When hackers strike it is usually on the large businesses and not the small businesses because they can get more information and do more damage to the large businesses.  Although big businesses still are a prime playground the small businesses are starting to become a more popular target.  At least fifty percent of these attacks are data breaches or hacking while the other half involves malware.

For a small business, cyber attacks can cost them almost one hundred ninety thousand dollars a year.  The reason that small businesses are now having so many hacker attacks or data breaches is that many of them have no anti-spam software, no firewall in place, or no anti-spyware.  Most small businesses think about fixing the problem after an attack instead of preventing it from happening in the first place.

Here are some things that a small business can do to help prevent their business from become a data breach or identity theft statistic.

• Focus on the essential controls and make sure that you are using these controls across your whole business with no exceptions.
• Eliminate any unnecessary data by either discarding it the safe way or if you must keep it, then identify what it is, securely store it, and monitor it.
• Secure the remote access services by restricting services to specific networks and IP addresses.  Make sure that you minimize public access and that your business is limiting access to any type of sensitive information within the network.

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Your SSN, otherwise known as your personal id number, is what the US government uses in order to provide disability or retirement benefits. Also, if you plan on getting yourself a job (and who doesn’t!), having a social security number is compulsory, because everyone with a job has got to pay into the social security system.

That’s not all though – there are plenty of other things where an SSN comes in useful. For instance, you’ll have to supply your social security number when opening a bank account. It’s also required when applying for a driver’s license or a credit card.

Hence, it’s vital that you safeguard your SSN, because they’re one of the primary targets of identity theft.

Any establishment could ask you to produce your social security number, for eg. health clubs, utility companies, your doctor’s office, etc.). However, it’s not incumbent on you to provide it all the time. You can easily ask if you could use an alternative identifier. If they still insist on your SSN, it might be a good idea to take your business someplace else, because it is totally within your legal rights to be able to protect your social security number.

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Since identity theft-related attacks are on the rise all over the world, it helps to know of some useful resources that’ll help in preventing it from happening to you.

There are a number of US government websites related to the subject of identity theft fraud resources, that’ll help you protect yourself from this evil crime. In this article, we’ll go over a few of them and check out brief descriptions on each site.

The very first website you should think of when it comes to identity theft fraud resources, is the FTC’s site. The FTC is one of the most important government departments you may need to get in touch with, in case you’re the victim of an identity theft attack.

The Federal Trade Commission offers a variety of identity theft fraud resources such as their ‘Detect and Defend’ brochure, which by the way, comes in a PDF format. You’ll also find plenty of useful links to many other identity theft resources.

Another great website is the IRS site which contains content on the same topic, including links to plenty of additional resources. Some of the information covered, include how your tax records are affected, what you should do if you feel you’re a victim of an identity theft scam, and what you can do to protect yourself from one.

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Identity theft is one of the rapidly-growing crimes. It features stealing of personal information of the other person. Using different methods, the criminals steal the driving licenses, ATM cards, Social Security Numbers, credit card numbers, telephone calling cards and other pieces of identity such as birth-date. The criminals use this information to impersonate the victims spending more and more money in a short time before identifying the information.

There are various types of identity theft such as financial identity theft, criminal identity theft, medical identity theft, identity cloning and business-commercial identity theft. The business identity theft against a small business may be completely crushing on the business and the owner. In many cases, the credit of the business and the owner’s credit are the same. The owner may be personally giving the guarantee of business loan or the line of credit. He may be using his own personal credit to provide the finance to the business. The ability of the business to continue to operate may be affected if the loan is denied due to the credit risk or the interest rates on the key credit accounts increased due to the universal default clause. If the business cannot be operated, then the owner’s ability to earn a living is at the high risk.

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It’s official: identity theft is on the rise. So much so, it has now become one of the fastest growing crimes of this decade!

How can I protect myself from it? Well, here are 7 effective tips on identity theft protection that’ll help you avoid being an easy victim to an identity thief:

* Tip #1:- Make sure you protect your SSN

Never carry around your social security card in your purse or wallet, because you never know when you might end up losing them. You could also get mugged, and then wake up to find your SS card missing. Also, do not write your social security number on a slip of paper or on a check.

* Tip #2:- Look out for your US postal mail

There’ve been many instances where identity theft crimes have been committed by snatching people’s content from their mail boxes, before they got home. So, to avoid this from happening, be sure to take in your mail as soon as it arrives…or you could also have your mail forwarded to a special PO box at Mailbox USA.

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