or credit or debit card number, are used to commit fraud or other crimes.

Identity theft protection should keep pace with the evolving criminal landscape and involve multiple layers of proactive monitoring, detection, automatic alerts, and an intuitive customer experience.

McAfee Identity Protection includes:

– Daily 3-bureau credit monitoring to detect potential financial fraud

– Identity surveillance capabilities to monitor the Internet, change-of-address databases and public records for inappropriate uses of your personal information

– Immediate notifications, via email, SMS text, or your McAfee online account, if any suspicious activity is detected

– Lost wallet protection to make it easy to safeguard your credit and debit card accounts by canceling lost or stolen cards on your behalf and ordering replacements

– Unlimited credit reports from Experian to help you to stay on top of your credit history

– Unlimited phone support from dedicated fraud resolution agents, who’ll work with you to help resolve any identity issues – even issues that occurred prior to your enrollment in McAfee Identity Protection

– A product guarantee of up to $1 million that covers you if you are victimized by identity theft while subscribed to McAfee Identity Protection.

McAfee hopes to educate consumers about identity theft so that they can make informed choices on the ways to protect themselves. McAfee has launched a new website dedicated to consumer education at http://www.counteridentitytheft.com/. The site includes a tool to help consumers access their risk for identity theft and make necessary adjustments.

Ultimately, you want to make an informed decision and invest in identity theft protection from a trusted provider. McAfee is one of the world’s largest and most trusted names in digital security. Protect your most important valuable asset — your identity — with McAfee Identity Protection.

MCAFEE, INC. LAUNCHES THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE PERSONAL IDENTITY PROTECTION PRODUCT FROM A LEADING SECURITY COMPANY

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SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 14, 2010 – McAfee, Inc. (NYSE: MFE), the world’s largest dedicated security company, today announced that it has launched McAfee® Identity Protection, one of the most comprehensive and easy to use identity protection services on the market. The product features proactive identity surveillance which keeps consumers’ identities safe by providing multiple layers of protection, including monitoring the major credit reporting agencies and public records as well as Internet scanning for indicators of identity theft.

Javelin Research reports that individuals who took six or more months to detect fraud suffered more than 14 times the cost of those victims who discovered fraud in its early stages.1 McAfee Identity Protection alerts users of potential threats to their identities, ultimately saving them both time and money.

“There have been more victims of identity theft in the last year than any other time in the past six years2 and consumers repeatedly rank identity theft as a top concern because of the substantial remediation costs,” said Todd Gebhart, executive vice president of McAfee consumer, mobile and small business. “To address this market need, McAfee has created a product that is truly customer-focused and proactive. We put victims first, offering a best-in-class fraud resolution service that provides unlimited support, and the strongest collection of identity monitoring and alerting capabilities in the industry. In combination with a McAfee PC security suite, McAfee Identity Protection offers complete personal and online identity protection.”

Industry Statistics

  • 59 percent of identity theft happens through lost or stolen wallets and criminals ‘dumpster diving’ to get financial records and other sensitive personal information3
  • The average fraud amount per victim is $4,8414
  • 50 percent of victims do not discover  that someone has stolen their identity for  several months or years, according to the 2009 ITRC Aftermath Study
  • For as little as $20, criminals can purchase a fake Social Security card at “ID mills” around the country5
  • Every year, the Social Security Administration (SSA) receives eight to nine million earnings reports where the name doesn’t match the Social Security number6

Consumers at Risk:  McAfee Identity Theft Risk Assessment Tool Findings

McAfee also released findings from its Identity Theft Risk Assessment Tool, a free service that can help consumers determine how they are leaving themselves and their identities at risk. McAfee evaluated responses over a nine-month time frame with more than 5,743 participants:

  • 47 percent of respondents carry their Social Security card with them at all times. Experts say this is alarming, as lost/stolen wallets account for a large portion of identity theft
  • 88 percent of consumers have responded to emails and instant messages from people they do not know. McAfee Labs researchers warn against this, as cybercriminals develop elaborate scams to steal consumers’ information through email scams

McAfee Identity Protection Key Benefits

McAfee is the only company to offer a full range of identity protection services including credit and public records monitoring, Internet scanning, alerts, lost wallet protection, identity restoration services, a $1 million product guarantee, and Internet security products to address online identity theft.

Comprehensive Detection: The proactive identity surveillance capability constantly scans multiple sources for indicators of identity theft. This includes millions of Internet black market sites, chat rooms, blogs, and emails where identity thieves obtain stolen personal information. Additional monitoring of public records and change of address databases assists in the early warning of potential identity theft.  McAfee Identity Protection also includes daily monitoring of all three major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) to quickly detect and alert consumers to any red flags associated with their credit file such as new account creation or delinquent payments.  

