Parents Navigating the Social Media Mess

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Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert

Children say and do things that make them vulnerable to dangers in the outside world. A parent can parent all day long and do everything possible to protect their kids from themselves, but a child’s persistence to have their way can wear a parent down. It’s a constant fight that makes a parent adopt a philosophy where they “pick their battles.”

Growing up, it wasn’t all that uncommon for a parent to spank their kids to teach them a lesson. I experienced the occasional “windmill” from my father that set me straight more than once. And I’m thankful for it. By all accounts, if you add up all the number of risks I took and how many times the speedometer redlined and all the stupid things I did, I really shouldn’t be writing this. If a cat has nine lives I have 999,999,999,999. I think that’s trillion.

At one point political correctness crept into our culture and the fear of a child calling the Department of Social Services (DSS) on their parents because of a deserved fanny smack sent a cold chill down every parent’s spine. I’m certainly not saying it’s OK to beat your kids, or cage them for that matter. And when a child has zero fear of a parent, they tend to walk all over them. It’s in their nature to manipulate until they get their way. I’m just sayin’.

A 16 year old ungrateful, self righteous teen has filed charges against his mother for making entries on his Facebook page. The kid further filed a no contact order against his mother. The mother apparently took over his Facebook account after she noticed some reckless behavior.

She was quoted saying “I read things on his Facebook about how he had gone to Hot Springs one night and was driving 95 m.p.h. home because he was upset with a girl and it was his friend that called me and told me about all this that prompted me to even actually start really going through his Facebook to see what was going on.”

What mother wouldn’t be concerned?  Hey kid, the day you deliver anything in excess of 10 pounds out of an orifice on your body, then you can have a say. I hope you have kids just like you.

I think my head is going to explode.

Protect your identity.

1. Get a credit freeze and follow the steps for your particular state. This is an absolutely necessary tool to secure your credit. In most cases, it prevents new accounts from being opened in your name. This makes your Social Security number useless to a potential identity thief.

2. Invest in Intelius identity theft protection and prevention. Not all forms of identity theft can be prevented, but identity theft protection services can dramatically reduce your risk. (Disclosures)

Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Speaker discussing Breach of 3.3 million Social Security numbers on Good Morning America

Is Your Facebook Friend a Fed, or Sex Offender?

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When you think about it, Facebook is weird. Where else in the world do you call people who you don’t know your friends? I probably have about 10-15 friends. Most are acquaintances and the others 400 are total strangers.

There’s a lot of excessive trust in the Facebook world. People have entirely dropped their sense of cynicism when logged on. They have no reason to distrust. People who are your “Friends” are generally those who you “know, like and trust.” In this world, your guard is as down as it will ever be. You are in the safety of your own home or office hanging with people all over the world in big cities and little towns and never have to watch your back.

Reports of sex offenders on social media abound. Do you know who your child is befriending?

Many of the “strangers” came into my life as a result of what I do, and I appreciate and accept them for connecting. But I know plenty of other people who don’t write or do media and might be in college, and have 2000 friends! And they know 5 of them! Social media is weird.

Employers, potential employers and others will often friend someone for the sole purposes of getting a solid profile of that person to determine if they want to hire them. Now the AP reports “U.S. law enforcement agents are following the rest of the Internet world into popular social-networking services, going undercover with false online profiles to communicate with suspects and gather private information, according to an internal Justice Department document that offers a tantalizing glimpse of issues related to privacy and crime-fighting.”

I don’t think there is anything wrong with this; it’s a good thing actually. There is a question of legality and whether or not government agents can pose as someone else and lie, which often violates the terms and conditions of the sites themselves.

But the fact remains, there are bad people out there and they need looking after. And if it means an FBI agent posing as someone to catch the bad guy, I’m all for it. So next time you get a friend request from a stranger, they might be someone checking up on you. Guilty conscience? Hope not.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing social media security on Fox Boston.

New Facebook Phish Steals Passwords

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I got an email from a colleague today:  Subject: “My Facebook account got hacked.”

