BEV CLINE
Sun

If you are moving house this spring, make sure you don’t inadvertently set yourself up as a potential victim of identity theft.

Criminals look for easy ways to steal your personal information — SIN number, credit card numbers, birth date, banking information — so they can take on your identity and use it for criminal purposes, such as negotiating a fraudulent mortgage or obtaining credit.

In the excitement and rush that usually goes along with moving house, it’s easy to overlook important steps that can help safeguard your personal information.

The most i mportant advice is to maintain control of your personal data, says Sgt. Atallah Sadaka of the Organized Fraud Squad of the Ottawa Police. This control needs to extend from the time you begin to plan your move, until well after you are settled in your new home, he says.

The most obvious opportunity for fraudsters to gain access to your information is by simply removing mail from either your old or your new mailbox. Which is why it is important to let Canada Post know you are moving and to make arrangements for you to receive your mail in a manner that minimizes the danger of theft.

Canada Post provides a number of options to manage your mail when you move, says spokesman Francois Legault. These include change of address or hold mail services, which can be arranged at a post office or through www.smartmoves.ca.

In addition, you may want to call your credit card company, bank, or any other organization that sends you mail containing your personal information. Furnish them with your new address or ask them to refrain from sending correspondence to you until you call to notify them that you have moved.

If you are expecting items such as new or renewed credit cards or booklets of blank cheques to be delivered to your home, consider picking them up at your bank, says Sadaka, who notes you will need to produce proper identification at time of pickup.

As you pack, sort out your old financial documents, with an eye to discarding those that are not required for tax or other purposes. And, if you don’t already own one, invest in a shredder to dispose of these documents, says Sadaka. Placing the documents into recycling receptacles for public pickup is an invitation for criminals.

After you move, don’t relax your vigilance, says Legault, who suggests that as part of your preparation for moving you compile a check list of expected mail. After the move, “it’s important to verify that you are receiving all the mail you anticipated,” he says. Consult your checklist of expected bills, statements, cheques or pay stubs, even magazines.

If they do not arrive in the expected time frame, take action. Contact the sender to see if these items were indeed sent, and if they were, contact Canada Post and the police. If you suspect your identity has been compromised, investigate immediately.

BY BEV CLINECanwest News Service

If you are moving house this spring, make sure you don’t inadvertently set yourself up as a potential victim of identity theft.

Criminals look for easy ways to steal your personal information — SIN number, credit card numbers, birth date, banking information — so they can take on your identity and use it for criminal purposes, such as negotiating a fraudulent mortgage or obtaining credit.

In the excitement and rush that usually goes along with moving house, it’s easy to overlook important steps that can help safeguard your personal information.

The most i mportant advice is to maintain control of your personal data, says Sgt. Atallah Sadaka of the Organized Fraud Squad of the Ottawa Police. This control needs to extend from the time you begin to plan your move, until well after you are settled in your new home, he says.

The most obvious opportunity for fraudsters to gain access to your information is by simply removing mail from either your old or your new mailbox. Which is why it is important to let Canada Post know you are moving and to make arrangements for you to receive your mail in a manner that minimizes the danger of theft.

Canada Post provides a number of options to manage your mail when you move, says spokesman Francois Legault. These include change of address or hold mail services, which can be arranged at a post office or through www.smartmoves.ca.

In addition, you may want to call your credit card company, bank, or any other organization that sends you mail containing your personal information. Furnish them with your new address or ask them to refrain from sending correspondence to you until you call to notify them that you have moved.

If you are expecting items such as new or renewed credit cards or booklets of blank cheques to be delivered to your home, consider picking them up at your bank, says Sadaka, who notes you will need to produce proper identification at time of pickup.

As you pack, sort out your old financial documents, with an eye to discarding those that are not required for tax or other purposes. And, if you don’t already own one, invest in a shredder to dispose of these documents, says Sadaka. Placing the documents into recycling receptacles for public pickup is an invitation for criminals.

After you move, don’t relax your vigilance, says Legault, who suggests that as part of your preparation for moving you compile a check list of expected mail. After the move, “it’s important to verify that you are receiving all the mail you anticipated,” he says. Consult your checklist of expected bills, statements, cheques or pay stubs, even magazines.

