Protecting your identity while on vacation
Go ahead. Take your vacation.
But stay on the job of securing your privacy and protecting your identity.
"According to the FBI, crime rates rise about ten percent during summer months," said Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse ( www.privacyrights.org ).
The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse's six tips to protect your property, privacy and identity while on vacation:
* DON'T BROADCAST YOUR VACATION . "Always be careful with the information you share on...Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare," Stephens said. "You wouldn't put a sign on your front door saying, 'Away On Vacation,' so you shouldn't do so electronically by publicly broadcasting your travel plans on a social networking site."
* CLEAN OUT YOUR WALLET AND PURSE . Don't carry unnecessary credit cards, your Social Security card or other documents that thieves can use to steal your identity. If you must carry your Medicare card, carry instead a copy WITHOUT the last four digits of your Social Security number.
To limit the chances of a thief clearing out your checking account, Stephens recommended not carrying your debit card or checkbook on vacation. Use cash or credit cards instead. Never use a debit card at a restaurant or shop where you cannot witness the card-swipe transaction.
* FREEZE YOUR MAIL AND NEWSPAPER DELIVERY . Have a neighbor collect your mail and paper, or request your local post office to suspend mail delivery for the duration of your vacation.
* PLAN AHEAD FOR ATM WITHDRAWALS . If you must use an ATM card while on vacation, consider one that does not have debit card privileges -- just straight withdrawals of cash (one without VISA or MasterCard designations). Most banks will offer customers that option for travel.
* BEWARE INSECURE WI-FI NETWORKS . If you're surfing the Internet at a cyber-cafe, hotel business center or condominiums with public Wi-Fi, it's wide open to hackers or "war-drivers." Do not perform online banking or access sites that require your log-in's or passwords.
* USE THE HOTEL ROOM SAFE . That's why it's there -- so if you must leave your wallet or valuables in the room, you can seal them shut from house-keeping, thieves with your room card, etc.
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse - News
The next time you're planning to head out of town, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse has several tips to keep you --- and your information --- safe. 1. Don't broadcast your vacation. Refrain from talking about your trip on social media like Facebook or
The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse has 6 simple tips to protect your privacy. “Things can go wrong and thieves know that and they are on the lookout for mistakes families make before they go on vacation," says Amber Yoo of the Privacy Rights
"According to the FBI, crime rates rise about ten percent during summer months," said Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (www.privacyrights.org). * DON'T BROADCAST YOUR VACATION.
Beth Givens of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse recommends ordering one now, one from another agency in four months and the third in another four months. That will, theoretically, boost your chances of catching a problem. Freeze your credit account.
But the group, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, says you can protect your privacy by following a few common sense tips. For example, clean out your wallet and purse -- remove any unnecessary credit cards, your Social Security card and other unneeded
Sony Hacked Again
It is no secret to anyone that between the dates of April 17th and 19th, still as yet unnamed hackers broke into Sony’s database and stole the personal data of more than 100 million users of Sony’s PS3 Network, Qriocity entertainment service and the online gaming network, Sony Online. Sony claims to be using industry standard security measures and was forced to shut down their network for three weeks and revamp everything from the ground up. PlayStation Store was not back in action until the 1st of June.
It may surprise some, then, that after all of the media attention surrounding this major breach of security, that the group called “Lulzsec” is claiming to have attacked the servers yet again and say that they have walked away with unencrypted security information. According to examples of their hacking as provided on Twitter (when challenged for proof of their claims) it looks as though they did indeed hack Sony networks and web sites, including Sony Music Belgium, Sony Music Netherlands and Sony Pictures. Lulzsec wrote, on the site of Pastebin, the following:
“We recently broke into SonyPictures.com and compromised over 1,000,000 users’ personal information, including passwords, email addresses, home addresses, dates of birth and all Sony opt-in data associated with their accounts. Among other things, we also compromised all admin details of Sony Pictures (including passwords) along with 75,000 ‘music codes’ and 3.5 million ‘music coupons’.”
The sobering claim from Lulzsec is that the group says that not only did it gain access to SonyPictures.com with a single SQL injection, but, “What’s worse is that every bit of data we took wasn’t encrypted. Sony stored over 1,000,000 passwords of its customers in plaintext, which means it’s just a matter of taking it,” (as posted online). “This is disgraceful and insecure: they were asking for it. “
While it’s probable that the general public would not agree that Sony was asking to have its customers private information compromised, it’s hard to disagree on the point about nothing being encrypted. After such an unprecedented and well publicized attack in April, one can’t help but wonder how “industry standard” doesn’t require the encryption of sensitive information. Employee and admin passwords can well be looked upon as the gateway to everything else and with customers around the world, one would think that Sony would have a vested interest in protecting their private information. That certainly seemed to be the case when considering their swift response to previous hackings.
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