Joining the chat, among others, were Stop.Think.Connect., Clarity for Consumers, CSID and Experian. It was an excellent forum for companies and consumers to discuss WiFi vulnerabilities. Besides tweeting about loads of information on how we can best help the public protect themselves from identity theft while using WiFi, we learned some very interesting WiFi names. Stop.Think.Connect told us that the funniest name they had seen was “Not Your Internet,” while another favorite was “FBI Surveillance.” We hope all of those who participated in the event learned something and will continue to spread the word about staying safe in WiFi.

As with all ID Theft Chats, the questions for discussion were posted prior to the event and these particular questions led to some very insightful sharing of resources and ideas. The first question we asked participants was if they used public WiFi. We wanted to know how often people used this technology and how they used it. This kind of information is always helpful to those of us trying to protect consumers because from it we are able to determine how to make our efforts most effective. Responses to this question ranged from those of us who could not go a minute without WiFi to some who used it sparingly.

From asking our second question, we found that not everyone knew that WiFi was not secure. We were able to provide those people with information to educate them. We asked if anyone had heard of identity theft happening due to use of public WiFi and were weren’t surprised to hear that someone’s friend had used the WiFi in an airport in Ecuador only to arrive home to credit card fraud. In wrapping up the chat we asked what people were doing to stay safe on WiFi and were excited to hear that many of the participants were using a VPN like PRIVATE WiFi and taking others measures to protect themselves.

The next ID Theft Twitter Chat, on June 6th at 2PM EST/11AM PST, will be about the topic of small business. We will be discussing how small businesses can protect the personal information of their customers and employees, as well as how they can protect their digital reputation. You can follow along with @ITRCSD by using the hashtag #IDTheftChat. We hope to see you there and thank you to everyone who participated in this month’s ID Theft Chat!

The Proliferation of Public WiFi

In the Identity Theft Resource Center’s Public WiFi Usage Survey, 78% of respondents indicated that they use public WiFi at least once a month and of that number, more than half use public WiFi at least once a week.

Further, The Wireless Broadband Alliance, an industry association dedicated to the global deployment of next generation WiFi, discusses in their WBA Wi-Fi Industry Report the accelerated global proliferation of public WiFi. Even more, according to a report by the market research company Informa Telecoms and Media, WiFi hotspots are set to grow from 1.3 million in 2011, to 5.8 million by 2015.

Considering the rapid growth and prevalence in the use of hotspots, it is important for consumers to be fully educated as to the risks they take every time they connect to public WiFi.

Do You Know The Dangers of Using Public WiFi?

During this month’s #IDTheftChat, co-hosted by the Identity Theft Resource Center (@ITRCSD) and Private WiFi (@privatewifi), we will explain that public WiFi is not secure and how using public WiFi can lead to identity theft.

Please join us for May’s edition of identity theft twitter chat where we will be answering and discussing the following questions:

• Do you use public WiFi? How often? What do you do on public WiFi?
• Did you know that WiFi is not secure?
• Have you ever heard of identity theft happening on WiFi?
• How do you stay safe while using public WiFi?

Our twitter chat will commence on Thursday, May 2 at 2:00 PM (EST) / 11:00 AM (PDT). Please follow @ITRCSD and @PrivateWiFi and use the hashtag #IDTheftChat. You may find it helpful to join the chat by using TweetChat. We look forward to seeing you there!

According to several recent studies, medical identity theft is among the fastest growing types of identity fraud in the United States. Medical identity theft is the fraudulent use of an individual’s protected health information (PHI) or personally identifiable information (PII), such as name and Social Security number, to obtain medical goods and services or to unlawfully gain financial benefit.

According to a recent Ponemon Institute Research Report, 1.85 million Americans were affected by medical identity theft in 2012. This is a dramatic increase from the 1.49 million affected by medical identity theft in 2011, amounting to an almost 25% increase in just one year.

This rate of growth has the potential to explode due to several reasons.

First, The Affordable Care Act is estimated to reduce the number of uninsured by approximately 30 million, drastically increasing the number of insurers and insured patients who are targets for medical identity theft.

Second, HIPAA policies and new rules under HITECH are increasing the use of electronic health records (EHRs) which can be vulnerable to data hackers.