I wonder if you could give me some guidance here –

I received the following email from Facebook:

——————————————————————–

From: Facebook [XXXXXX@facebook.com]

Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 5:58 AM

To: XXXXXXXXXXX

Subject: Security Warning From Facebook

Dear XXXXXXXXXX,

We have detected suspicious activity on your Facebook account and have temporarily suspended your account as a security precaution.

You can regain control of your account by logging into Facebook and following the on-screen instructions.

Please be sure to visit the Facebook Help Center (http://www.facebook.com/help/) for further information regarding these security issues and let us know if you need assistance.

Thanks,

Facebook Security Team

————————————————————————-

Reuters reports Hackers have long targeted Facebook users, sending them tainted messages via the social networking company’s own internal email system. With this new attack, they are using regular Internet email to spread their malicious software.

McAfee estimates that hackers sent out tens of millions of spam across Europe, the United States and Asia since the campaign began on Tuesday.

Dave Marcus, McAfee’s director of malware research and communications, said that he expects the hackers will succeed in infecting millions of computers.

“With Facebook as your lure, you potentially have 400 million people that can click on the attachment. If you get 10 percent success, that’s 40 million,” he said.

McAfee says:

Tip 1: Do not open the attachment. Promptly delete the Facebook scam email.

Tip 2: Consumers can protect their computer from this type of cybercrime by installing a complete security software suite that includes anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewall protection.

Tip 3: Consumers should make sure they are running the most up-to-date security software and their subscription is active.

Tip 4: If consumers are unsure if their security software vendor has an update for this type of malware, McAfee recommends that they check for and install any available updates, then immediately run a full scan.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing Facebook hacking on CNN.

 

How to Hack a Corporate Network…with Facebook

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Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert

There’s a lot of excessive trust in the Facebook world. People have entirely dropped their sense of cynicism when logged on. They have no reason to distrust. People who are your “Friends” are generally those who you “know, like and trust”. In this world, your guard is as down as it will ever be. You are in the safety of your own home or office hanging with people all over the world in big cities and little towns and never have to watch your back.

Ethical hackers are the tech industries white nights, also known as “white hat hackers”. Steve Stasiukonis from Secure Network Technologies is such a person. He’s hired by by companies CIO’s to penetrate an organizations network to determine where its vulnerabilities are.

The process of a white hat starts with a permission based hack that often leads to results that make the CIO nauseous. Getting the data may mean hacking a wireless connection, hacking a public facing website, or even going through a skylight after hours. In Dark Reading Steve writes about how he did it with a fake badge and a Facebook profile. This is a perfect example of how vulnerable people make themselves and their corporate networks because of what they post to Facebook.

We started the project by scouring all of the social networking sites for employees of our target company. Not surprisingly, we found numerous people who openly discussed what they did for a living. We also found numerous employees who openly discussed disappointment in their employer.

We perused popular social networking site like MySpace, LinkedIn, and Plaxo, and ended up focusing on Facebook.com. The majority of our customer’s employees were using Facebook, so we created a Facebook group site identified as “Employees of” the company. Using a fictitious identity, we then proceeded to “friend,” or invite, employees to our “company” Facebook site. Membership grew exponentially each day.

By creating a group, they were able to get access to employees profiles. The “group” is a place where those who you know, like and trust are your “Friends” and in this case fellow employees who you have no reason to distrust.

Because our assignment required us to compromise a secured facility, we chose to use the identity of one of our Facebook-friended employees to gain access to the building.

Because of the companies size they were able to recreate the identity of an employee that wasn’t known to the branch office to which they breached. But his name was still in the system. So with a little creativity, a fake business card and enough information gleaned off of Facebook, they were able to re-create their man.

On the day we intended to breach the facility, our guy was dressed with a shirt embroidered with our client’s logo, and armed him with business cards, a fake company badge, and his laptop. Upon entering the building, he was immediately greeted by reception. Our man quickly displayed his fake credentials and immediately began ranting about the perils of his journey and how important it was for him to get a place to check his email and use a restroom. Within in seconds, he was provided a place to sit, connection to the Internet, and a 24×7 card access key to the building.

Later that evening, he returned to the empty office building to conduct a late-night hacking session. Within a short period of time, he had accessed the company’s sensitive secrets.

