Did you know that if you type your phone number into Google it spits out your name and address? With just a few clicks, someone can find not only your phone number and address but also your birth date, relative’s names and addresses, home value and more. Isn’t that just a little bit scary? It is to me.

The reality is we live in an information world. You can find the answer to pretty much any question you have, immediately. The other night my friends and I were having a political discussion and no one could remember Michael Dukakis’ running mate in 1988. One quick search on the Wikipanion app on my iPhone and I had the answer (Lloyd Bentson). It took about a minute.

The Internet has changed our lives for the better I think. Having unlimited information at your fingertips at all times is a powerful thing. Access to news events from around the globe in real time gives us a better world-view and more informed opinions. The flipside to this unlimited information resource however are the people that exploit it for personal gain.

Here’s the reality, no matter what steps you take to protect your personal information, it’s out there. A regular person can find out a lot about you by Googling around for a few minutes. Just think what professional identity thieves can do. So you have a choice to make. You can do your best to hide from the thieves and hackers and keep your money under your mattress instead of in a bank account, pay for everything in cash, not shop online or dine out and deliver all your own mail. Or you can get the peace of mind from LifeLock that no matter what happens to your information they’ve got your back….a million times over.

I just bought a new shirt online that was delivered in the mail today so I think I’ll wear it out to dinner tonight to my favorite restaurant. Oh, and I’ll need to stop by my bank’s ATM to get some cash. Even though I’ll pay for dinner with one of my credit cards, I’ll need some money to pay for a cab.

- Barrington Media Group (LifeLock’s radio media buyer)

There’s no denying it – times are tough. Every week seems to bring news of another bank collapse, or a huge decline in the S&P. Home foreclosures continue to rise, and the lax lending market of 2004 - 2005 has given way to a severe tightening of credit. If this is not a “recession”, than it’s certainly difficult to imagine what it will take for economists to officially declare that we are, in fact, in one.

So what does this mean for the average identity thief? Some argue that a recession may make it harder to steal identities. They say that credit is so tight that even thieves may be having trouble opening new accounts.

I tend to believe that a credit crunch will have exactly the opposite effect - and there are many early indications that seem to suggest that, in fact, a downturn economy is economic high time for identity thieves.

MessageLabs recently reported a 103 percent increase in phishing attacks in September, as cyber thieves targeted banks, credit unions and online retail stores. PandaLabs further found that malicious code has been spiking with falls in the stock market.

With more and more Americans facing economic turmoil, the unfortunate reality is that many may find it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and it stands to reason that the months and years to follow will witness a spike in attempts at steal identities.

In today’s downturn economic environment, the same prudence that we achieve when investing in car or homeowner insurance must also be undertaken by investing in identity theft protection.

Today’s tighter credit world means your credit score is more important than ever. Yet a study conducted by the Public Information Research Group found that 79 percent of credit reports had mistakes. Twenty-five percent of credit reports had mistakes that were important enough to cause someone applying for credit to be denied.

There is simply no easy solution to clean up your credit history, regardless of whether the information contained on them is correct or not. As a recent article in the Arizona Republic points out, when it comes to removing false information from credit reports, the burden of proof is on the consumer, and proving that information on your credit report is false will require a considerable amount of time and effort. In fact, a recent 2008 Javelin study indicates that the average fraud incident requires 26 hours to rectify.

We appear to be entering the “Perfect Storm” as it relates to identity theft, which includes:

• Increased sophistication and technical savvy on the part of the criminal
• Increased economic turmoil
• Pressure on corporations to reduce IT related spending, which could result in decreased security related spending
• Pressure on individuals to reduce discretionary spending
• A tightening financial market in which only those with exemplary credit will be able to receive financing

As we enter this perfect storm, now more than ever, it is essential that consumers take a proactive approach towards protecting their most important asset, their own identity!

Everyone saw it coming the moment she was announced as John McCain’s running mate. It didn’t matter if you knew nothing else about Gov. Sarah Palin, the moment you saw her you knew this: Tina Fey would be playing her on SNL. The resemblance is uncanny, the impression hilarious, and even though you can’t seriously classify Fey’s caricature of Palin as identity theft, what happened to Palin’s Yahoo Mail account may be.

Using social engineering, hackers exploited known weaknesses in Yahoo Mail’s password-recovery feature. What is social engineering? Social engineering is the term used to describe when we use social skills, like lying, deception and persuasion, to manipulate people into doing what we want or giving out confidential information. Online, it usually refers to someone posing as a legitimate user in order to gain privileged information like passwords or usernames.

How did they get Palin? Like most web accounts, Yahoo allows you to reset or recover your username and password. Usually this is allowed after you’ve provided personal information that would identify you as the authorized user. How hard was it to get into Palin’s email account?

According to published news reports:

• It took just 15 seconds on Wikipedia to answer the prompt for Palin’s birthdate
• The prompt for a ZIP code took little more time considering Wasilla, Alaska, only has two
• Palin’s personal security question, ‘Where did you meet your spouse?’ took a few attempts before the correct answer was successfully guessed: Wasilla High School.

I’m not well known like Palin, but it still won’t take much more time to learn that I was born in Brooklyn, NY or that my mom’s maiden name was Beck. I went to a lot more grade schools than the average person, so that may slow you down a little, but once you realize my childhood hero was Batman, I’m screwed.

