Identity its not who you are, its what you do.

Its a new year in the blogsphere and time to step up my game.  My blog has sit here bereft of my musings for long enough, its time to get busy.

Security Shaken Loose

Lots of interesting things going on in security news during the past few months.  With the rise of connected toys we see the VTECH and theoretical Hello Barbie hacks, 320,000 Time Warner customers are urged to change their passwords due to that breach, and with a major NSA backdoor in some Juniper Networks networking appliances, there appears to be churn in every sector from Internet of things, Internet Service Providers, and even in Corporate and Government security. As we become more connected, we have to double down our efforts to increase the security and access to our information.

To What Ends

Even while taking such a stance, we have to assume that anything we store digitally in a connected fashion is at risk. Any illusions we have to privacy, are just fancies of blissful ignorance.  If someone wants access bad enough they will get it.  There are there are many ways we can go with this. Some believe that if we have nothing to hide then why does it matter, and others think that in a connected world where nothing will remain hidden, whats the point.  I believe that we all have something to hide, it can be as benevolent as wanting to protect the safety of our families or identity.

Bad things happen to good people. It would be nice if it wasn't so, but the nature of terror and power is to impose it.  There will always be those that prey upon others.

In keeping with a theme of Identity identity Security, I offer the following advice on securing and protecting yours.

Credit Freeze

A lesser known feature available from the Credit Reporting companies is a Credit or Security Freeze. This doesn't affect the credit you have, and restricts the credit information to certain government agencies and existing creditors. For roughly $5-10 per account you can go to TransUnion, EQUIFAX, and EXPERIAN, and request them to restrict access to your credit report.  This makes it extremely difficult for identity thieves to open new accounts under your name, and can be reversed at any time. You may even be given a Pin number that allows you to temporarily grant access to your credit report. I don't think $~30 is much to pay for that kind of security.

To get started click, or give them a call.

Equifax — 1-800-349-9960

Experian — 1‑888‑397‑3742

TransUnion — 1-888-909-8872

Yours in Security,
Justin