If they do not arrive in the expected time frame, take action. Contact the sender to see if these items were indeed sent, and if they were, contact Canada Post and the police. If you suspect your identity has been compromised, investigate immediately.

Technology makes it easier to target companies in many different ways

DEREK SANKEY
Sun

Security breaches and fraud are taking a big bite out of the profits of small businesses across Canada, and the increasing use of technology means companies are exposed to an even greater number and variety of attacks, security experts say.

“One of the shifts we’ve started to see in Canada is through a lot of the technology involved, small businesses are being targeted more frequently by things like phishing attacks,” says Bruce Cowper, security lead for Microsoft Canada.

“Companies are starting to realize they can use their security posture . . . as a competitive advantage,” says Cowper, adding there are many tools to help small businesses reduce the losses from all types of technologyrelated crimes.

It’s not just technology that today’s crooks are using, though. Tried and tested scams and frauds, break-ins and shoplifting continue to represent major losses for companies when looking at the big picture.

A report from market research firm The Nilson Report shows that all types of commercial frauds cost North American businesses more than $20 billion annually, while 66 per cent of small business in Canada experienced fraud in 2006, up from 52 per cent a year earlier.

The Retail Council of Canada, meanwhile, reports 87 per cent of Canada’s small and medium

retail business owners were victimized by retail crime last year. Shoplifting alone drained an estimated $1.28 billion from the Canadian retail sector.

Technology, however, is often at the core of fraud in today’s market. They include debit and credit card frauds, skimming devices and pinhole cameras to capture personal identification numbers, identity theft, false return-of-merchandise scams, phishing attacks via email, computer viruses, and hackers who compromise businesses’ websites.

Jay Park, vice-president of a 15-person real estate consulting practice in Calgary called Six Real Estate Consulting Ltd., says technology plays a big role in his mobile workforce.

“As more technology comes into play, the more important it is for all of that information to be very secure,” says Park. “We’re at a critical stage where we’ve grown substantially . . . so to keep it rolling you have to be cognizant of the fact that if we lose everything, you’re at a standstill.”

Alfred Huger, Symantec’s security response vice-president, says the increasing capabilities of today’s wireless devices, such as highly sophisticated cellphones, means companies need to pay greater attention to the security provided on those mobile systems.

“You’re walking around with a PC in your pocket,” he says. “It’s no different than a laptop.”

The good news is that more tools are flooding the market in response to the new technologies.

“The other big shift we’re seeing with smaller and medium businesses is to concentrate on investment in management technologies,” says Cowper. Instead of focusing solely on firewalls and virus software, new tools help owners manage their security by automatically monitoring for updates and security patches, as well as passwords and access settings.

It’s up to every business owner to conduct a thorough risk assessment of every vulnerability and to take proactive measures to reduce exposure. Experts say owners should train employees and make use of every resource at their disposal, whether it is technology or otherwise.

“An awful lot of this can be prevented through awareness,” says Cowper.

Users, traders and regulators call for more data to combat misuse of cyberspace

Suzanne Beaubien
Sun

For many people, a typical morning on the computer goes something like this: check e-mail messages, then scan Facebook for new friend requests, rearrange the DVD queue on Zip.ca, pay some bills, and download a couple of songs from iTunes before checking for new job postings.

All these online transactions require signing on using a password and user name. Some also require additional personal information, such as address and telephone number, or credit card data.

And according to the annual technology predictions report by international business services giant Deloitte, Internet users should prepare themselves for even more rigorous authentication in 2008 as the ability to be anonymous online declines.

“Over and over, we’re going to see more putting your name down,” says Duncan Stewart, director of research at Deloitte Canada Research and one of the report’s authors.

With users, traders and regulators calling for more widespread authentication of users’ identities to combat malicious use of the Internet by pedophiles, online auction fraudsters, and defamatory commentators, Duncan says that’s proof the technology is growing up.

“Back in the day, the whole point of the Internet was its anonymity.” Early chatrooms wouldn’t accept real names, he noted.

And now, while you might be able to read your favourite blog without signing on, these days fewer and fewer will let you comment without a user ID. Even some news sites block users without an individual log-in ID.

