Protecting Your Small Business

By | April 18th, 2013|Uncategorized|

computer_lockAccording to the 2013 Symantec Internet Security Threat Report, 50 percent of all targeted cyber attacks in 2012 were aimed at businesses with fewer than 2,500 employees. Thirty-one percent of attacks were aimed at businesses with fewer than 250 employees. These stats are telling—small businesses are increasingly becoming a target for hackers.

The reasons why are simple. Small business owners normally don’t have the time or resources to focus on security the way an enterprise business does. Additionally, many small business owners feel like they aren’t at risk. Why go after a mom-and-pop shop when the potential ill-gotten rewards are so much greater if a hacker goes after a larger company? The answer to this question—small businesses often offer the path of least resistance when it comes to security, making them a desirable target for hackers and other ne’er-do-wells.

For the next few months we will be addressing a number of topics related to small business security in the hopes of giving owners the tools and know-how they need to protect their businesses. We’ll also be hosting a webinar later this spring on the same topic. If you have a particular question about security for your small business, feel free to leave it on Twitter and Facebook and we’ll answer it. In the meantime, check back in regularly for more information on how to protect your business and the upcoming webinar.

 

March Recap: In It to Win It – From Happy Hour to Consumer Research

By | April 11th, 2013|Uncategorized|

What a busy month for us. March was full of events, research reports, awards and more. Take a look at the highlights below:

CSID at SXSWi
Since we’re headquartered in Austin, TX, home to South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi), we take part in the festival each year. This year we hosted a booth at the Tech Career Expo during the week, and then enjoyed Sunday evening with colleagues, partners and friends for our Protect Your Buzz Happy Hour. Check out pictures from the event on Facebook, and thanks to everyone who came!

New Partnership and Twitter Chat
This month we became partners with cybersecurity awareness campaign, STOP. THINK. CONNECT. We also co-hosted one of their monthly security themed Twitter chats (#chatstc) with the FTC to discuss child identity protection. We had a great turnout and look forward to hosting another Twitter chat soon.

Child Identity Theft Research and Webinar
We conducted a survey of parents to get insight into their knowledge of and concern about child identity theft. We found that while many parents are aware that child identity theft is a possibility, and most are concerned, there is a clear disconnect among this concern, awareness and the number of parents who are taking proactive action to protect their children. We released the research as a white paper and an infographic, congruent with a live webinar on the topic that we hosted in early April.

CSID’s Joel Lang at Austin AMA
Shout out to Joel Lang, our development director for ETI, who spoke at an Austin AMA event about “monetizing data in the B2B world” with the CEO of nFusion and the VP of Marketing at Bulldog Solutions.

Congrats to Sergey, CUA of the Month
In March, Human Factors International (HFI) named our Senior UI/UX Architect, Sergey Sinyakov, as Certified Usability Analyst (CUA) of the month. In his interview with HFI, Sergey discussed how usability plays into identity theft products. Go Sergey!

What We’re Looking Forward To in April – ID360 Conference
We’re looking forward to hearing CSID VP Bryan Hjelm and Joel Lang, Development Director of ETI, speak at the UT Center for Identity’s annual ID360 Conference later this month. Bryan will be speaking about the future of identity protection on the morning of April 30, while Joel will discuss “The Battle Against Breaches: Going Beyond Signature Based Malware Detection” on May 1. Join us! Register now.

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Parental Awareness and Action about Child Identity Theft Revealed

By | April 2nd, 2013|Uncategorized|

Infographic_ChildID_SurveyOne in 10 children will become victim to child identity theft and the thieves can go unnoticed for years as children’s credit reports may not be checked until they turn 18. Many times families discover the crime when the child applies for his or her first credit card, loan or apartment and are met with the shocking reality that their credit has been fraudulently used.

CSID recently conducted a consumer survey to understand parental awareness, concern and action around this growing issue. The survey found that 56 percent of parents are aware that child identity theft is a growing trend and 76 percent of them are concerned that their child’s identity might be stolen. However, despite the awareness of the issue, 52 percent of parents are not currently taking measures to prevent the misuse of their child’s online information.

The survey also revealed that 88 percent of the parents who are not currently taking measures to prevent the misuse of their child’s online information would be willing to do so. In fact, a large majority – 93 percent – would support their state or local governments passing regulations to protect children’s online activity and identity information.

The survey data suggests that parents are aware of the issue and willing to take action, but don’t know what to do or where to begin. CSID teamed up with Dena Haritos Tsamitis, director of education, training and outreach at Carnegie Mellon’s CyLab, Tim Woda, co-founder of UKnowKids.com and Clay Nichols, chief creative officer at LookOut Social to present “Child Identity Theft: A Parenting Blind Spot,” a webinar about the growing trend of child identity theft and what parents – and businesses – can do to address it.