The problem for Palin is that her personal information is, well, public. The problem for the rest of us is that even for a relatively unsophisticated identity thief, ours is too.

With the presidential election nearing its end, our candidates have in much detail debated, discussed and rallied for American issues; much of which having to do with typical topics such as economy, healthcare and of course taxes. In four years, when the presidential election comes again, you may hear of a new hot topic on the minds of the American people and politicians…identity theft. The driving force - organizations sensitive information loss and data breaches.

In 2008 alone there have been nearly 600 personal information data breaches that have affected more than 125 million US consumers! The organizations that have lost our information have ranged from educational institutions to the government and military, medical and healthcare facilities to banking and financial institutions and your everyday businesses. Identity theft costs U.S. consumers $50 billion a year and is a living nightmare as it relates to the average time spent restoring a stolen identity, 175-300 personal hours and 1-2 years!!

What is encouraging is that organizations and businesses are becoming more proactive in instituting a solution before they’ve experienced a breach. Many are taking advantage of services such as LifeLock’s Institutional Breach Services (IBS). LifeLock’s IBS will educate and help organizations to better understand identity theft and to get all parties of the organization protected by LifeLock. Most importantly, to show them what to do in a crisis situation:

• Create an Incident Response Team in your organization.
• Develop a Notification Strategy.
• Create Notification Letter(s) to Affected Individuals.
• Designate a Contact Person to Release Information.

Because there are many different ways that sensitive data can be breached, it can be difficult for some organizations to plan for every possible scenario. It may be imperative that laws mandate that organizations have a solution in place; a “break glass in case of emergency” type resolution to address any data loss crisis. So be on the lookout in 2012, we just may hear slogans on the campaign as they relate to identity theft protection. Where do you stand?

I like to think that I’m smarter than a lot of my friends when it comes to knowing where my family and I are vulnerable when it comes to identity theft. I’ve even taught my three-year old little boy how important it is to shred – we’ve made a game out of it.

As a representative of LifeLock, I’ve spoken with many parents about what red flags to look for as it relates to their children and the potential misuse of their identities. Red flag #1: be on the lookout for pre-approved credit card offers and catalogs that may come in the mail addressed to your children, this is a sign that they may have a credit report. So, you can imagine my surprise when one Saturday my son received an LL Bean catalog in the mail!

Because my family all subscribe to LifeLock, my first call was to LifeLock to have them look into this further to see if my son may in fact be a victim of identity theft. Very quickly it was reported back to me that he does not in fact have a credit report - phew, what a relief! The next step was to request a work history with the Social Security Administration to see if anyone may be using his information illegally to gain employment. My fingers are crossed that this comes back negative as well. LifeLock has also worked to scrub his name from the direct mail lists to reduce any further “junk mail” he may get.

As it stands right now, the chances are very slim that he’s been a victim of identity theft but it’s a relief to know that LifeLock is one phone call away and will work to take the steps to confirm that he is indeed safe and that I have nothing to worry about.

Recently I was at one of my favorite stores with a friend.  I was in line to pay and my debit card was declined three times.  Moments passed as I stood there furiously searching my brain.  I am notorious for forgetting my PIN.  Was this another one of those moments?  A quick look back - the line grew tenfold in those few seconds.  No, I’m pretty sure this is not one of my awesome moments - I had the PIN right.  I looked at the cashier who began to explain that my card was locked out after three tries for identity theft protection purposes.  At this point I was slightly frustrated - not only are they not going to accept my card but now they are going to tell me about identity theft protection.  Really?  Does it get more insulting?  I was half tempted to conveniently have my business card fall out of my purse onto the counter but, after thinking about it a couple times, I resisted.  A pulled out some cash and stepped aside for my friend to pay.  The same thing happened to him.  We left my favorite store slightly disgruntled. 

Next stop: the video store.  As we stood in line still commenting on the episode and the plethora of skilled workers my favorite store hired, he pulled out his card and suddenly placed it in front of my nose.  His card had my name on it - our cards had gotten mixed up when we paid for dinner earlier.  While I walked away with my tail between my legs that night, there was some good news: I hadn’t thrown my business card around and my friend’s debit card still worked despite the multiple tries with the PIN number (ok -this is mostly scary that it still worked.  However, it was good in my case since he was paying for the movie). 

How many companies out there are feeding consumers information regarding identity theft policies?  How much of this information is correct?  The store employee tried to tell me their identity theft policy but it appeared incorrect when the PIN was not timed out after three incorrect tries.  Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America.  Are employees receiving enough up-to-date training?  It is doubtful so the only thing we can do is question, question, question; you can’t do enough to protect your identity.

The crime of identity theft occurs when someone, without your knowledge, fraudulently acquires a piece of your personal information and uses it to obtain goods, services or credit. This is a fairly new and rapidly evolving area of criminal activity. Identity thieves are continuously finding new ways to work. Consumers should be aware of the following tactics that are currently being used to gather identifying information for fraudulent use:

Types of Identity Theft

Following are the types of identity theft presently known to be commonly employed. They include 37 varieties grouped in 3 main categories:

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