Excerpts
#3: What Are the Latest Identity Theft Statistics?
Here are some eye-opening statistics from McAfee:
- $54 billion—the amount Americans incurred in loss from identity theft in 2008
- 500 million—the number of consumers from 2005 to 2009 whose personal and financial data has been exposed as a result of corporate data breaches—events the victims cannot control despite taking personal safety measures
- $5,000—the average fraud amount per victim
- 400%—victims who found out about their identity theft more than six months after it happened incurred costs four times higher than the average
- 165 hours—the average amount of time victims spent repairing the damage done by creation of new fraudulent accounts
- 89%—the percentage of personal identity thefts that take place offline
- 58 hours—the average amount of time victims spent repairing the damage done to existing accounts
- 43%—the percentage of identity theft occurring from stolen wallets, checkbooks, credit cards, billing statements, or other physical documents
- 1 in 4—number of American adults who have been notified by a business or organization that their information has been compromised due to a data breach
- 11%—the percentage of personal identities stolen using the Internet
- Once every three seconds—how often an identity is stolen
#33: How Do I Protect Myself from Spyware and a Key-Catcher?
Spyware is a form of malicious software, so to protect yourself from spyware, you should fol-low all instructions listed in “#48: How Do I Protect Myself from Malware?”
To protect yourself from a key-catcher, check your USB and PS/2 ports for any mysterious devices attached to your computer. While antivirus software is specifically designed to detect mali-cious programs, it may not recognize a key-catcher, because it is an external device that does not run typical keylogger software. Key-catchers are created to imitate a legitimate hardware de-vice that would be plugged into the back of the computer. For this reason, you must physically inspect your computer to find out if a key-catcher has been placed onto your computer.
Some browsers, such as Firefox, offer an on-screen keyboard to try to circumvent key-catchers, and there are different types of other software-based spyware detectors that can also capture screenshots.
To ensure your safety when entering credit card information online, you should use automatic form filler software that is included with password managing programs.
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