What Data Does Your Organization REALLY Need?
Your personal information is ‘out there.’ It has been shared with enough organizations throughout your lifetime that you can’t always protect your identity yourself. Take a couple minutes and think about whom you have shared your personal information with…doctor’s offices, dentists, schools, employers, banks, insurance companies, tax preparers and the list goes on. What are those organizations doing to protect your information? As careful as you are at protecting your identity, you have no control over what these other organizations are doing to protect your personal information.
Take a look from the other side of the table now and consider what you and your company are doing to protect employee and client information. Your company’s industry may have strict guidelines and regulations that mandate safeguards be put in place. Your company may have processes and procedures to mitigate the risk of losing this information. These processes and procedures should cover data collection, access controls, and data retention.
- Does your company need all of the personal information it is collecting? If not, why accept the additional risk of having this information?
- Is access to personal information limited to those who need it to do their jobs? This includes access to electronic records, and paper records.
- Is your company retaining personal information for a period longer than necessary, or in an unsecure format? If your company is not required to retain personal information and doesn’t need this information, don’t store it. If it does need this information, be sure it is stored safely and securely. This may mean encrypting electronic data.
- If your organization has policies and procedures in place, be sure to adhere to them. These policies and procedures are only as good as the people in your company. If your organization doesn’t have policies and procedures in place, take the initiative and suggest policies be drawn up. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants is a good resource to begin your research on proven ways to protect personal information.
There is a great article in the Journal of Accountancy which goes into more specifics in these areas.

I get emails from consumers all over the United States and even in other countries, pointing out the latest scams to separate you from your precious identity. You never know how clever an identity thief can be until one slips under your radar. Don’t let it happen to you! Take a look at these sneaky tales of identity theft and protect yourself from anything like them happening to you.
Students be aware, university
Everything we do is a cost benefit analysis. Before we do anything, we look at what we have to give up, in relation to the value of what we expect to get in return. We won’t even get out of bed in the morning until we have done the math. We rate the cost (get out of the warm bed) versus value (mmm, breakfast burrito). Once we weigh the two, we decide whether to “risk it”, and then get to work, or do nothing.
Its
I’ve got a scary number for you: Security experts estimate that as many as ten million personal computers are infected with viruses designed to steal your personal information.
During the past two weeks I have spoken with a number of victims of
Human Resources, as the keeper of private employee information, receives a multitude of requests each week from a number of outside agencies and sources seeking information about employees. These requests come from state and Federal agencies, mortgage lenders, and other organizations.
Throughout our entire lives we are taught to protect our
“If you’re a victim of identity theft or account fraud, you should notify your bank(s) immediately. If your account(s) is with us you should call your customer service representative immediately. We will work with you in an effort to make appropriate corrections of unauthorized transactions in your accounts and to correct any incorrect reports submitted by us to credit bureaus, and will attempt to help protect you from any future identity theft or account fraud.”
One weekend my roommate and I were running separate errands and I had came home first to find a screwdriver on the back table and the sliding glass door wide open. I thought it was weird, but figured she must have been in a hurry and went on inside without a second thought. My dog wouldn’t come out of my bedroom and was lying on the bed, both uncharacteristic. I went over and sat down and started to pet her and noticed my laptop was missing.
They show up in your e-mail inbox, messages with a subject line that reads, “You have received a Valentine’s card” or “Your sweetheart has sent you a Valentine’s Day greeting.” Some may even indicate that, “The flowers you ordered for your sweetie won’t be delivered unless you log in and re-enter your credit card information.” But look out, Cupid. With February 14th fast approaching, you need to be on the alert for
I am a member of LifeLock, as well as an employee, and this is a story of my personal experience with Identity Theft. Identity theft can occur in many different forms, one of which is the theft of a minor’s identity, which is exactly what happened to my two daughters. In our situation the perpetrator used my daughters’ information for defrauding the Department of Economic Security (DES) for financial gain.
It is difficult to imagine the amount of time and mental energy it takes to restore a stolen or compromised identity…until it happens to you! We’ve all heard the bad news… declining stocks, job losses, frozen credit markets, and mortgage foreclosures. With the economy in this state, there’s never been a more important time for everyone to get control over their finances, their credit and their very identity.
There once was a time when the average consumer associated identity theft simply with buying a nifty shredder at
All is fair in love and war? What about business? Unfortunately the economy has affected everyone nationwide and doesn’t appear to be lifting any time soon. At LifeLock, we had our hands in a variety of events this year; ranging from sponsoring a night with professional baseball teams to titling
Every time I teach a seminar or speak to a group I am always asked about how safe it is to shop on-line. The answer to that is that regardless of where you shop (on-line or in person) you always have to be alert and concerned about becoming the victim of Identity Theft.
There’s an old
On Wednesday, LifeLock and