12 Days to a Safe Christmas: Day 8 – What to Give the Person Who has Everything (and Wants to Keep it!)
Holiday Security Tips: On the eighth day of Christmas, the experts gave to me, 8 scam detectors
Most of us are too busy to monitor every form of identity that is at risk. Unfortunately, victims usually get hit when they take their eye off the ball.
Solution: Purchase a comprehensive identity monitoring service
While a partridge in a pear tree may have been appreciated in 18th century England, it’s not a very coveted item these days! Instead, help out the ones you love (and yourself!) by giving the gift of identity theft monitoring.
Traditional credit monitoring (which you can do for free at AnnualCreditReport.com) only detects a portion of identity theft. The remaining theft occurs as a by-product of non-credit loan activities (pay-day loans, etc), shared public records (court cases, real estate transactions, government filings, etc.), Internet trading sites (bought and sold on rogue websites), or in relation to medical or criminal records. It is important to monitor these forms of potential identity theft as well as your credit file. The key here is convenience; if you don’t have to do much to monitor a large portion of your identity, the work goes down while peace of mind increases. Make sure that your monitoring service has at least the following features:
- 3-in-1 Credit Monitoring from each of the bureaus (Experian, Equifax, TransUnion)
- Court & Public Record Monitoring
- Non-credit loan monitoring like pay-day loans
- Internet Surveillance for the buying and selling of your data
- Sex Offender Reports to make sure crimes aren’t being committed in your name
- Identity theft insurance to cover costs if you are affected
- Identity theft restoration services to save you time
Forget the fruitcake; buy them something they’ll truly appreciate and remember long after the holidays! On the ninth day of Christmas…
To review our tips from previous days, click here.
About Cybersecurity Keynote Speaker John Sileo
John Sileo is the founder and CEO of The Sileo Group, a cybersecurity think tank, in Lakewood, Colorado, and an award-winning author, keynote speaker and expert on technology, cybersecurity, and tech/life balance. He energizes conferences, corporate trainings and main-stage events by making security fun and engaging. His clients include the Pentagon, Schwab, and organizations of all sizes. John got started in cybersecurity when he lost everything, including his $2 million business, to cybercrime. Since then, he has shared his experiences on 60 Minutes, Anderson Cooper, and even while cooking meatballs with Rachel Ray. Contact John directly to see how he can customize his presentations to your audience.
