Privacy Means Profit: Prevent Identity Theft and Secure You and Your Bottom Line

Chapter 6. The Third Mind-Set: Secure the Systems

In the very near future, digital identity theft will become more common than identity theft via paper documents, stolen wallets, and dumpster divers. Because of the vast quantities of data we store digitally (on computers, cell phones, in the "cloud," on thumb drives, etc.), it is becoming more cost-effective for thieves to take control of one hard drive than 100 filing cabinets.

Victim #4,900,003: Facebook Company Identity Theft

As the bookkeeper for an Internet wine retailer, Gregg had access to nearly every digital file, filing cabinet, and financial record in the corporation. If someone in the company needed data, he had it. Gregg didn't spend much time on social networking sites like Facebook during working hours because his boss, Stefanie, was said to have installed software surveillance on every-one's system to monitor how much work time they were spending on personal matters. But he made an exception when he received an e-mail from Facebook titled "Facebook Password Reset Confirmation," which asked him to log in to his account directly ("for security purposes—never click on a link in an e-mail," it said) where he read the full notification in his Facebook inbox. Because the warning mirrored the company's established security procedure (don't click on links in e-mails; log in directly), he assumed it was legitimate. And since he managed the company's Facebook page, which had thou-sands of wine-enthusiast fans, he wanted to make ...