Archive for the ‘Services’ Category
Fee-based services say they’ll protect your identity, privacy, credit, name, and more. Find out what they can and can not do — and learn what you can do to defend yourself.
What is your identity worth? According to the Global Internet Security Threat Report from Symantec, credit card numbers go for as little as 40 cents on the black market. Complete access to a bank account? Just $10.
Not so long ago, one’s identity didn’t involve so many dollars and cents. Discussions of privacy seemed better suited to the realm of academic debates or conspiracy theories. Today, unfortunately, the context is too often one of ripped-off consumers, with tales of swiped credit card numbers, false mortgages, and employment fraud leading to many cumulative hours spent, perhaps over years, trying to clean up the mess.
Of course when someone comes gunning for granny’s life savings, “good Samaritans” won’t be far behind.
Take identity theft monitoring service providers. The pitch? Give us your Social Security number and notification of suspicious identity activity is only an e-mail alert or phone call away. These services, which typically cost $10 to $20 per month, offer to guard your identity by monitoring the three credit-reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion), cell phone applications, government databases, and public information. Some also provide insurance (subject to underwriting, and not valid in every state) to help defray costs associated with recovering from identity theft cases.
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Tips For Fighting ID Theft |
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• 5 (Mostly) Free Alternatives To ID Theft Monitoring Services • What No Identity Theft Monitoring Can Catch |
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Others offer even more. For example, Intersections’ Identity Guard ($17 per month for the “Total Protection” plan) says it uses “patented scanning technology” to maintain “daily surveillance of the Internet’s ‘back alley’ chat rooms and news groups” and see if your identity is for sale. Secure Identity Systems ($7 per month) says it “tracks hundreds of databases that use Social Security numbers, including utilities, DMV records, financial institution records, and more.”
MyPublicInfo ($80 for a six-month “Public Information Profile”) watches criminal records and real estate reports. Debix ($99 per year) automatically calls you at home or on your cell phone the moment someone obtains new credit in your name. LifeLock ($10 per month) requests “that your name be removed from pre-approved credit card and junk mail lists, and we keep making the requests as they expire,” so would-be attackers can’t swipe credit card offers from your mailbox. According to LifeLock, “we’ve got your back.” More Than 225 Million Records Breached Since 2005
A little identity theft prevention would be nice, especially since over 225 million records containing sensitive, personal information have been compromised since January 2005, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Furthermore, the quantity and scale of data breaches appears to be on the rise. For example, a March break-in at an Indiana debt-collection agency led to a missing server containing 700,000 people’s personal information, including some Social Security numbers. (The server is still at large.)
- In: Blackberry | censorship | Government | Indian | Services | Shutdown | Threatens
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Indian authorities want ability to monitor Blackberry traffic for reasons of security
Some would say it’s not every day that a government gives a mobile phone service provider an ultimatum to either give in or give up, but recently, censorship and government snooping have become more common than in past decades.
Recently, the Indian government demanded that telecom providers allow government authorities to monitor traffic flowing through their networks for terrorist activities. According to a Business Standard post, the Indian government asked a number of telecommunications companies to open up their networks to monitor Blackberry-based traffic or face shutdown throughout the country within 15 days.
Indian government authorities proposed that each service provider work out the details with Blackberry licensor Research in Motion before this 15-day period.
DailyTech contacted RIM’s media relations and received the following statement, “RIM operates in more than 130 countries around the world and respects the regulatory requirements of governments. RIM does not comment on confidential regulatory matters or speculation on such matters in any given country.”
If RIM and service providers offering Blackberry services comply with the government’s demands, it will mean roughly 400,000 Blackberry users will be left without service such as email and messaging. According to India’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology, the security of the nation of India is their top priority even if it means that telecom companies will be shut down if they do not let government authorities in and monitor traffic freely.
India is not the first government to demand the ability to monitor telecom traffic. Recently, U.S. government agencies, such as the NSA, have been the center for discussion and legal battles regarding wiretapping. The U.S. Senate has also gone so far as to pass a bill that would give telecoms that cooperate with U.S. agencies in warrant-less wiretapping and other illegal monitoring activities immunity from lawsuits.
Since India has a different legal process than the United States, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology may have a better chance of getting its way with Indian telecoms and consumers.
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