Dave and Bill  

Nancy McBride from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children talked with us about communication and their program "Take 25". Again communication, spending 25 minutes talking with your children once a week. This is the 21st Century, the Net-Generation, and not long ago the Internet didn't exist. Today your children, the Net-Generation, have no idea what it was like not to be plugged-in to the Internet. The Internet is an adult playground too, and just because your kids are tech-savvy, don't think for a moment their tech-savvyness offers any defense for their innocence.


As a parent, do you think you know your child well enough to outwit them? So, what makes you think expert pedophiles and predators couldn't outhit your child? Teach yourself and your children to be responsible cybercitizens, and you will have made a difference.

We talked about pfishing and the current fraud: an email telling you that if you haven't received your IRS rebate check you need to fill out this form, which asks for your personal information. You can hear more about this 9 minutes and approximately 28 seconds into the interview. Businesses will not send you an email asking for personal information.

Usually, you become a victim because you've given someone the opportunity to victimize you. And the game is to take away opportunity.


Kirk shared with our listeners some simple things to avoid becoming a victim:

1. The #1 opportunity for an identity thief is the mail. Consider a locked mailbox, a post office box, and outgoing mail with the flag up is a high-five for an identity thief. Drop it off at the Post Office or a secure mail box. Kirk suggested paying your bills over the Internet and limits that exposure for those important bills from being snatched.

2. The 2nd opportunity for an identity thief is trash. Dumpster diving is still a major choice of identity thieves and so is your personal trash. Do you know what makes good trash for an identity thief? Get a good shredder.

Consumers are fed up and business owners better take heed and investigate better security practices.

Data breeches are up 69%. Businesses need to take measures to protect your personal information. There is talk and some movement towards businesses being sued for lack of due dilligence in protecting customers information correctly. There are two lawsuits currently underway in Utah that will have a big impact on businesses. "Consumers are tired of not having their information safeguarded", said Kirk.

"I beg people to take advantage of the Federal law that went into effect a couple of years ago, that allows you to access your credit report", said Kirk. You can hear Kirk's comment about this at approximately 19 minutes and 38 seconds into the show. I will tell you this, the purpose to get your free credit reports is to catch it as fast as you can. Team up with your spouse and get six reports a year. Get your free report at AnnualCreditReport.com

"We sat around the Attorney General's office, and even though it wasn't really our core mission to do something about it, we felt compelled to do it, because we would sit down with the victims on a daily basis and felt like man there's got to be a better way through technology to deal with this issue". FTC reports can take as much as 600 hours. If you ever suspect you are a victim of Identity Theft act quickly and go to the IRIS (Identity Theft
Response Information System) web site and fill out an affidavit report to verify that they are a victim and get it out to the agencies. Find more information on this beginning around 26 minutes 30 seconds into the show.

After Kirk attended a summit that focused on Identity Theft that gathered many of the industries authorities in the field, ... "the number one message to the summit was, if you think Identity Theft is going to be solved by the old fashioned criminal justice method... think again". Identity Theft is growing so dramatically that law enforcement can't handle all the cases. Without a police report you may end up going nowhere and part of the
nightmare is you're treated like a criminal.

An area of concern that is growing and has the attention of the Attorney General's office are the growing number of young people's identities and social security numbers being compromised. Why would I think my 1 year old would be concerned about his/her credit? There shouldn't be one. Not so. Parents need to be aware, it's happening.


Check your child's credit.

This is one reason why Bill and I subscribe to Managed Security Service and an Identity theft Monitoring service. When Kirk was asked what he thought about combining a managed security service, identity monitoring and identity insurance his response was, "it depends on how active you want to be". "I would suggest that people not get a product and then say good, now I don't have to worry about anything". "For example, you know it doesn't make sense to have a product and then not go through your credit card statement every month, or your bank statement every month". "Explore those products I think there are good ones out there". We agree with Kirk, it's a combination of being a Responsible CyberCitizen, and using the proactive measures Kirk suggested.

"... I freely give to them, to look over and evaluate my computer by doing a remote access and cleaning it up whenever I need it, said David C Ballard. Kirk responded, "Now, now, that's a really good point because I think with technology that is an area, that if you're in business...if you're like me and you really don't know much about technology. You really better get someone who can go in and look at your system and make sure it's got proper firewalls, and make sure it's got proper protection". 43minutes 53 seconds - 44minutes 25 seconds into the show

Did I hear Kirk say, that sometimes the victims spend 600 to 700 hours repairing their identities? How much is your time worth. Dave and Bill of The CyberHood Watch recommend our listeners implement Kirk's proactive suggestions. These are the kind of suggestions, if implemented, will help develop responsible cybercitizens. In addition to Kirk's suggestions we also provide our families with a personal/professional computer service with remote access capability, security technicians, identity theft monitoring (family - children - aging parents), parental PC monitoring, and someone who handles security IT technical problems and malware removal. It's about having good technical internet security ( I prefer to outsource that) find a good service. However, if you want to move in the direction of doing your own security, let us know.

If you could do just one thing, what would that be? "If people would do this, they would pay attention to, of course their security on their computers... make sure you have proper firewalls and all of that stuff, that also, making sure the mail isn't going to be compromised to the best of your ability, which is critical, make sure you're not throwing stuff away in the trash that has personal identifying information and one other thing, make sure you look at your statements every month, look for red flags...opt out of unsolicited offers..." www.idtheft.gov

Be Proactive.