Child Identity Theft: Protecting Your Child’s Identity

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Do you have a kid who has gotten a pre-approved credit card offer in the mail? If so, their identity might have been stolen. Child ID theft is when a person uses a minor’s Social Security number to commit some type of fraud, which can include opening credit cards, taking out a loan, or even applying for government benefits.

Child Identity Theft

Something like this can go on for years, and you might not even know it. But there are things you can do to protect your child’s identity, so keep reading.

How Does Child Identity Theft Occur and What are the Warning Signs?

In general, child identity theft happens when their Social Security number is stolen. There are plenty of ways that this can happen from stealing official documents to electronic data breaches. So, what are the signs that this might be happening?

  • Getting a Pre-Approved Credit Offer – As mentioned, a pre-approved credit card offer might be a sign that your child’s credit is at risk. A credit card company only send these offers if it has access to a credit file.
  • Getting Turned Down for Benefits – You might also be trying to apply for some type of government benefit for your child but keep getting denied.
  • Receiving an IRS Notice – Letters claiming that your child didn’t pay income taxes is a big sign, too.
  • Getting a Letter or Call About an Unpaid Bill – If a collection agency is calling for your child, there is a big problem.

Protecting Your Child’s Identity

Here are some tips for protecting your child’s identity:

  • Don’t share your child’s Social Security number unless it is absolutely necessary.
  • Keep documents with your child’s information secure and locked away.
  • Shred any documents with your child’s information before tossing them out.
  • Be aware of anyone in your household who might use your child’s identity.
  • Learn about your child’s school’s directory information policy. Can you opt out?

What Can You Do if Your Child is a Victim of Identity Theft?

If you think that your child’s information is compromised, you should do the following:

  • Contact all three major credit reporting companies: Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian.
  • Ask them to do a manual search of the file with the Social Security number and a separate search with the name AND Social Security number.
  • Keep records of letters and phone calls.

If you confirm that your child has been a victim, you need to do the following:

  • Reach out to all of the credit bureaus and explain the situation. Ask them to remove any collection notices, accounts, and inquires. You will have to give them proof that the child is a minor.
  • Contact any business where the information was used and ask them to close any open accounts due to identity theft.
  • Place a fraud alert on the child’s credit report by contacting one of the three credit bureaus.
  • Consider a credit freeze. Freezing a child credit is the best, most proactive way to prevent “new account fraud” and lock down your child’s identity until and after the age of 18. There are “do it yourself” ways of accomplishing this or they can be done for a nominal free at org.
  • Order a copy of your child’s credit report, which shouldn’t even exist if they are 17 or under. If there is a credit report, they are likely a victim of fraud.
  • File a report with the FTC by phone or online.
  • Go to identitytheft.gov and create a report.

This could be a bad thing for your child’s future, so it is very important that you take steps to fix it, right now.

ROBERT SICILIANO CSP, is a #1 Best Selling Amazon author, CEO of CreditParent.com, the architect of the CSI Protection certification; a Cyber Social and Identity and Personal Protection security awareness training program.

Kids Home? Rethink Their Digital Security or it Will Bite You

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If you had asked me a few months ago what I felt about “screen time” and kids, I would have told you that I wouldn’t give my kids their own devices or allow social media accounts until they were 15. But things have changed. Now, I’m happy to let the kids on the family tablet, and even allow them to use things like FaceTime, games, and email. Why? Because I want to make sure that they have some type of connection to the outside world.

However, this didn’t happen without some ground rules, not only to keep the kids safe, but to make sure they don’t totally fall headfirst into cyberspace. Here’s some tips:

No Social Media

Oh you didn’t think I was gonna give you a pass did you? No, my 14-year-old is still not on social media, and she doesn’t complain about it, she doesn’t miss it, and she’s better off for it. First of all, it’s a time suck, it’s often a cesspool of BS, misinformation, disinformation, and just plain mean-ness.

Sure my kids might get the occasional TikTok video from one of their friends, but they don’t have the app, they’re not spending any time on it, and while they might learn a TikTok dance or two, they’re certainly not recording one and posting it online.

Teach Your Kids to Respect Digital Devices

There are a number of ways that you can do this, including setting a rule that they must ask permission before they use the device or go online. By doing this, you are making them conscious of their actions.

Set Rules on When They Can Have Access to Certain Apps or Devices

Another thing you can do is make sure that you set rules about when your kids can access certain devices or aps. For instance, maybe make a rule that they must use devices in common areas, or they can only use game apps after dinner. Whatever the case, you should be checking in on what they are doing.

Create a Schedule

Only allow your kids to use devices when you are available to help or when you know they can’t get in trouble. Allow them to watch Netflix while you are in an online meeting but bring the remote with you.