Third, and finally, the data hackers themselves are more sophisticated and cognizant of ways to profit off of personal data than ever before.

All these factors combined pose a very serious dilemma in controlling the rate of growth for medical identity theft. Ponemon estimates that the cost of medical identity theft to the economy in 2012 was approximately $41 billion.

How the Scams Operate

There are a variety of ways to perpetrate a medical identity theft scam, but the most common are those where the thief uses someone else’s information to make use of their insurance for a procedure or treatment they don’t want to pay for or can’t afford.

Other times a thief may use someone’s medical information to acquire access to prescription medications they wouldn’t otherwise be able to attain. This form of identity theft can be an especially scary one because usually medical bills will tend to be larger than your average fraudulent credit card bill.

Survey Says?

With this in mind, the ITRC has created a survey in an attempt to gauge the public awareness of medical identity theft.

The survey is comprised of only six questions, all of which are broad and non-specific, attempting to gain a better general understanding of the degree of awareness the consumer population has of medical identity theft, and if that awareness is also coupled with a general knowledge or understanding of what it involves and how to take basic steps to protect oneself. The survey makes no attempt to actually test consumer knowledge through specific content related questions. Instead the survey seeks only to ascertain what their confidence is that they know what steps to take to mitigate risk, and upon finding out they’ve become a victim, how confident they are that they could effectively mitigate their issue and get any resulting financial damage cleaned up.

If you’re interested in taking this survey, simply visit the ITRC homepage (link above) and click on the medical identity theft survey in the middle of the home page.

Our small group of Victim Advisors handle calls from all over the United States, dealing with everything from email account takeovers to medical identity theft and everything in between.

That being said, the same misconceptions come up again and again. We thought it would be a great idea to dispel some of these myths surrounding the issue of identity theft and replace them with the facts.

Fact: Yes they do. We cannot tell you how many times we hear people say “No one would want my identity because my credit is terrible.” Your credit score matters only slightly to an identity thief. Not only can thieves obtain funds via non-traditional methods, such as payday loans, but financial identity theft is only one type of the crime. Thieves can use your identity to get medical services, avoid criminal charges and receive government benefits. None of those scenarios has anything to do with your credit score.

Myth: There are ways to completely avoid identity theft.

Fact: There is no way to completely remove the risk of identity theft. Even with identity theft monitoring services it is still possible to become a victim of identity theft. Services that monitor your identity and credit can help you pinpoint activity quickly and alleviate some of the hassle of mitigating your case. However, they cannot prevent you from ever becoming a victim of identity theft.

Myth: If I know who the identity thief is, they will be arrested.

Fact: Even if you have the name, address and picture of the person who stole your identity, the chances of them being arrested and charged are low. Often times victims have a hard time even obtaining a police report for their identity theft cases. Identity theft is so rampant that law enforcement has a hard time working through all of the case. Unless the case has certain factors, such as mortgage fraud or large sums of money, law enforcement may not get too involved. While this may seem frustrating to victims, we stress that individuals can clear their cases up with little more than a copy of their police report. It is more important for a victim to focus on rectifying their situation, than catching the thief.

Myth: You can tell a person’s age by their Social Security number.

Truth: Parents whose children have become victims of identity theft will often ask how it is possible that someone used a child’s personal information to obtain goods or services that a child would not need or want. The truth is that if an identity thief goes in and buys a car using a 5 year old’s Social Security number, most likely the car dealership and the financing institution will not know that the social belongs to a child. When a credit report is run, especially if it is blank like a child’s credit report would be, the age and sex of the information’s true holder will not be evident. This is why thieves find children such desirable targets when stealing identities. Not only will the crime not be discovered until the child needs their credit, but the record will be blank and ready for new credit.

After looking at these myths and their factual counterparts, the situation revolving around identity theft appears to be bleak. Though there seems as though protecting yourself is nearly impossible, that is not true. Being someone other than the “lowest hanging fruit” can do wonders for avoiding victimization.

Knowledge is power and using these now known facts can help you protect yourself.

Not surprisingly, the subject of identity theft is getting a lot of mainstream coverage these days.

In fact, the Today show’s website recently ran an article from Bankrate.com suggesting that identity theft is not as funny as in the movies.

