Protect Your Small Business from Identity Theft

 

Ensure Protection From Identity Theft in Your Small Business

By Scott Siders on July 8th, 2012 

By Linda Vincent

Consumer identity theft is in the news every day, and for good reason: consumers are the fastest growing victims of identity theft. They often become victims as a direct result of small businesses not safeguarding their personal information. From exposed credit card information at a restaurant to easily accessible patient records at a physician’s office, small businesses need to keep sensitive data under lock and key to provide identity theft protection.

Are you one of those small businesses ignoring identity theft threats? If so, you are putting your business at serious risk. In addition to the countless revenue you will lose when customers flee to your competitors, you may also face costly lawsuits that can literally put you out of business.

Many small business owners like you are so busy serving your customers’ needs that you forget to protect the data that makes you vulnerable to hackers, data breaches, and even employee identity theft. To avoid small business identity theft, you must take every possible precaution to ensure that you, the company, the employees, and your customers have protection from identity theft.

There are many proven strategies to prevent small business identity theft, and there are a couple of basic rules: 1) identify and implement security strategies to physically protect business information and customers’ private data, and 2) ensure that computer networks are virtually protected against data breaches that can result in identity theft.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the questions you should be asking yourself if you want to ensure your business’ protection from identity theft:

• How safe are your business records? Start by thinking about the simple things like access to filing cabinets, and then look at the much larger issue of virtual filing cabinets—which includes all of the private information you’ve collected on your customers and employees. How easy is it for anyone to login and walk away with information that could put your business at risk?
• Do you have alarms and locks on your physical premises? It may sound obvious, but many small businesses have not invested in basic systems to provide protection from Identity Theft. The first step is hiring a security company to install and begin monitoring all possible entryways of your business.
• Are you shredding everything? Emphasize the importance of shredding all documents that contain customers’ personal data. Employees need to understand that any piece of stolen personal information can be used against the business in the event of a lawsuit due to negligence. Consider placing only one regular trash bin near the workstations and put shredders next to every station to promote the destruction of customer information.
• Are you helping a hacker? One of the many small business identity theft threats is hacking because, in many cases, it’s the easiest way to steal information. Unless your company has protection from identity theft by using a secure firewall, you are inviting an intruder to slyly slip into your network, take everything, and then sell it on the black market.
• Who has access to your computers? Your computer network is the lifeblood of your business, so you need to make sure it is password protected and that the most private, identifiable information is safeguarded. Think about who really requires access to the network. A receptionist needs far less access than a manager.

Learn more about preventing identity theft in your small business by visiting www.ID-TheftProtection.com or calling 614.395.2313

Richard Figley

Independent Associate

figleyr@legalshield.com

www.richardfigley.com

Child ID Theft Alert!!!

Child Identity Theft Alert....Read this article

http://www.wpxi.com/news/news/target-11-investigates-child-id-theft/nPqfj/

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Medical Identity Theft

Guard Against Medical Identity Theft

by Diane Wedner on July 2, 2012 

What’s worse than facing a whopping medical bill? Facing a whopping medical bill that someone else racked up using your identity.
Each year about 2 million Americans are victims of medical identity theft. It costs individual victims about $22,000, according to the Third Annual National Study on Medical Theft.
The survey, conducted by the independent research company Ponemon Institute, revealed that the estimated total cost—to all involved—is about $41 billion yearly.
“A majority of people often don’t find out their medical identity has been stolen until they hear from a collection agency,” says Ken Chaplin, a senior vice president of marketing for Experian. “They find out they owe money to a medical provider and they’ve defaulted on the bill.”
Half of the respondents said they knew the person who stole their identity: caregivers, a child or a sibling who gained access from insurance information left on a desk or in a drawer.
Some respondents said they permitted family members to use their personal identification to get medical services, including treatment, health care products and medications.
“It’s pretty shocking, but something to be aware of,” Chaplin says. “Lock up your information and treat it like any valuable.”
Why so valuable? The survey reports that 20% of respondents said their medical records were accessed or modified. Altered medical records can result in patients getting the wrong treatment.
Also, victims pay out-of-pocket expenses to resolve the identity theft.
“The medical industry is different than the financial industry,” Chaplin says. “They often limit their exposure. So find out what you’re liable for if your medical identity is stolen. Some companies cap your liability, but others don’t.”
Survey respondents claimed that on average it took about one year to resolve the theft.
Here are some useful tips to avoid being a victim of medical identity theft:

• When the explanation of benefits arrive from your insurance company, read them over. Make sure that the services provided were those you actually got. If you see unfamiliar ones, “that’s a big red flag,” Chaplin says. “Call the insurance company immediately. The quicker you take action, the quicker you can cut it off.”
• Don’t share your insurance information with anyone, Chaplin says.
• Put your insurance card in a locked drawer at home, taking it out only on the day of a doctor visit. When a wallet is stolen, victims quickly cancel their credit cards, but forget their health insurance card is there too for the taking. Do leave home without it!
• Identity-theft-protection companies, such as Experian ProtectMyID, provide alerts when your identity is stolen and assist in resolving the claims.

Richard Figley

Independent Associate
614.395.2313
figleyr@legalshield.com
www.ProtectMyID.com

Louisville man orders iPods in Bank Customers Names

Louisville man charged with identity theft for allegedly ordering iPods in the name of PNC Bank customers

7:19 PM, Jul 3, 2012   

Andrew M. Halsell / Louisville Metropolitan Department of Corrections

A Louisville man who worked for a cleaning crew at PNC Bank placed online orders in the names of bank customers, then waited outside their homes to pick up the goods when they were delivered, police said.
Andre Halsell, 27, of the 9700 block of Streamview Trail, was charged with defrauding merchants out of nearly $4,600 worth of merchandise, according to an arrest warrant. Eight people have been victimized since Jan. 1, police said.
One victim reported that someone used his name, date of birth and social security number to open fraudulent accounts and order iPods from online stores Fingerhut.com and Gettington.com, according to an arrest citation.
Halsell admitted to taking documents with personal information from PNC Bank, then setting up lines of credit with online stores, according to police records. The records said he then sold the iPods on Craigslist.
Halsell, who knew the victims’ addresses, would go to their houses and wait for orders to arrive via UPS, said Sgt. Melissa Mottley, the commander of the LMPD fraud unit.
Most of the addresses were in the area of the Cloverleaf neighborhood east of Dixie Highway and south of the Watterson Expressway.
Halsell tried to intercept the packages, posing as one of the victims or a relative, and asking UPS delivery workers to give him the packages, Mottley said. She said if he was unable to intercept the driver, Halsell would go to the UPS centers in an attempt to pick up the packages.
Mottley said Halsell couldn’t provide proper identification to UPS workers and was never able to retrieve any of the packages. She said one of the UPS drivers noticed Halsell’s suspicious behavior and called police.
He was arrested Tuesday afternoon and charged with 11 counts of identity theft and one count of theft by deception. He was being held Tuesday at Louisville Metro Corrections in lieu of $1,500 bail.
Police said they do not know if Halsell was working alone, and the investigation is still ongoing. Police referred questions about how Halsell allegedly found the personal information about the victims to PNC Bank.
Fred Solomon, a PNC spokesman, said “PNC’s policies are to secure customer information in a locked receptacle.” He would not comment further, saying it could jeopardize the police investigation.

Reporter Alex Orlando can be reached at (502) 582-4336.

 Richard Figley

Independent Associate
614.395.2313
figleyr@legalshield.com
www.richardfigley.com