Identity Theft in Space?
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008Who is safe from Identity Theft? The answer coming indirectly out of NASA this week, yes as in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is that nobody truly is 100% protected from malicious identity theft criminals. This week the International Space Station became one of the latest victims of a computer virus, known as W32.Gammima.AG. This specific virus copies itself onto computers in an attempt to steal users log-on information. Log-on information that can easily and quickly be used to, in effect, steal the identity of the computer user.
Many times when we hear of identity theft our thoughts wander to someone stealing our wallets or purses, or perhaps recently we have heard a myriad of stories where companies, hospitals, or corporations lose computers, laptops, or memory sticks that contain thousands and even millions of data records for consumers like you and I.
News out of NASA highlights another area that identity theft criminals can utilize; computer viruses. In early 2004 a computer virus called MyDoom successfully infected 1 million computer users in just the month of May. While MyDoom was not designed to steal the identity of others, this illustrates just how quickly and damaging the combination of viruses and identity theft can become.
Nearly 1 in 20 adult Americans have been victims of identity theft as of April 2003 (Star Systems). Every single day identity theft rings are craftily attempting to steal your identity, passwords, social security numbers, or any other personal information that they can use to their criminal advantage.
What can you do to protect yourself?
- Be educated. Learn more about how to recover from Identity Theft or how you can repair the impacts on your credit through credit report repair.
- Purchase virus protection software. Products like Norton AntiVirus or mcAfee can be a comparably inexpensive way of saving you a lot of heartache. Norton AntiVirus 2008 retails for between $39.99 and $69.99 a year (depending on which package you purchase). Summary of Norton packages.
- Be cautious when you save, open, or otherwise work with a file someone sends you by email. If it looks suspicious, it typically is. If you are unsure, it’s worth double checking before opening it. It typically takes a few seconds to a few minutes to verify and conversely it can take hours, days, and years to repair your identity.