Identity theft is going nowhere but up. 2012 was a banner year for thieves making lots of money by pretending to be you. If they swipe your phone or your laptop they can re-write your life in short order. The financial toll is estimated at more than $50 billion annually by one organization. But that's nothing to say about how much disruption and time and effort it is going to cost you.
Closer to home, recently my in-law's laptop was stolen. As with most thefts of this type, it's relatively impossible to recover anything. He ran his household from it which meant it contained an extremely complete picture of their financial life. Wisely, they assumed the worst and started to proactively contain any potential damage by cancelling or changing accounts and setting locks and monitors.
There is simply no way to eliminate theft or simply never lose a device - they are just too pervasive now and yet also in high demand. As our use of technology evolves, we need to get smarter about it. Here are three pretty universal recommendations for reducing the impact on your life when the inevitable happens.
1. Put a password or PIN on every device you have. This one is a no-brainer. It isn't that hard and all of the modern devices and operating systems have easy ways to manage user accounts and security (Android, iDevices, MacOS, Windows). Do it and I mean NOW. Some devices and operating systems require it but a lot people just use "password" or "abc123." Don't be so lame - hackers know exactly what the most common passwords are. Figure out highly remember-able info that only makes sense to you and use it. Using info that can be publicly verified is not recommended. Don't use your date of birth, family member names, etc. in your passwords or PINs. For extra credit, I suggest forcing the device to wipe itself after a number of bad passwords.
About a year ago, I found an iPhone on the street. It was totally unlocked. I could have accessed the person's email, contacts, phone book... everything. Luckily for them, the only use put to it was to call the last number and find out where they were so it could be returned to them. Not everyone is so honest.
2. Encrypt your stuff. What's encryption? It scrambles your data in such a way that makes it very, very hard to get back if you don't have the right password. Many smart phones have the ability to not only encrypt themselves, but to encrypt backups. Computers are a little harder but there are an quite a few options to choose from.
- Windows. If you have a "Professional" version of Windows you probably have the ability to encrypt your hard drives with a module called BitLocker. It's decent protection and better than nothing. You can figure it out pretty easily and there's lots of online resources. If you don't have a Pro version you can buy something like the Symantec encryption. It's a decent product and isn't too horrible in price. For the really cheap, there is an open source option called TrueCrypt. I recommend this only for the technology savvy folks as the only support available is via the nameless, faceless Internet.
- Mac. I'm not a Mac, but enough folks are around me that I get this question every so often. If you have MacOS 10.7 or higher it includes a feature called FileVault which can perform whole disc encryption as well. If you're not on the current MacOS the upgrades are pretty cheap these days. Otherwise, you can purchase a standalone product but I can't make any recommendations specifically having never used them on that platform. For the exceedingly cheap, TrueCrypt works on a Mac as well but it still comes with the same caveats I mentioned earlier.
3. Store more of your stuff in the cloud. What's that? You don't have backups? Most people don't but that doesn't mean it is a good idea. Our computers contain data, documents, pictures and movies from years and even decades. Don't lose that stuff because you didn't have a copy somewhere else. There are a couple of approaches to consider - either individually or together.
Store your stuff somewhere else. This doesn't work for everyone and certainly not everywhere. If you're on a plane, you may or may not have a WiFi connection. That'll really put a crimp into your style if you wanted to edit a document stored on your service of choice. The good thing is that many of them have applications you can install that can keep local copies of files in sync on multiple devices as well as access from a smart phone or tablet. I happen to use Dropbox quite a bit as I like the UI and ease of use - especially the ability to share files across the Internet. Be aware that everyone has such a thing such as Microsoft's SkyDrive, Google Drive, Apple iCloud and so on and so on. Pick one and start using it. Most of them are free for a few gigabytes of storage.
- Backup your stuff. Always. Almost no one does this and many make the classic mistake of putting a copy of their stuff on a hard drive in their home. Feels good right up until the point that the fire or flood that destroyed your computer takes that extra copy right with it. Instead you need to get a backup service that uploads and secures your data off site. For this, I have one and only one recommendation: Carbonite. Fixed price, unlimited storage, works on Windows and Mac. It's bank folks. The only caveat here is that if you have a lot of data, it can take weeks to complete the first backup. You can control how and when that happens, but be aware that you can't expect it be instant if the wildfire is bearing down on you.
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