Easy Steals - Your Money and Your Life

Fears about identity theft are not limited to spyware or to records stolen from corporate databases. As it turns out, the neighbor next door can be just as big a concern. Definitely, using the Internet to spy on average citizens has become our next big social problem. Until a few years ago, people had few low-cost options available when they wanted to find out about someone else's background. Typical solutions involved paying private investigators hundreds or even thousands of dollars to pore through written records.

Personal information is now so readily available that a total stranger with nothing more than an online connection and a credit card could discover everything there is to know about you. He or she could compile a complete dossier on you, your family members, friends, work associates, or business rivals without any special investigative training. Forget about shredding your mail and financial documents or worrying about who might have a copy of a recent credit card transaction. You have much bigger problems if you want to keep your personal information private.

Fears about identity theft are not limited to spyware or to records stolen from corporate databases. As it turns out, the neighbor next door can be just as big a concern. Definitely, using the Internet to spy on average citizens has become our next big social problem. Until a few years ago, people had few low-cost options available when they wanted to find out about someone else's background. Typical solutions involved paying private investigators hundreds or even thousands of dollars to pore through written records.

But now, for about $50.00 or less, anyone can take advantage of the search services that have cropped up on the Internet. Search engines have gotten better. This spy-on-your-neighbor mentality has come out of the collections world where skip-trace checks by creditors were common.

High-powered information databases were costly to use and often were restricted to law-enforcement officials and lawyers. That is no longer the case. Today, almost anyone can become an "eTective" by taking advantage of various online investigative services.

If you know where the person lives, and depending what you're looking for, you can search for any relevant court records, real estate ownership, birth certificates, etc. And for more detailed investigations, there is LexisNexis, a popular electronic archive of newspaper articles, legal documents, and other printed content. About $200 will buy you a pretty complete search.

Most large-scale theft of personal information has occurred at high-profile companies. For example, a laptop from Fidelity Investments containing information on nearly 200,000 participants in Hewlett-Packard's pension and 401(k) plans was recently stolen. Last year, financial institutions estimated that 55 million personal identification numbers might have been compromised in more than 130 reported cases.

But security experts say that even those numbers could be underreported, because only relatively few companies are legally obligated to report such thefts of corporate data. Other, smaller companies can avoid the public disclosure of an embarrassing incident. And nobody even keeps records of the amount of personal information legitimately obtained through inquiries on search engines and commercial Web sites.

According to Andrew Jaquith, a senior analyst for security issues at the research company Yankee Group, using the Internet to spy on people is a new variation on an old theme. Traditional fears of government spying on citizens are giving way to another kind of paranoia. In the U.S., Americans are terrified of Big Brother. Yet we have no problem allowing lots of Little Brothers, such as the credit card companies, to have our information indefinitely. So now we have thousands of Little Brothers and the Internet giving us hundreds of new ways to track people.

Using the Internet as a private investigator might start with the people-finder feature on popular search sites such as Yahoo. From there, searchers can click on links to paid services that dig even deeper into people's backgrounds. Although more and more of consumers' private information is exposed to public scrutiny, I wonder how long will it take before Uncle Sam comes up with some consumer security safety measures for personal information thefts that fall through the cracks.

Because cybercriminals are becoming smarter and more sophisticated in their operations, they are real threats to your personal security and privacy. Your money, your computer, your family, and your business are all at risk.

These cybercriminals leave you with three choices:

1. Do nothing and hope their attacks, risks, and threats don't occur on your computer.

2. Do research and get training to protect yourself, your family, and your business.

3. Get professional help to lockdown your system from all their attacks, risks, and threats.

Remember When you say "No!" to hackers and spyware, everyone wins! When you don't, we all lose!

© MMVII, Etienne A. Gibbs, MSW, Your Internet Safety Advocate and Educator

About the Author
Etienne A. Gibbs, Internet Security Advocate and Educator, consults with individuals, small business owners, and home-business entrepreneurs regarding online protection (including free lifetime technical support and $25,000 identity theft insurance and recovery) against spyware, viruses, hackers, and other pc-disabling cybercrimes. For more information, visit www.SayNotoHackersandSpyware.com.