Obviously it’s not, but the bright side of Hollywood publicizing such a crime is that it forces people to talk about an issue that is often misunderstood at best, ignored at worst.

Just last week a woman in Alabama was indicted on a million-dollar identity theft scheme — she faces five years in prison. And in California, another woman has been sentenced to seven years and eight months in prison after being convicted of identity theft and related charges.

With the movie’s premiere and heightened level of awareness surrounding identity theft, everyone is being reminded that we must protect our identity the same way we protect other valuables.

“When you go on vacation, you lock your house. It is the same thing with identity theft. You cannot prevent it altogether. But you can make it much harder for the thieves to get in,” explains Eva Velasquez, president and chief executive officer of the ITRC.

She shared several prevention steps that consumers can take to protect their valuable personal information — easily remembered with the acronym SHRED:

• S: Strengthen passwords online. Don’t use the same password on multiple sites.
• H: Handle personally identifying information with care. “Guard that personal information and don’t just give it out to anybody who asks for it. Do not carry your Social Security card on your person. For child identity theft, for parents, really guard children’s personal information,” says Velasquez.
• R: Read your credit report annually. Get a copy of your free credit report once per year at AnnualCreditReport.com.
• E: Empty your purse or wallet.
• D: Discuss these tips with family and friends.

The team here at Private WiFi has another tip — SHRED with a VPN! After all, a VPN is the only way to encrypt all your wifi activities in wireless hotspots like Starbucks, hotels, and airports. A virtual private network is just that — it keeps all information transmitted over your wifi connection private and invisible to hackers.

With this new technology, people could pay for goods and services simply by swiping their smartphone by a point of sale device, or POS.

This made quite a few people nervous.

NFC was being debated by experts across many fields. How would the information be kept safe as it traveled from mobile device to the point of purchase? How safe was a bank account that could be drained through a stolen device? There were these question and many, many more. There were those who said it was not safe and those who stated that it was just as safe, if not safer, than carrying around a regular wallet.

That was 2011. It is now 2013 in a world where 2 years seems like a millennia when it comes to technology advancements.

More merchants, mobile manufacturers, and financial institutions are now supporting this new technology, which has brought it to the attention of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The report, which was released on January 3, 2013, was aptly titled “Mobile Payments: An Evolving Landscape.”

The report shows that the field of mobile payment systems is growing. Not only are more businesses getting on board with the new technology, but the amount of smartphone owners is increasing. This is creating a market ripe for consumers who can make mobile payments and business that can receive mobile payments. In addition to the two original credit card companies, American Express and Discover have joined the group of credit granting institutions who participate in mobile payment methods.

Because the review was done by the FDIC, there are sections of the review that dip into laws and regulations that an everyday consumer will not be concerned with. However, if you enjoy dissection laws and regulations dealing with anti-money laundering and the like, you will enjoy the FDIC’s breakdown of each act, law or regulation that is applicable to the mobile payment system industry.

The review outlines seven different fields which must be monitored by financial institutions. One of those is fraud, which is our area of concern. The recommendations of the FDIC are that banks “ensure adequate security of account data and other sensitive information” in order to protect consumers against fraud.

An interesting point is made that many banks are already compliant with mobile payment systems because of the fact that a consumer will need a bank account in order to load their mobile device with funds. The FDIC concludes that the mobile payment industry will continue to grow and become a larger percentage of payment processing for consumers in the future.

They also state that everyone involved in the transactions will need to continually evolve their security and best practices to avoid fraud and protect both consumers and institutions.

The publication is available on the FDIC’s website here for further reading.

Here are some great examples of resolutions you can make to make sure your 2013 isn’t marred by a nasty case of identity theft.