Awesome. This is a perfect example of why Facebook is a nightmare to the corporate CIO. I don’t share that trust that most people have in Facebook. I’m all business on Facebook. I’m not all that friendly. Kind of a stiff. I’m also a security professional, not so trusting. So to my “Friends” (the actual 10 out of the 400 that I have) I apologize to all. I’m just not ready to share my daily routine with everyone just yet. If ever.

People often try to “friend” me, and I can see that they are “friends” with people I know. But I don’t know them. And the mutual friends often tell me that they don’t know the person, but were “friends” with someone else they knew, and they accepted based on that! That’s nuts! Next thing you know, they are trolling through your “friends” and befriending people in your network, who accept based on their trust in you! Dizzy yet? The point is, stop the madness! Don’t allow these trolls into your life. Mom told you not to talk to strangers. I’m telling you not to “friend” strangers, because they could be scammers.

Scammers are watching. They know that once you are on Facebook, your guard goes way down.

  1. Get a credit freeze. Go to ConsumersUnion.org and follow the steps for your particular state. This is an absolutely necessary tool to secure your credit. In most cases, it prevents new accounts from being opened in your name. This makes your Social Security number useless to a potential identity thief.
  2. Invest in Intelius identity theft protection and prevention. Not all forms of identity theft protection can be prevented, but identity theft protection services can dramatically reduce your risk. (Disclosures)

Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Speaker discussing Facebook hacking on CNN

Facebook Newest Portal for Social Media Identity Theft

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Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert

Imagine trying to log into your online accounts one after the other and being locked out. At first you think the site you are visiting screwed up but then it keeps happening over and over again no matter where you go.  Then you start receiving messages from friends and family asking you why you are behaving so freakishly online.

This is what happened to Matasha Allen as described in the Eastern Michigan Universitys Eastern Echo.

“Allen, 28, was a substitute teacher at the time, teaching music as well as elementary classes. Her only outlet to the Internet was limited to libraries and public computer labs, where she would check her accounts, look through e-mail and stay in touch with friends on Facebook. It was during one of these trips to the computers that it happened, Allen deduced. She thinks her Facebook account wasn’t completely logged off, or the computer didn’t log out. However it happened, someone found their way onto Allen’s accounts and took complete control.

“Social media is built on the honor system. There are no checks and balances to prove who is who. Anyone can pose as you and blog as you. This makes for social media identity theft,” said Robert Siciliano, a security consultant for Intelius.com and a speaker on preventing identity theft.

“The problem with social media identity theft is that when it takes over your account, all the people that you communicate with within your account may believe the identity thief is you. And when that identity thief begins to ask for money, from your friends and from your family and your coworkers, then they may actually pull money out of their pocket and send it via Western Union to the imposter. They think that you’ve actually come into the trouble that the identity thief is saying you’re in.”

In Allen’s case, her identity theft didn’t escalate to the thief asking for money from friends, but the thief was malicious. Messages were sent to friends and family, using profanity and insults. One of the incidents Allen related was toward an organization focusing on eliminating poverty in children. The identity thief sent the organization a message reading, “I hate children. I hope they all starve.””

  1. Steer clear of public computers whenever possible, or at least not accessing accounts or sites that require passwords.
  2. If you use a public PC get a USB drive that has a built in browser that allows you to surf securely
  3. No matter what PC you use to access accounts always log out when your are done
  4. Register your name at as many social media sites as possible. Use Knowem.com to do it for you.

Protect your identity. Get a credit freeze. Go to ConsumersUnion.org and follow the steps for your particular state. This is an absolutely necessary tool to secure your credit. In most cases, it prevents new accounts from being opened in your name. This makes your Social Security number useless to a potential identity thief.

Invest in Intelius identity theft protection and prevention. Not all forms of identity theft protection can be prevented, but identity theft protection services can dramatically reduce your risk. (Disclosures)

Robert Siciliano identity theft speaker discussing social media identity theft on  on Fox Boston

10 Ways to Prevent Social Media Scams

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Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert

For the past year, I’ve been screaming about the trouble with social media as it relates to identity theft, brand hijacking, privacy issues, and the opportunity social media creates for criminals to “friend” their potential victims in order to create a false sense of trust and use that against their victims in phishing or other scams. I predicted long ago that the problem will get a lot worse before it gets better and there’s no question about it, criminal hackers have taken hold and are in full force.