Effortless Protection Against Theft: McAfee Identity Protection is designed to give consumers an effortless way to protect themselves and quickly resolve issues associated with their identity. The product will alert users by email or text when potentially suspicious activity is detected, and lost wallet protection helps users safeguard their credit/debit card accounts by assisting customers in canceling and ordering replacement cards.  McAfee Identity Protection also allows customers to stay on top of their credit reports with unlimited access to Experian credit reports.

Complete Resolution and $1 Million Product Guarantee: Dedicated fraud resolution experts work with consumers beginning to end to help fix identity theft issues. McAfee Identity Protection is designed to provide peace of mind and also includes a $1 million product guarantee if the product fails and a subscriber is ever victimized while his or her membership is active.

Easy to Use: Leveraging McAfee’s expertise in creating consumer-friendly security products, McAfee Identity Protection features an intuitive interface that clearly displays users’ personal identity health as well as actions required. The Web-based McAfee Identity Protection requires no software installation and is available anywhere with an Internet connection.

McAfee Identity Protection is priced at $109.99 for an annual subscription, or $9.99 on a monthly basis for an individual account. Consumers can also select the family option which includes coverage for the subscriber, another adult in the household and children for an annual subscription of $199.99 or $16.99 on a monthly basis. McAfee expects to offer product bundles of McAfee Identity Protection with McAfee core security products in the second half of this year.

McAfee Identity Protection was co-developed with Experian’s ProtectMyID.com™, a leading, full-service provider of identity theft detection, protection and fraud resolution. McAfee is not a credit repair organization and McAfee Identity Protection is not a credit repair service. McAfee Identity Protection cannot remove legitimate credit history information from a consumer’s credit report.

McAfee Taps Identity Theft Expert Robert Siciliano

McAfee also announced it has recruited leading identity theft expert and author, Robert Siciliano, as a McAfee consultant and identity protection expert. Mr. Siciliano consulted on the development of McAfee Identity Protection product, and will continue to team with McAfee to drive awareness about identity theft risks. Consumers can read his blog at www.mcafee.com/id-theft-expert.

“I’ve been in the business for more than two decades and I’ve watched identity thieves become increasingly savvy and relentless,” said Siciliano. “The tales I’ve heard would boggle your mind. Most of the time, consumers don’t even know they’ve been victimized, making the damages more devastating and increasing the hours it takes to resolve the issue. In some case, it can take up to three years to clear your name. Consumers have to wake-up to the dangers.”

Adobe a Target for Criminal Hackers

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We all know and love Adobe products. Their PDFs have become as ubiquitous as .DOC, .TXT and .XLS. Most PCs include Adobe Reader as a bundled software. The Adobe Flash media player is the easiest most user friendly online video player on the planet and required for the most popular video site YouTube.

Brad Arkin, Adobe’s director for product security and privacy, recently commented, “We’re in the security spotlight right now. There’s no denying that the security community is really focused on ubiquitous third-party products like ours. We’re cross-platform, on all these different kinds of devices, so yes, we’re in the spotlight.”

Adobe, in response is doing everything a responsible software developer should do.

Adobe is the same boat today that Microsoft found itself in years ago. Ground zero. Hack central. Criminal hackers love it. Adobe’s software or files are used on almost every PC and across operating all systems. Every browser requires a program to open PDFs and many websites either have links with PDFs or incorporate Flash to play video or for aesthetic reasons. According to an estimate from McAfee, in the first quarter of this year, 28% of all exploit-carrying malware leveraged a Reader vulnerability.

While attention from the criminal hacking community has certainly been a burden to Adobe, the same attention is now being paid by the white hat hackers, the good guys. The security community is now actively involved in the reporting of bugs and vulnerabilities, which is helping Adobe tighten up. Fortunately, Adobe is learning from their current situation and is actively engaged in resolving these issues. They’ve created a better, more frequent software updating tool for each of their programs, including Flash and Adobe Reader. As difficult a situation as this may be, Adobe is handling it very well.

“Application security” is an often used term when, during the software development cycle, the software or application goes through a series of “penetration tests” designed to seek out vulnerabilities that could be exploited in the field. Adobe’s process now includes their Secure Product Lifecycle (SPLC) to seek out and squash those issues. It is important to understand that flaws, bugs, holes, vulnerabilities, or whatever you call them, are often detected after the launch of software. While both developers and criminals have many of the same tools, the bad guys seem to have an edge and are often able exploit those flaws before developers can find and fix them. Adobe however is beginning to turn the tide on the bad guys.

If you function in a Microsoft Windows environment, you should be aware of “Windows Update” and have it set to automatically download and update your operating system’s critical security patches. Updating Reader and Flash requires manual action, but Adobe’s built-in updater can also be set to automatic. I’d suggest that most users set this to automatic as well. If you have an older version of Reader, which may not include an automatic update option, you should head directly to Adobe.com to download the current software.

