Contact: Maggie Harris
STARKVILLE, Miss.--With the Christmas holiday season fast approaching and online purchases increasing, Internet users need to be aware that another type of shopper, the identity thief, also may be more prevalent.
Unmistakably, the Internet has changed lives in the past 20 years. Internet users can now keep in contact with others around the world simultaneously, receive the latest news in an instant, and shop online with just a click. Those who browse freely, though, are cautioned when revealing personal information in cyberspace.
Tom Ritter, security and compliance officer for Information Technology Services at Mississippi State University, says that the most common form of cyber theft is phishing. Phishing is the act of sending an e-mail to a user, falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise, in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft.
Social networking has also become a new tool for cyber theft, according to Ritter. "Everyone is using social networks today, so wherever the people are the thieves are there as well," he said.
Cyber thieves create fake social accounts with links that lead to phishing sites to steal personal information. The thieves then use the personal information, such as usernames and passwords, to gain access to post blog comments on friends' pages. They then send messages from phished accounts to other contacts.
Ritter said, "When looking at the latest edition of the Kroll Annual Global Fraud Report, the amount lost by businesses to fraud rose from $1.4 million to $1.7 million per $1 billion of sales in the past 12 months--an increase of more than 20 percent."
Ritter said, in this cyber age, users need to be aware thieves will always be lurking, waiting for people to reveal their identities and personal information.
MSU Information Technology Services offers these helpful tips:
--Protect social security numbers; keep them in safe locations
--Use caution when giving out personal information
--Treat trash carefully; shred everything that has important information on it
--Check bills and bank statements for any unauthorized charges or withdrawals
--Protect computers by using long complicated passwords, have anti-virus software and download only from trusted sites.
For more information about identity theft, see http://www.infosecurity.msstate.edu/idp/. For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.