1. Clear out your wallet: Many people carry items in their purse or wallet that leave them vulnerable to identity theft. Take the time to remove your Social Security card, checkbook, passport, extra credit cards, and anything else with personal identifying information. If you want to take this one step further, make an inventory of what is still left in your wallet so that if it is stolen you will easily be able to protect yourself from identity theft.
2. Give your computer a fresh start: There are all kinds of nasty viruses out there which identity thieves use to commit their crimes. The best line of defense against these crooks is to be sure that you have an up-to-date antivirus installed on your computer. Make sure all of the recommended patches are also updated and that your wireless network has a good strong password.
3. Change your passwords: One of the best lines of defense against having an account takeover is a strong password. Take this fresh opportunity to change your old passwords and create stronger ones. Do not use words that can be found in the dictionary. Hackers can run a program that goes through the entire dictionary very quickly and crack any password which can be found in the dictionary. Use numbers, upper and lower case letters, punctuation in your passwords. Don’t forget that the longer the password, the harder it is to crack. Create different passwords on each of your accounts. If you have trouble remembering all of these passwords you can look into using a password manager.
4. Monitor your credit reports: Should you become a victim of identity theft, one of the best ways to find out is by monitoring your credit reports. You can do this for free at www.annualcreditreport.com . There are three different credit reporting agencies and consumers can receive one report from each, every year. If you stagger your free accounts and pull one every four months, you can monitor your credit for free.

The new year is fast approaching and perhaps you should try something out of the ordinary this time around. Honestly, isn’t cleaning out your wallet easier than avoiding that chocolate cupcake? So this year, give it a try and protect yourself from identity theft and have a wonderful new year.

It is important to do research on this topic as public WiFi assumes an ever more expanding role in a widening portion of consumers, posing an alarming amount of potential hacking, identity theft, and fraud.

The survey responses indicated that over 78% of consumers use public WiFi, and of those 53% use public WiFi at least once a week.

Of those respondents using public WiFi, 74% had used public WiFi in coffee shops and restaurants, 54% in hotels, and 38% logged on in airports.

The advertising of public WiFi to consumers as a means to attract them to coffee shops and restaurants is becoming more commonplace and likely accounts for the high consumer usage in them.

Other locations consumers used were doctor’s offices and hospitals, which can pose serious security concerns if those public WiFi connections aren’t intended to be public and are just simply unprotected connections.

Considering the majority of consumers use public WiFi on a consistent basis, it is important that consumers are educated and aware of the dangers associated with the use of public WiFi.

Based on the survey, greater educational and awareness efforts are needed as 42% to 65% of consumers using public WiFi do not recognize the most common methods of data protection. Additional cause for concern is that 80% of the respondents believe using public WiFi could result in identity theft, but only 60% of consumers felt concerned when using public WiFi. This indicated a possible misunderstanding that while identity theft may be a risk when using public WiFi, it is so minimal that it doesn’t warrant any action.

WiFi Continues to Grow

Public WiFi will only become more accessible to the average person over time. For more than a year already, state and local governments have been installing public WiFi hotspots, increasing the availability and usage of public WiFi by their populations. This increase in public WiFi activity and usage will surely make public WiFi nodes a higher priority target for data thieves.

This potential epidemic can only be prevented by public awareness and education to create widespread use of readily available privacy solutions.

The study also revealed other facets of the growing concern of using public Wi-Fi Hotspots. 45% of respondents said they were concerned about their security when using a public hotspot and 15% indicated that they were “very concerned”.

Additionally, 44% of respondents weren’t aware that there is a way to protect their sensitive information while using a public hotspot. Nearly 70% of those surveyed stated that they knew a password used to gain Internet access in a public hotspot was not sufficient enough to keep their data secure. But despite that lack of security, nearly a quarter admitted to making online purchases in a public hotspot, and 57% have accessed confidential work-related information while using a public hotspot.

The ITRC is a nonprofit, nationally respected organization dedicated exclusively to the understanding of identity theft and related issues. Providing victim and consumer support as well as public education, the ITRC also advises governmental agencies, legislators, law enforcement, and businesses about the evolving and growing problem of identity theft.

PRIVATE WiFi is a personal VPN product that encrypts all computer data across unencrypted WiFi networks, ensuring online privacy for those accessing public WiFi networks. Download a free 3-day trial of the software today.

Just in time for National Cyber Security Month this October, both organizations hope these results raise awareness about cyber security and wireless privacy.

Tell them, how frequently you access the internet from a public hotspot; where are you using WiFi and what are doing on it. Your participation will help the ITRC understand the best ways to help consumers protect themselves while online and on the go. The survey is only ten questions and will take less than a minute to complete.

Take the time to help the ITRC, here.