We hear about a new Twitter phishing scam almost daily, whether it’s via direct messaging or a shortened URL. My spam folder is filled with emails from Facebook phishers, requesting new login credentials, or a “friend” who’s sending me a video that’s actually a virus.

Not too long ago, it was big news when someone had their Facebook account jacked by someone who impersonated the victim, claiming to have lost their wallet in the UK and begging for a money wire. Lately, I see another story about another victim every week.

Last time I checked, Facebook had more than 400 million users and Twitter has more than 50 million. These numbers jump exponentially every month, and old and new users are still being victimized.

James Carnall, manager of the cyberintelligence division at security monitoring firm Cyveillance, says, “Social media cybersquatting is where domain name cybersquatting was ten years ago”.

Scammers aren’t just stealing identities and spreading malware. They are brand jacking in ways that are hurting companies’ bottom lines. While many may not have sympathy for the bottoms lines of billion dollar corporations, this hurts the little guy, too. Knock off software, hardware, merchandise, and movies ultimately cost legitimate taxpayers jobs and hurt the economy when the money is heading to criminal hackers elsewhere in the world. Liz Miller, vice president of the Chief Marketing Officer Council, says, “Counterfeiting operations are highly organized, are very global and are picking up steam because of the economy.”

MarkMonitor, a company that tracks online threats for its clients, determined that phishing attacks on social networking sites increased by 164% over the past year. And in a CMO Council survey of 4,500 senior marketing executives, nearly 20% of the respondents said they had been affected by online scams and phishing schemes that had hijacked brand names. These statistics undeniably point to organized crime syndicates.

Protect yourself from social media identity theft.

  1. Register your full name and those of your spouse and kids on the most trafficked social media sites, blogs, domains or web based email accounts. If your name is already gone, include your middle initial, a period or a hyphen. It’s up to you to decide whether or not to plug in your picture and basic bio, but consider leaving out your age or birthday. You can do this manually or by using a very cost effective service called Knowem.com.
  2. Register all your officers, company names and branded products on every social media site you can find to prevent Twitter squatting and cybersquatting.
  3. Get free alerts. Set up Google alerts for your name and get an email every time your name pops up online. Set up a free StepRep account for your name. StepRep is an online reputation manager that does a better job than Google does of fetching your name on the web.
  4. Implement policies. Social media is a great platform for connecting with existing and potential clients. However, without some type of policy in place that regulates employee access and guidelines for appropriate behavior, social media may eventually be completely banned from every corporate network. Teach effective use by provide training on proper use and especially what not do to.
  5. Encourage URL decoding. Before clicking on shortened URLs, find out where they lead by pasting them into a URL lengthening service like TinyURL Decoder or Untiny.
  6. Limit social networks. In my own research, I’ve found 300-400 operable social networks serving numerous uses from music to movies, from friending to fornicating. Some are more or less appropriate and others even less secure. Knowem has a mind blowing list of 4600 as of this writing.
  7. Train IT personnel. Effective policies begin from the top down. Those responsible for managing technology need to be fully up to speed.
  8. Maintain updated security. Whether hardware or software, anti-virus or critical security patches, make sure you are up to date.
  9. Lock down settings. Most social networks have privacy settings that need to be administered to the highest level. Default settings generally leave the networks wide open for attack.
  10. Invest in Intelius identity theft protection and prevention. Not all forms of identity theft protection can be prevented, but identity theft protection services can dramatically reduce your risk. “Disclosures”

Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Speaker with ID Analytics discussing Social Media Identity Theft on Fox Boston

High-Tech Harassment in Social Media

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Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert

Technology keeps providing new opportunities for harassment: social media identity theft, cell phone abuse, online bullying, the list goes on.