Robert Siciliano, personal security and identity theft expert adviser to Just Ask Gemalto, discusses credit and debit card fraud on CNBC. (Disclosures)

What is “Swatting” And How Do I Protect My Family

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Swatting is making prank calls to emergency services with the intent of sending those services to the victim’s home. Emergency services, such as a 911 operator may dispatch an emergency response team, and depending what the story is being told by the prank caller, the operator may dispatch a SWAT team. SWAT is Special Weapons and Tactics. Those are the guys and gals in all black with the headgear and big guns.

Caller ID spoofing technologies are used as a tool to disguise the caller and send law enforcement officers on bogus calls. Caller ID spoofing is the practice of causing the telephone network to display a number on the recipient’s caller ID display which is not that of the actual originating caller. 911 systems operators and the technology behind 911 calls have been tricked by calls placed from cities hundreds of miles away.

Most people trust caller ID and are unaware of caller ID spoofing. This is obviously a flawed system ripe for fraud.

MSNBC reports Doug Bates and his wife, Stacey, were in bed around 10 p.m., their 2-year-old daughters asleep in a nearby room. Suddenly they were shaken awake by the wail of police sirens and the rumble of a helicopter above their suburban Southern California home. A criminal must be on the loose, they thought.

Doug Bates got up to lock the doors and grabbed a knife. A beam from a flashlight hit him. He peeked into the backyard. A swarm of police, assault rifles drawn, ordered him out of the house. Bates emerged, frightened and with the knife in his hand, as his wife frantically dialed 911. They were handcuffed and ordered to the ground while officers stormed the house.

WOW!! IMAGINE!! Whatever happened to asking if the store had Prince Albert in a can?

Swatting is dangerous and can end up deadly for both the homeowner and law enforcement.

  • If ever you awaken to sirens outside your home it is always best to call your local police department to find out what is going on. There could be a fire, an escaped convict or a killer walking the streets. An open line of communication with the authorities might avert a tragedy.
  • Stay in your house if there is a lot of commotion outside. You can see everything you need to through the windows. Police will generally secure the perimeter before they ram the entranceways. This may give the homeowner an opportunity to straighten out a potentially messy situation…through the window or over the phone.
  • I’ve never been a big fan of lethal weaponry for civilians without proper training. When a cop sees anyone for any reason come out of their home with a gun or knife, they will consider that person armed and most likely consider that person dangerous.

To ensure home security, install a home security system to alert you to anyone entering your home and install home security cameras so you can watch and record all the action from your home office on your PC. You might get a chuckle out of watching the video some day. NOT!

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing personal security and self defense on Fox Boston. Disclosures

Summer Heat: On-line Dating Scams PT II

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After my recent post Summer Heat: On-line Dating Scams a reader responded with the following:

“I just had a similar experience that you described in your blog “Summer Heat: On-line Dating Scams”. I had joined Plenty of Fish and upgraded my profile to have more exposure. I received an email from “exquisitedaddy” a few weeks ago. We started sending emails back and forth. Then he asked me to IM on Yahoo Messenger.

His IM email address was groovyromance@yahoo.com. The name he used was Joe Reid. He escalated the relationship quickly telling me how I was the one and only and how he loved me. then on 6/26 he asked me to buy him a Blackberry Bold for $450. I told him I didn’t have the money. The next day, 6/27, he told me his bank had contacted him and that a hacker had stolen $20k from his account. His account was frozen but the bank would reimburse him the money, he just didn’t know when. So he needed to buy networking equipment to complete a huge project he was working on for Nova Engineering Place. When he finished he would be paid $800,000 and have to paid 10 employees 40k each. But he needed $8k now to buy this equipment.

He said I shouldn’t worry because he would pay be right back either when the bank released the hold on his account or when he was paid for the project. I told him I didn’t have the money. I asked him questions about why others couldn’t help him and he always had an excuse. When I asked him if I used my Amex to buy the equipment, would that work he said no he needed cash! I said I would look into it but wouldn’t call him unless I found an answer since he was so stressed. Yesterday, he left a VM message for me asking me why I hadn’t contacted him and he was hoping that I was still looking to help him with the money and that he loved me.

I would like to do anything and everything in my powers to get this person so that he cannot abuse other women. Do you have any advice on what my next steps should be? He sent me flowers on Saturday, should I contact the florist and try to follow the trail back through there? thanks. Linda”

Wow Linda, you dodged a bullet. Linda sent me the picture of a handsome man who probably doesn’t know he is being used for a scam. She also found his profile on Match.com too.

No matter who the person is, what they say, how they look, don’t automatically trust.

The moment money or loans are discussed in any capacity that is a red flag.

Don’t let your heart get in the way of basic common sense.

Sometimes loneliness trumps our ability to see the truth. Keep your head up and pay attention to someone’s “intentions”.

Robert Siciliano is a Personal Security Expert and Adviser to Intelius.com. For more information see Intelius at Sex Offender Check and Date Check to reduce your chances of encountering a bad guy. See him discussing Safe Personal Dating on Tyra. (Disclosures)