This is the Shared Security Weekly Blaze for April 30, 2018 sponsored by Security Perspectives – Your Source for Tailored Security Awareness Training and Assessment Solutions, Silent Pocket and CISOBox. This episode was hosted by Tom Eston.
Show Transcript
This is your Shared Security Weekly Blaze for April 30th 2018 with your host, Tom Eston. In this week’s episode: Child Identity Fraud, Tech Support Scams and Amazon Key In-Car Delivery.
The Shared Security Podcast is sponsored by Silent Pocket. With their patented Faraday cage product line of phone cases, wallets and bags you can block all wireless signals which will make your devices instantly untrackable, unhackable and undetectable. Visit silent-pocket.com for more details.
Hi everyone, I’m Tom Eston, Co-host of the Shared Security podcast. Welcome to the Shared Security Weekly Blaze where we update you on the top 3 security and privacy topics from the week. These weekly podcasts are published every Monday and are 15 minutes or less quickly giving you “news that you can use”.
If you like this podcast we would really appreciate you leaving a review in iTunes or your favorite podcatcher app. Reviews really help move us up the podcast ratings list and are greatly appreciated. Shout outs this week to @jandrusk and @privacydivas on Twitter as well as itincloud and pacifictech808 on Instagram and Jason, Johann and Richard on Facebook for commenting, liking and sharing our posts on social media. Thank you for your support of the show!
A sobering report was released last Tuesday which showed that more than 1 million children in the United States were victims of identity theft last year. The study by Javelin Strategy & Research shows that in 2017 more than $2.6 billion in total losses and over $540 million in out-of-pocket costs to families are attributed to child identity fraud. What’s surprising about this study is that it showed more than half (which is 60%) of child identity fraud victims have a personal relationship with the person stealing their identity. This is in stark contrast to adults where only 7 percent of adult fraud victims know the fraudster. Also of note, there was a strong correlation between a child being bullied and identity fraud. Bullied children are more than nine times more likely to be victims of fraud than children who were not bullied.
One of the big problems this study highlights is the challenges we have with the security of credit reports. Given that there have been large breaches like Equifax which highlight how adults can have their identities stolen through the use of their credit reports, I find it disturbing that we don’t give the topic of child identity fraud more attention. Children don’t have credit reports until they are old enough to apply for credit on their own so it’s often overlooked that if the personal information of a child is stolen, it’s much easier for a fraudster to use a fresh, unused credit history to their advantage. Also, given the fact that the fraudsters are people that know these children personally, it makes using their personal information (and credit) much more easier than adult victims.
Some signs or indicators specific to child identity fraud include the child being turned down for benefits, receiving notices from the IRS about unpaid taxes or debit collectors calling about products and other things you or your child has never purchased. If you’re a parent I would highly recommend the following advice from the FTC and others about how to secure your ch
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