IT Security : Identity Theft
August 10, 2023
IT Security, for whatever reason, is something that eludes even those whom consider themselves to be IT professionals. Most people are not all that concerned with security when it comes to digital resources and proof of that is the current state of digital identity theft.
Why even waste my digital breath on this topic? I find people generally don’t care until they know you care about them. Problem with this philosophy, is that they don’t know you care about them until the planets and stars align at just the right or wrong moment and that person gets in harms way. At that time, people begin to look for things that align with their personal experiences.
My aim is that this digital resource is one in a myriad of aids that will serve those who are searching to make sense of digital privacy and or security. The first place to begin to wade through this loft of information out there is through sources that are not there to gain by exploiting you financially. Non-profit organizations like the federal or local government are generally decent sources to begin with:
Because of the unique kaleidoscope that is the United States of America your city, town, county, parish, state, reservation, college or university may have information unique to where you reside. The phrase “reside” in our wonderful kaleidoscope of a country is so contextual.
Okay, now to greatly simplify things from a big picture point of view there are generally two things to consider in regards to “digital data”. That is data at-rest and data in-transit.
Data at-rest regards files that are stored on some physical device somewhere. Think about a photo you can see on your device.
Data in-transit regards data that is being moved through the “internets” before it reaches it’s data at-rest destination. Think about a text message as it is being sent from 1 device to the other.
Now to protect your data it is helpful to understand where your data is vulnerable. The most vulnerable spot are the end users and their many software and devices of choice. End users password, passcodes, multi-factor authentication strategy or lack-there-of on their devices is what makes most data unsecure. This includes data that is accessible by larger vendors.
There are a ton of products to sell to end users that are built around the thought of security. When it comes to your identity though, the best thing to do is to freeze your credit at each credit bureau. This is a free feature and painless process that everyone has the ability to do.
With your credit reports frozen from each respective bureau most credit based accounts are not able to be successfully opened unless the accounts are unfrozen.
The other feature to deploy if you have a card whether debit or credit that is attached to an account is to set a notification or alert to send you an email and or text message for every time that card is swiped. This gives you a heads up as it is critical to report fraudulent charges immediately to have a better chance at safe guarding your identity from theft.