Over a year ago, I appeared on The Tyra Show to discuss high tech harassment. I met a family from Washington, who found that several of their phones had been hacked and were being used to spy on and harass them. The hacker was able to turn a compromised phone on and off, use the phone’s camera to take pictures, and use the speakerphone to record their private conversations. Every time they rerun the episode, I get emails from more victims.

In an even more shocking instance of high tech harassment, a hacker took over a woman’s Facebook account while she was on a camping trip, with no Internet and no cell phone service. The hacker impersonated this woman, but instead of attempting to scam her family and friends out of cash, he used her Facebook profile to post suicidal messages, including, “My only friend is the handgun in the back of my closet,” and, “I don’t want a funeral or memorial, I want it to be like I never existed.” After two and a half hours of Facebook drama, the victim happened to regain cell phone reception and discovered twenty voicemail messages begging her not to do “anything drastic.” By the time her son was able to get in touch with her, there were police gathered outside her home, preparing to break down the door.

In this incident, the victim was the mother of a Navy Seal who died in Iraq. It’s believed that she was targeted because of her charity work celebrating the lives of deceased military personnel.

But this can happen to anybody.

  1. Strengthen your passwords; use upper/lower case, numbers and characters. Don’t use easily guessed words from the dictionary or pets, kids, birthdates etc.
  2. Don’t access social media from libraries, internet cafes or any public computers that could have spyware.
  3. Make sure your own PC has updated virus definitions and security patches. Don’t bother with all the 3rd party apps in social media. Many are risky.
  4. Don’t click on links in emails from “friends” asking you to download a video or see pictures. This is becoming a common ruse in social media.

Invest in Intelius identity theft protection and prevention. Not all forms of identity theft protection can be prevented, but identity theft protection services can dramatically reduce your risk.

Robert Siciliano, identity theft speaker, discusses high tech harassment on the Mike ad Juliet Show on FOX

A Glorious Week of Identity Theft

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Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert

If there was ever a week to get high, totally drunk, on information security and identity theft scammers and hackers, then this is it! Media outlets everywhere have been pumping out story after story of data breaches, identity theft, criminal hackers and indictments! Yeah team! For a criminal hacker groupie, this is Woodstock!

Dark reading reports Eight defendants were arraigned in a Brooklyn court for allegedly using the stolen identities of AT&T, T-Mobile, and Asurion customers to steal some $22 million worth of wireless equipment and services. An indictment was unsealed in Brooklyn federal court yesterday morning charging Courtney Beckford and seven other defendants. When identity theft defendants named Courtney, Gabe, Marsha, Saul and Ron are involved in a $22 million identity theft scheme, then you know it’s just a matter of time until someone named Britney or Brad will get busted too! It’s the identity theft apocalypse!

ABC News reports that a former informant for the Secret Service was one of three men charged with stealing credit and debit card information from 170 million accounts in the largest data breach in history. The former informant, Albert Gonzalez of Florida, A.K.A “Segvec”, “SoupNazi,” and “j4guar17,” whose motto was ”Get Rich or Die Tryin’” was alleged to have been the ringleader of the criminal hacking operation of a prolific network that spans over five years of serious criminal activity.

Information week reports in the first half of 2009, the number of computer users affected by malware engineered to steal personal information has risen by 600% compared to the January through June period in 2008, according to PandaLabs. In quantitative terms, Panda reports identifying 391,406 computers infected with identity-theft malware in the first six months of the year. Identity thieves are also seeking sensitive information through a more diverse set of targets. Where previously financial data thieves focused on spoofing online bank sites to dupe users into entering login information, they have recently been targeting a variety of services where payment account information may be stored or entered, like PayPal, Amazon, eBay, or charity sites.

Cnet reports Rogue Facebook apps steal log-in data, send spam. Security firm Trend Micro warned on Wednesday that a handful of rogue Facebook apps are stealing log-in credentials and spamming victims’ friends. So far, six malicious applications have been identified: “Stream,” “Posts,” “Your Photos,” “Birthday Invitations,” “Inbox (1),” “Inbox (2)” according to a blog post by Trend Micro researcher Rik Ferguson. The activity started earlier in the week with a Facebook notification Ferguson says he got from an app called “sex sex sex and more sex!!!,” which has more than 287,000 fans. The notification said that someone had commented on one of his posts. That app doesn’t appear to be malicious and may have been compromised somehow to begin the distribution of the spam, he said.

