At the organization where I work, my CTO and good friend has been talking about identity theft for literally years in various public and private forums. He’s become quite the expert in defending against identity theft and getting people to understand what to do to protect themselves. Ironically even he, with all his safeguards and protections, has recently become a victim of identity theft.

However, because of his safeguards, his time to fix the situation and mitigate any damage to his credit was minimal compared to most other people. He spent about 60 hours and no out-of-pocket money to rectify his situation. Most victims of identity theft spend an average of 600 hours (!!) and $1,400 in out-of-pocket expenses recovering from this crime. Just three years ago the average time to recover was 175 hours - still an unseemly amount of time, but that shows just how much more damage is being caused today by thieves.

Both my wife and I have over the years implemented many of the same safeguards and protections. The single most effective technique for us, and in fact the key that allowed my friend to mitigate all of the damage from his theft, is to have a credit check system in place. This system will automatically check your credit report and have you alerted of any changes on a frequent basis - like once a week. This is not something you really want to do yourself, given the cost of obtaining credit reports and the time involved in checking for changes. However, there are companies that will, for a small fee, do this for you.

The best I’ve come across, and what both my wife and I have personally used for a couple years, is the MyFICO Identity Theft Security Deluxe. At just $50/year (or monthly for just $5/month) it’s a very inexpensive way to monitor your identity.

MyFICO not only watches your credit and alerts you of any changes, it also helps you manage your credit in various ways. In fact, after first signing up, I was personally able to raise my credit score by over 100 points based on the information I gathered using MyFICO services. I know others who’ve had similar experiences when first getting involved in this or similar services.

I don’t want to turn this into a sales pitch nor do I want to be seen as propagating FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt). What I want to do is enforce the idea that vulnerabilities not only exist in the IT world but also in your personal life. You need to be aware of these vulnerabilities and take affective steps to mitigate the risk they introduce to you and your family’s well-being.

Be safe!

P.S. Want to determine how susceptible you are to identity theft? I’ve taken the quiz that my CTO uses during his speeches and created a nice little online quiz that will grade and rank where you are. Check it out here!

(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Posted: November 9th, 2006 at 9:35 am.
Tags: Security.
Filed under: Misc, Security.
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