Everyone would be familiar with information theft. Information theft is a scary issue for not only individual but also companies, organizations, and universities. You can be stolen important information such as, email password, bank information, and social security information.
In April 2006, University of Texas, Austin was attacked and downloaded personal information of 197, 000 students, alumni, and employees by hacker according to the article “Defending Your Identity” written by Robert Lemos of PC Magazine. Even though the rate of identity theft occurrence is becoming high, there is no way to avoid it. As long as we are accessing to the internet, it is sure that you may face cybercriminal.
Identity thefts are occurred on both online and paper. So it is important not to throw simply your bank statement, old bill, and financial records. To defend identity, Robert Lemos recommends getting annual credit reports from three major credit bureaus by enrolling one of the following
- Security Blankets, www.annualcreditreport.com
- IdentityGuard, www.identityguard.com
- Lifelock, www.lifelock.com
- MyFICO Identity Theft Security(FairIssac), www.myfico.com/Products/IDF/Description.aspx
Scott Raymond of ZDNet mentioned that accessing to the internet is running the risks. Most of the people know the danger of information theft but don’t for protection. It is possible to access remote until you cut off accessing to the internet by hackers. According to the US Department of Defense, successful network intrusion can be done using a rogue USB flash drive.
The reason that the cyber thieves are trying to capture your information are understood. So precaution is very important for all users. Opening email attachment file from the unknown sender is not recommended. It will be better staying away from porn web site. Make sure you always on the firewall even you don’t have hardware firewall, most of the operating system are included their built in firewall.
Scott Raymond stated that we need to be aware of social engineering which uses the human elements by hackers. Keeping password private is important. Avoid writing the password on the post-it note. Hackers can send you email including some website which is similar to your bank website by promoting something. Whenever you receive this kind of email, never type your bank information on before thinking twice. Otherwise they can access to your account. As the threat of information theft is dangerous, it is important not to forget to do the best to be safe, be careful, and be smart.
Sometimes, no matter how we are trying to do the things carefully, your personal banker can steal your bank information. According to the PC Word, one of the Bank of America center employees, Brian Matty Hagen stole the client information and tried to sell it for cash. Finally he pleaded guilty and he is going to face 30 years in jail and $ 1 million fine. This news alerts us to check our credit report regularly as Robert Lemos mentioned above.
CNN reported that cyber self-defense must be practiced actively. If you run automatic software updates, maintained up-to-date antivirus software, you can be safer from cyber-threats and cyber-attacks
As U.S economy and component of the U.S. government is all depended on networked information technologies, Federal government’s cybersecurity is very important. The more dependencies grow, the greater cyberattacks occur. So, the intelligence community has taken an essential role in cybersecurity.
References
Shelly, Gary and Misty Vermaat. Discovering Computers 2010. Boston: Course Technology, 2010
PCmag. (2006, June 21). ”Defending Your Identity.” Retrieved September 19, 2010 from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1978634,00.asp
ZDNET. (2010, August 27). “Personal Computer Security: Using Uncommon Sense.” Retrieved September 19, 2010 from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/personal-computer-security-using-uncommon-sense/13878?tag=content;search-results-rivers
CNN Opinion. (2010, September 3). “Cyber self-defense can help U.S. security.” Retrieved September 19, 2010 from http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/09/03/senators.cyber.security
PCWorld. (2010, June 7). “Bank of America Call Center Worker Pleads Guilty to Data Theft” Retrieved September 19, 2010 from http://www.pcworld.com/article/198263/