USA Today reports Hackers harness Twitter to do their dirty work.  A cyber gang has begun experimenting with setting up free Twitter accounts, then sending out Tweets from the popular micro-blogging service that are really coded instructions to botted PCs to carry out criminal activities. Anti-virus maker Symantec has isolated several samples of infected PCs carrying a unique new infection, dubbed “Sninfs.”

The PCs most likely got infected when their users unwittingly clicked to a tainted web page or on a corrupted link carried in an email or social network message, says Marc Fossi research and development manager at Symantec Security Response.

Protect yourself;

Don’t just sit back and get hacked. Arm yourself with anti-virus that runs automatically in the background and prevents “Courtney, Marsha and SoupNazi” from stealing your identity. Pick up McAfee’s Total Protection software and take control of your PC security.

Get a credit freeze. Go to ConsumersUnion.org and follow the steps for your particular state. This is an absolutely necessary tool to secure your credit. In most cases, it prevents new accounts from being opened in your name. This makes your Social Security number useless to a potential identity thief.

Invest in Intelius identity theft protection and prevention. Not all forms of identity theft protection can be prevented, but identity theft protection services can dramatically reduce your risk.

Robert Siciliano identity theft speaker discussing the sad state of cyber security on Fox News and check washing and campus security on ABC News.

Social Media Banned, Creates Identity Theft Risk

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Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert

The Marines recently banned soldiers from using social media sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. This is for two reasons. First, because they fear that these sites’ lack of security may allow malware to infiltrate government computers. And second, they’re concerned about the potential for leaked military data. Military personnel are often prohibited from informing friends and family of their locations or missions, regardless of whether they’re communicating with handwritten letters, email, or the telephone. These measures are necessary to prevent leaks that would impede the soldiers’ missions and safety.

It’s no surprise that they have now banned social media.  I recently reported on Sir John Sawers, the incoming head of MI6, the British equivalent of the CIA. His wife posted sensitive personal information to her Facebook page, including the address of the couple’s London apartment and the locations of their children and Sir John’s parents. Military personnel should held to a higher standard. We are talking about national security here, and we can’t risk leaks that could jeopardize lives.

Anyone who thinks this is absurd need only look at sporting events for confirmation of why this type of communication should be banned. Every time I watch a baseball or football game, when I see the coaches talking to players, or the pitcher talking to the catcher, they cover their mouths with a hand, glove or paperwork. Why? Because there are thousands of “lip readers” watching the event who are happy to report on what was just said in order to give the opposing team an advantage. You’d think after all these years covering their mouths, lip readers would just give up. But no, that’s not the case at all. There’s always someone watching, waiting, hoping for someone to screw up so they can give the other team an advantage.

Today, social media gives scammers an advantage. Somebody is always watching and waiting for an opportunity. Social media is built on trusting relationships. Scammers can exploit that trust to gather information that could be used in password attacks. If you ever forget your password and have to reset it, the answers to several of the security questions might already be available in your profile. And in many cases, the default privacy settings leave profiles open to anyone.

Security professionals were able to create a virus called ZombieSmiles, which gains control of the victim’s browser and allows the hacker to access supposedly private data through the Facebook API, including friends, groups, wall postings and applications. Facebook applications allow a third party to access your data, which opens a Pandora’s box of possibilities for hackers. So if you send me a Facebook application and I refuse, it isn’t because I’m being rude, it’s because I think that the potential risks simply outweigh the benefits. No offense. I just don’t want my identity stolen.