Create an Agreement

Also, think about a “tech agreement” for your kids. If they break the rules, there will be consequences, just like they have with other rules in your home.

Discuss Online Privacy and Tone

One of the most important things to do is discuss online privacy and tone. Kids don’t always realize that what goes on the internet can stay there forever. Suggest, perhaps, telling your kids not to do anything they wouldn’t do or say with grandma in the room. It works.

Tell Them Your Expectations

Talk to your kids about what you are comfortable with…or not…when they are online. For instance, if you don’t want them talking to strangers, there are email programs that allow you to approve and email that is sent and received. There are similar chat programs.

Is it Time to Talk About Pornography?

This might be the perfect time to talk about pornography, too. Experts say conversations about this should start around kindergarten. To minimize the chances your kid will access it, use parental controls or kid-friendly browsers.

Understand that Kids Will be Kids

Finally, take a deep breath and realize that kids will be kids. As long as they are being safe and polite, allowing them access to these things might be the best way to get through these nationwide quarantines.

ROBERT SICILIANO CSP, is a #1 Best Selling Amazon author, CEO of CreditParent.com, the architect of the CSI Protection certification; a Cyber Social and Identity and Personal Protection security awareness training program.

Survey Shows Most People Back Up…But Not as Often as They Should

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According to a new survey, we now have a good idea of the habits of the regular person in regard to backing up their devices. The survey, which covered almost 3,000 people, looked at people around the world. What it shows is that 91 percent of people back up their devices and their data. But, 68 percent of people still lost data because of a different reason. These include accidentally deleting the data, software or hardware failure, or even because they hadn’t backed up their data recently. The truth is, only 41% of companies and people back up each day, which leaves most of us…and most businesses…vulnerable to data loss.

surveyThe data from this survey stress how important it is to implement some type of cyber protection strategy for a business, which includes backing up data several times a day, and using the 3-2-1 backup rule. This is creating three copies of your data (a single primary copy and two backups), storing your copied on two different types of storage option, and then storing one of the copies in the cloud or remotely.

Change the Game with Cyber Protection

With more cyberattacks happening all of the time, the traditional methods of backing up our data is no longer working. We simply cannot rely on only backing up our information. It is way too dangerous.

Cybercriminals will target backup software with their own ransomware, and then try to modify the files, which makes it even more important to protect your information.

Recommendations for Cyber Protection

There are a number of different ways you can protect your personal or company’s information. Here are just five things you can do to ensure that your data is relatively safe:

  • Create a backup of your most important data…always – Keep a number of different copies of your backup locally and in the cloud. You want to do it locally so you can access it quickly and frequently, and you want to save it in the cloud to make sure that even if there is a fire, flood, or other disaster, your data is safe.
  • Ensure your OS and applications are all the current versions – If you are not updating your OS or apps, it means that they are much more vulnerable to getting hacked. These updates often contain patches and fixes that can keep cybercriminals out.
  • Beware of any suspicious links, emails, or attachments – Most ransomware and virus infections are created by using social engineering, and they trick unsuspecting people into opening these infected attachments or clicking on a link that installs malware to the device or network.
  • Install anti-virus, anti-ransomware, and anti-malware software – While you are doing your automated updates for your apps and OS, you should also be using all of these different software options, too.
  • Consider using an integrated cyber protection solution – You want to choose an option that combines anti-ransomware, anti-virus, backup, patch management, and a vulnerability assessment all in a single solution. This type of solution increases efficiency, ease of use, and the reliability of your protection.

ROBERT SICILIANO CSP, is a #1 Best Selling Amazon author, CEO of CreditParent.com, the architect of the CSI Protection certification; a Cyber Social and Identity and Personal Protection security awareness training program.

 

Beware of Job and eWork at Home Scams

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Pandemics can be quite stressful. There are millions of people out of work, and there we really don’t know when the economy will truly bounce back. Those who are out of work are seeking other jobs, at least temporarily, and many are looking for jobs that they can do from home…right from Google.

jobsSince people have been losing their jobs, searches for terms like “laid off,” “unemployment benefits,” and “unemployed” have skyrocketed. Though some people are finding legitimate search results, others are falling for sites that are scams, and Google is allowing these sites to stay.

We have often used Google search data to determine what type of economic anxiety people are feeling, and this is certainly true right now.

Google makes its money through advertising, so it’s not totally surprising that these sites are allowed to stay on. When people are searching for information on unemployment, advertisers are seeing this, and are able to determine where they should market. This includes those working for predatory companies, who are targeting people who are unemployed.

One such example is “unemploymentcom.com.” This is a site that seems, at first, like it might be a good resource for someone who is unemployed. While there are some legitimate links there, in general, the site is trying to get people to sign up for “site profiles” and other things. It also urges people to sign up for access to your credit score…for a fee, and it absolutely sells all of the data it gets to other organizations.