Learn more about the prevalence and impact of child identity theft and what CSID, Carnegie Mellon’s CyLab, UKnowKids.com and LookOut Social recommend parents and businesses do to combat this growing trend. Download the white paper and view the infographic and then share your thoughts with us on Facebook and Twitter using hashtag #SecureChildID.

 

 

Upcoming Webinar: Child Identity Theft – A Parenting Blind Spot

By | March 13th, 2013|Uncategorized|

In our recent consumer research survey, we found that a whopping 43% of parents do not know that child identity theft is a growing concern, and only 18% of parents are concerned with their child’s identity being stolen online. Meanwhile, according to ITAC’s 2012 Child Identity Fraud Report, one in 40 U.S. households with minor children is affected by this issue. Despite that frequency, child identity theft is a largely underreported and underrated crime, because most victims do not discover they have been targeted until they are 18 years old. It’s not only an issue for the children and families involved, but businesses are also losing money to these schemes as well.

So, what can parents and businesses do to combat this alarming trend? What solutions are out there? Join leading security experts Tuesday, April 2nd at 12 pm CDT for a free one-hour webinar that will address the growing trend of child identity theft, parent awareness and response, and what businesses can do to provide protection to this demographic and to themselves.

WEBINAR: Child Identity Theft: A Parenting Blind Spot. What We Can Do – As Parents and Businesses – to Reverse this Growing Trend.

When: Tuesday April 2, 2013 at 12pm CDT

Cost: Free

Twitter Hashtag: #SecureChildID – we’ll be extending the conversation to Twitter

Register Now!

Speakers:

Moderator:

  • Bryan Hjelm, Vice President, CSID

TWITTER CHAT
We’ll also be hosting a live Twitter chat about this topic on Thursday, March 14 at 2 PM CDT with global cybersecurity awareness campaign @STOPTHNKCONNECT and other industry leaders. Join in using the hashtag #ChatSTC.

See you there!

Webinar Recap: What to do when a password is no longer secure?

By | October 1st, 2012|Uncategorized|

We recently hosted a webinar featuring CSID VP Marc Ostryniec and Toopher CEO Josh Alexander. Marc and Josh discussed consumer password habits, supplemented by statistics from our  recent consumer survey. The two also revealed how these habits put consumers and businesses at risk for compromise, and what businesses can do to mitigate these risks now and in the future.

It was a really interesting conversation and we encourage you to listen to the full webinar recording. If you are short on time, here are a handful of key takeaways from the discussion:

  • A business’ security is only as strong as its weakest link, which is often the human element. Human fallibility doesn’t stop at downloading a virus or clicking on the wrong link. An email or password compromised from one company’s data breach can open up vulnerabilities across a multitude of completely unrelated websites such as banking, financial, online retailers and the like.
  • To mitigate these risks, businesses should educate, monitor and authenticate their customers and employees.
  • Businesses can consider compulsory password education for customers and employees—require the use of a stronger password or regular password changes.
  • Monitoring breached data for customer and employee credentials can help a business 1) identify compromised information that puts them at risk and 2) alert owners of the credentials to take responsive action (i.e. change passwords, cancel credit cards). 
  • Businesses should adopt two-factor authentication whenever possible. It can be based on a combination of:
  1. Something the consumer knows (password, personal question)
  2. Something the consumer has (mobile device, smart card)
  3. Something the consumer is (biometrics)

Thank you to all who helped put this webinar together and joined us live. We had a great turnout for a fascinating discussion. If you missed us, you can watch a recording of the webinar, and check out Facebook and Twitter for an extension of the conversation.

We have another webinar in the works. Join our mailing list for an invitation (see footer, below), and stay tuned for updates!

Webinar: Mitigating the Risk of Poor Password Practices

By | September 6th, 2012|Uncategorized|

When it comes to securing passwords, companies can encrypt, hash and salt to their hearts’ content but they will still be at risk. Why? Because people can be careless when it comes to password creation and management. If one consumer uses the same password on multiple sites, and one of those sites is compromised, the others are compromised too. 

The big question is: what can businesses do to protect themselves and their customers?

Join CSID’s own Marc Ostryniec and CEO and co-founder of Toopher, Josh Alexander on September 26th at 12pm CDT for a free one-hour webinar that will address what’s new in password protection and identity authentication. We’ll also take a look at hacker tools and discuss risk-mitigation solutions for businesses.

Space is limited, so hurry and register now.

Webinar: Mitigating the Risk of Poor Password Practices

When: Wednesday, September 26, 2012 at 12pm CDT

Cost: Free

Speakers: Marc Ostryniec, Vice President of CSID & Josh Alexander, CEO and Co-Founder of Toopher

 

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