Indentity Theft – Red Flag Rules Apply
Chatter around the coffee shop this morning included identity theft and the new red flag rules passed out by the government. Old Barry Musgrow mentioned that he’d had his identity stolen when he bought a new truck at a local dealership. Evidently the paperwork wasn’t stored properly and some yay-who grabbed his signature there, long enough to buy a couple of wheels, a new set of tires, and walk away with the bill applied to his account. Of course, living in a small town, Barry didn’t think anything like this could happen to him, so he had no Identity Theft Protection.
After explaining the Identity Theft problem, I offered Barry a membership that didn’t cost him an arm and a leg (less than two cups of coffee a month) and showed him these notes from Michelle Dunne about how to protect your customers from Identity Theft.
* Keep customers sensitive personal information secure.
* Take stock – what personal information do you have in your files and computer.
* Clean out and throw away any outdated or personal information on customers that you no longer need – buy a shredder.
* Write a plan that is easy to follow and that will help you to respond to any security incidents.
* Require employees to log out in computer programs that have personal customer information, after they are done accessing that information.
* Use only one computer to store personal customer information and limit access to it.
* Keep up to date on alerts and vulnerabilities to your computer by visiting www.sans.org.
* Never give out any personal customer information over the phone or in emails.
* Change computer passwords frequently
* Train employees, visit www.ftc.gov/infosecurity for a tutorial or www.OnGuardOnline.gov
* If you outsource any business functions- investigate that companies data security policies and practices and compare them to yours, visit their facilities if possible.
The fact is, the laws won’t always protect you, sometimes you must actually go the distance and protect yourself from identity theft and one of the best ways to do that is to find a commercial product that will help you identify when your identity has been stolen. If you’re interested in marketing such a program, contact verhoeff.jan@gmail.com or click on the link below to find ways to promote a quality Indentity Theft program yourself.