When you look at the privacy policy of this website, you can see that it is owned by OnPoint Global, a conglomerate, which claims it has around 11 million people filling out unemployment surveys each month. However, what people doing this don’t realize is that the information the site is collecting is likely being complied into a package for advertisers, which also includes any other public information they can find about the person filling out the survey.

Keep in mind that it is not just the pages for people looking for information on unemployment that we are talking about. It can really be anything similar, like “unemployment insurance.” Some of these searches can even lead you to sites that can hijack your browser. Other sites simply collect as much data as they can, and then sell the information to marketers.

Everyone who is out there scared and unemployed are still considered to be consumers to these companies, and they still are seen as people who have money to spend. So, Google is still pushing sites like these to the top of search results, and still making a pretty penny from clicks. So, do yourself a favor and start being aware of the ads you are clicking, and better yet…don’t click them at all.

ROBERT SICILIANO CSP, is a #1 Best Selling Amazon author, CEO of CreditParent.com, the architect of the CSI Protection certification; a Cyber Social and Identity and Personal Protection security awareness training program.

Disinformation From Russian Troll Farms to Sway 2020 Election

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The Russian trolls are at it again, and they are trying to influence the American people in this year’s upcoming election cycle. This time, however, they have learned some lessons, and they are getting more difficult to track and identify.

One huge part of avoiding scams and fraud is to recognize well, scams and fraud. And that also means recognizing disinformation campaign’s.

Disinformation i.e. Dezinformatsiya

Disinformation, fundamentally, is lying. Disinformation used to be spread by the spoken word only.  But with the invention of the printed word and the press, disinformation was spread using pamphlets, leaflets, books, magazines, political cartoons, and in planted clandestine newspaper articles. Agents of influence, political spies, and journalists can all be used to spread disinformation. Digitally, social media spreads disinformation like the proverbial wildfire.

The birth of the word “disinformation” comes from the Russian word (dez-inform-ahhT-see-ahh) dezinformatsiya. Joseph Stalin coined the term in 1923 derived from the title of the KGB black propaganda “special disinformation office” department. Disinformation was formally defined in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia in 1952 as “false information with the intention to deceive public opinion”.

Disinformation is meant to instill fear and confuse its intended target by blurring the lines between fact and fiction. Disinformation’s primary purpose is to spread conspiracy theories that isolate readers and viewers from alternative viewpoints to create a cloud of confusion and paranoia.

In 2016, the operation was fairly simply. Most of the trolls were coming from a big office in St. Petersburg, Russia, but now…they are getting help from scammers in Nigeria and Ghana.

These trolls have almost totally focused on racial issues in the US, and they promote things like the empowerment of African Americans and pushing anger on white Americans. The goal is to divide the American public and promote unrest in society. Which unfortunately isn’t all that difficult.

There have been hundreds of accounts created by trolls in Ghana, and it is very possible that the content on these accounts has reached millions. But Twitter and Facebook have been looking into suspicious accounts, and they are removing accounts that are not legitimate. Facebook has said that almost 300,000 people were following these accounts on Facebook and Instagram, and about 65% of these people are in the US. Twitter has removed accounts, too, and notes that so far, these accounts had almost 70,000 followers. Most of these accounts are posting in English and alluding that they are in the US, specifically in Florida, New Orleans, and Brooklyn.

These posts are focusing on things like police brutality, the Black Lives Matter groups, shootings, and general racism.

What is interesting is that the US is not the only place these trolls are targeting. Lately, Russia has begun to show more interest in some other African countries, as it is believed that they want to exploit the resources that are present in Africa, including things like diamonds and gold. This has occurred in places like Sudan, Libya, and Mozambique. Politics are also on the table.

Divide and Conquer via Disinformation

The desired outcome of disinformation by its author is to divide and conquer or rule the persons who are manipulated by it. The Oxford definition of “divide and conquer” is the policy of “maintaining control over one’s subordinates or subjects by encouraging dissent between them”. In other words, from the perspective and motivation of the conman, “don’t trust them, trust me.”

Who is behind this? It is thought that all of these campaigns have some type of association with a Russian financier and close friend to Vladimir Putin.

This interest in Africa and the US is troubling, as it is showing how much control these people have on the public viewpoints of these countries. In other words, these groups are working hard to manipulate and divide us.

These groups are also not going away anytime soon. As soon as one of these accounts are discovered, a new one is quickly added.

ROBERT SICILIANO CSP, is a #1 Best Selling Amazon author, CEO of CreditParent.com, the architect of the CSI Protection certification; a Cyber Social and Identity and Personal Protection security awareness training program.