Your Money: Think Your Social Security Number Is Secure? Think Again
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It should come as little surprise that Social Security numbers are online. But people are always astounded to learn theirs is one of them.
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Hackers got into a database containing the Social Security numbers of
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There are more ways than you think to keep Uncle Sam's paws off your hard-earned cash.
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Audra Schmierer&#039;s Social Security number really gets around. It has been used by at least 81 people in 17 states, most of them probably illegal immigrants trying to get work.
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You might not want to set your credit record straight after all.
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Carefully consider between funds in your retirement plan.
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Those who still have their fingers crossed about Social Security need to let go of the fantasy and make better financial plans.
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Personal information on some million TD Ameritrade customers has been compromised, the brokerage firm said today. But it stressed that sensitive data such as Social Security numbers remains safe.
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You may have access to more money than you think -- just be careful.
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Get a plan to protect your financial independence.
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(InfoWorld) - Troy Aikman may not be happy about it, but the State of Texas has made his address and social security number available via the Internet. Sensitive information on Aikman, formerly a star quarterback with the Dallas Cowboys, and thousands of others is available on the Texas Secretary of State's SOSDirect Web site, according to Steven Peisner, the president of fraud prevention vendor Sellitsafe, who has provided IDG News Service with a half-dozen examples of social security numbers he was able to obtain from the site. As government pushes more and more documents online, Texas is one of many state and local governments across the U.S. that is now struggling to remove sensitive information so that it cannot be misused by criminals. Peisner found social security numbers on tax liens and on loan agreement notifications filed with the state, called Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) financing statements. Texas has been automatically removing sensitive information from all documents filed with SOSDirect since June 2005, and the state is now in the process of redacting this information from earlier filings, said Scott Haywood, a spokesman with the Office of the Texas Secretary of State. But residents whose social security numbers are posted on SOSDirect need to contact the Secretary of State's office directly in order to have them removed right away, he added. That's not good enough for Peisner. "It's pretty cheap to do that... to make someone send in a request," he said. "There are literally hundreds of thousands of documents where social security numbers [are exposed]." He thought that Texas should follow the lead of states like California andÂ Colorado, which shut down access to their UCC databases earlier this year when privacy advocates notified them that they could be misused by identity thieves. Users must submit a credit card number in order to search the Texas database, but Peisner said that lax security makes that barrier meaningless to most hackers. He said he was able to get access to information using a fake name and without providing the three-digit security code listed on the back of most cards. He believes that criminals could obtain information from the site using phony credit card numbers. Peisner said he spoke with staffers at the Texas Secretary of State's office of his concerns last week, but to no avail. "You would think if somebody called up and said that this Web site has a hole so big that you could drive the Spruce Goose through it, that they would take it down." One privacy advocate agreed with Peisner. A name and social security number is all that criminals need to set up a phony credit card application, said Beth Givens, director of Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. "They need to immediately take action and take that Web site offline and in some other way remove or redact [the information]," she said. But according to Haywood, the Texas Secretary of State is required to make the documents available under state public information laws. "Obviously our office is committed to trying to protect personal information in accordance with the law," he said. "But we also have a responsibility to post public information that has been submitted to our office. So we're balancing those responsibilities." Ironically, Texas has recently gone after pawn shops and check-cashing operations in the state for throwing out sensitive data in public dumpsters. The state should take a good look at its own data retention practices, Peisner said. "It's extremely hypocritical. They're talking about information that might not have been properly destroyed or shredded that was in a garbage bag... when there are thousands and possibly hundreds of thousands of citizens whose information is easily available on the Web, where you don't have to go into a garbage dump and get your hands dirty." Â
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It wasn't long after caller ID became popular that some people signed up for telephone services to block their number from being displayed. Now comes another trick: Companies are marketing systems to help callers fool telephone identification services into thinking they are someone else entirely. -The Washington Post
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Breaking up your identity can be good for security No system works perfectly all the time, but for something as fundamental as being able to prove who you are and get access to what youâre supposed to be able to do, we need to set things up so thereâs a fall-back plan.â¦
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Really, must we all go back to cash-only transactions to protect our personal information?
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When it comes to credit card abuse, your wallet may not be the only victim.
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Things just aren&#39;t going well for Timothy Scott Short. Just days after a pair of tech support calls he made to printer manufacturer Digimarc&#160;resulted in his arrest, he now finds himself on the receiving end of a data breach with his Social Security number and birthdate accidentally made public via the federal court&#39;s Electronic Case Files (ECF) system.It&#39;s an ironic development, because Short, 33, was arrested in connection with the Oct. 5 theft of a Missouri Department of Revenue printer and a PC containing data on as many as 500 state residents.Short&#39;s personal information was discovered by the IDG News Service, listed on a court document called a Criminal Case Cover Sheet, which was publicly available to users of the ECF system. Normally, this document should only be accessible to those involved in the case, but it appears to have been inadvertently made public, according to a clerk with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, who asked not to be identified because she was not authorized to speak with the press. &quot;It&#39;s something on our side,&quot; she said, adding that technical staff is now looking into the problem.The U.S. Judicial Conference, which sets policy for U.S. courts, has said that this kind of information should be removed from publicly available electronic court records, but actually removing all the sensitive information has proved difficult.&quot;If you went online to various court systems, you could find social security numbers of many individuals,&quot; said Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy with the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. &quot;It&#39;s a really, really difficult question to answer, just because you&#39;re dealing with so many jurisdictions.&quot;Social Security numbers are the building blocks of identity theft crime because they can be used to secure credit cards. &quot;Any time you are placing Social Security numbers online, your are subjecting that person to identity theft,&quot; Stephens said.With the push to make public documents available online, other government databases have had similar problems. Earlier this year, the states of California and Colorado were forced to take their Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) databases offline after privacy advocates pointed out that the Social Security numbers and other data they contained could be misused by identity thieves.Short, however, may have bigger problems to worry about. He&#39;s facing $250,000 in fines and 10 years in prison on charges of possession of &quot;document-making implements&quot; in connection with the theft. He was arrested after U.S. Secret Service Special Agent John Bush recognized his voice in calls placed to a tech support line of the company that makes the stolen printer.&#160;
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Things are pretty informal at this organization, and network security isn't exactly tight. So when the head finance guy needs a little work done on his network account, IT admin simply asks what his password is.