That means remembering a lot of passwords, and filling out a lot of forms. And each time you do that, you could be opening yourself up to fraudsters seeking valuable personal information that can be used to steal your identity — both online and in the real world.

“Most people use a very small number of passwords . . . that becomes more of a security risk,” says Dick Hardt, CEO of Vancouver-based identity and access management developer Sxip Identity.

Methods used to authenticate identity are imperfect, says Stewart, who predicts a new industry aimed at authentication will soon emerge to change all that.

“Everybody should have the right to be anonymous,” says Richard Rosenberg, president of the Freedom of Information and Privacy Association and a board member of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

“It’s one of the most important things, especially in countries where they have political problems, like China,” says Rosenberg, a professor and author who has written about the social impact of computers.

However, authentication protocols currently being developed will allow for both more security and anonymity — at the same time.

Hardt likens the digital credential, called OpenID, to a driver’s licence for the Internet. With it, computer users can have different online identities and share personal information more easily — but only as much as they want to with each site.

The concept, developed by Hardt and other industry leaders, is gaining momentum. Last month, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, IBM, and VeriSign all joined the OpenID Foundation’s board, vowing to make a universal sign-on a reality in the near future.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

Suzanne Beaubien
Sun

Unless you’re willing to disconnect your cable connection or wireless card and live entirely offline, it’s impossible to escape the fact that threats to your computer can sneak in any time you connect to the Internet.

According to the last Internet security threat report from security software giant Symantec, Canada rated second in the world in terms of malicious activity on the Internet.

Meanwhile, the report says, home computer users accounted for 95 per cent of all targeted attacks in the first six months of 2007.

The average computer user may not have the savvy to stop all spyware and phishing attacks or secure a wireless connection on their own. But new technology aims to help in the fight against data theft and online identity fraud.

— Yoggie sounds like a cute name for a puppy, but this miniature security hardware appliance is like an attack dog that guards your laptop from Internet threats when you’re using it in public places. The company touts the device for corporate computers on the go: while most company laptops are secure when tapped into the corporate network, they may become vulnerable to threats when used on their own. But just plug Yoggie’s Gatekeeper Pico Pro into your USB port and the portable hardware firewall hides the laptop’s IP address from outside attacks, while fending off spyware, phishing attacks and viruses. It even makes it safe to use public wireless hot spots. (Yoggie Gatekeeper Pico Pro, $199 US, available at www.yoggie.com.)

— For PC users, McAfee’s Internet Security Suite with Site Advisor promises to protect home computer users from identity theft by alerting users to phishing attacks. Phishers seek to steal valuable personal information by baiting computer users with phony e-mails or websites designed to look like they’re a reputable organization, often a bank, eBay, Paypal or a credit card company. But McAfee’s AntiPhishing browser plug-in will identify and block such websites and scams, alerting the user that they’ve landed on a known or suspected phishing website. McAfee’s Internet Security Suite with Site Advisor ($79.99 Cdn) is available for download at ca.mcafee.com.

— Meanwhile Symantec’s Norton Confidential aims to give Mac users similar peace of mind when making sensitive transactions online by protecting against dangerous phishing attempts. Like McAfee’s Site Advisor, Norton Confidential maintains a database of known and suspected phishing sites, and alerts users to the safety of the sites they’re visiting. Its Information Guard feature also purportedly prevents your personal information from theft by preventing protected data from exiting the computer. For example, you can block your credit card information, social insurance number and passwords from being transmitted without your permission. Norton Confidential ($49.95 US) is available for download at www.symantec.com.

— Not all identity thefts require a degree in computer programming. Data loss can also be the result of good, old-fashioned five-finger discounts, so it’s important to keep your computer under lock and key. But if thieves run off with your laptop while your back is turned, the free download LaptopLock can keep sensitive files safe and prevent identity theft on Windows computers. First, you must create an account at www.thelaptoplock.com and download the corresponding software. After that, if your computer is snatched, you can log in into your account and mark the laptop status as stolen. Then, when that machine connects to the Internet, LaptopLock can erase or encrypt sensitive files, track IP addresses used by the thief and even sound an alarm for sweet revenge. Download available for free at www.thelaptoplock.com.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008