If you use social media and regularly update your status or profile with pictures, video, or information about your whereabouts or daily routines, please keep the following advice in mind:

  1. Before you post anything online, think about what a hacker, stalker, employer, or potential employer could do with that data. Could an ex, who’s fighting for custody, use the data against you in court?
  2. Don’t give away specifics. Don’t post your address, date of birth, kids’ names, pets’ names, phone numbers, or any account numbers or financial information of any kind. You really shouldn’t even post childrens’ photos online.
  3. Do not tell the world you are going on vacation! Or if you’re just going to dinner or the beach and won’t be at your house for several hours, why would you let potential burglars know that you’re away?
  4. If you’re a “partier” and like to imbibe, informing the world that you just smoked a joint is not only one of the worst things you could do for your career, it also makes all your friends guilty by association. And don’t announce that you’re hungover, because after the age of 23, you ought to know better.
  5. Before posting pictures or videos, consider what a criminal or potential employer might see. Could they be used against you in any way?
  6. If you let your kids use social media, you must monitor every aspect of their Internet activities. Pick up McAfee’s Family Protection software and take control of your childrens’ Internet use.
  7. Take advantage of privacy settings and lock down your profile, so that only those who you approve can view everything.
  8. Get a credit freeze. Go to ConsumersUnion.org and follow the steps for your particular state. This is an absolutely necessary tool to secure your credit. In most cases, it prevents new accounts from being opened in your name. This makes your Social Security number useless to a potential identity thief.
  9. Invest in Intelius identity theft protection and prevention. Not all forms of identity theft protection can be prevented, but identity theft protection services can dramatically reduce your risk.

Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Speaker discusses a Facebook Hack on CNN

Identity Thieves Gather Data From Social Networks

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Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert

There’s a lot of excessive trust in the Facebook world. People have entirely dropped their sense of cynicism when logged on. Apparently, they see no reason to distrust. Generally, your “friends” are people who you “know, like and trust.” In this world, your guard is as down as it will ever be. You can be in the safety of your own home or office, hanging with people from all over the world, in big cities and little towns, and never feel that you have to watch your back.

PC World reports that a third of social networkers have at least three pieces of information posted on their pages that could lead to identity theft. Names, addresses, birth dates, mothers’ maiden names, kids’ names, pets’ names and phone numbers are among the various types of data that could help a criminal piece together your identity. Social networkers are simply making it too easy for thieves.

Almost 80% of those polled are concerned about privacy issues on social networks, yet almost 60% are unaware of what their privacy settings are and who can see their data. One third of social networkers admitted that they use the same password for all their social networking accounts.

Most social networks have privacy settings that many users never venture to manage. It is imperative to spend a few minutes and lock down your profiles so they can’t be seen by everyone in the world.

It is not unusual for a potential identity thief to “friend” a potential victim. The thief poses as someone the target may know, or someone who is known within the target’s social circle. Once the thief has been accepted as a friend, he or she is in the target’s inner circle and gains a great deal of insight into the target’s daily life.

People often try to “friend” me, and I can see that they are “friends” with people I know. But I don’t know them. And the mutual friends often tell me that they don’t know the person, but were “friends” with someone else they knew, and they accepted based on that! That’s nuts! Next thing you know, they are trolling through your “friends” and befriending people in your network, who accept based on their trust in you! Dizzy yet? The point is, stop the madness! Don’t allow these trolls into your life. Mom told you not to talk to strangers. I’m telling you not to “friend” strangers, because they could be scammers.

Scammers are watching. They know that once they are on Facebook, your guard goes way down.

Regardless of all this craziness protect your identity.

1. Get a credit freeze. Go online now and search “credit freeze” or “security freeze” and go to consumersunion.org and follow the steps for the state you live in. This is an absolutely necessary tool to secure your credit. In most cases it prevents new accounts from being opened in your name. This makes the SSN useless to the thief.

2. Invest in Intelius Identity Theft Protection and Prevention. While not all forms of identity theft can be prevented, you can effectively manage your personal identifying information by knowing what’s buzzing out there in regards to YOU.

Includes;

Personal Identity Profile – Find out if you’re at risk for identity theft with a detailed report of your identity information, including a current credit report, address history, aliases, and more.

24/7 Identity Monitoring and Alerts – Prevent identity theft with automatic monitoring that scans billions of public records daily and alerts you to suspicious activity.

Identity Recovery Assistance – Let professionals help you recover your identity if you ever become a victim of identity theft.

Robert Siciliano Identity theft speaker discusses Facebook scams on CNN