Privacy and Identity Theft
The FTC estimates that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year. Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personally identifying information, like your name, Social Security number, or credit card number, without your permission, to commit fraud or other crimes. Skilled identity thieves may use one of the following methods to obtain your information:
- Dumpster Diving
- Rummage through trash looking for bills or other paper with personal information on it
- Phishing
- Pretending to be associated with a company or a bank and send you spam or pop-up messages to try and get you to reveal your personal information
- Spear Phishing
- Spear phishing is a highly targeted form of a phishing attack in which an e-mail message might look like it comes from your employer, or from a colleague who might send an e-mail message to everyone in the company, such as the President or IT.
The truth is that the e-mail sender information has been faked or "spoofed."Whereas traditional phishing scams are designed to steal information from individuals, spear phishing scams work to gain access to a company's entire computer system. If you respond with a user name or password, or if you click links or open attachments in a spear phishing e-mail, pop-up window, or Web site, you might become a victim of identity theft and you might put your employer or group at risk.
Spear phishing also describes scams that target people who use a certain product or Web site. Essentially, scam artists will use any information they can to personalize a phishing scam to as specific a group as possible.
- Spear phishing is a highly targeted form of a phishing attack in which an e-mail message might look like it comes from your employer, or from a colleague who might send an e-mail message to everyone in the company, such as the President or IT.
Test Your Knowledge
The Case of the Cyber Criminal
A techie spy and his cunning crew are out to get your personal information. Stop them cold by proving you're ready to protect yourself online.
Test your knowledge of Cyber Security by playing The Case of the Cyber Criminal.