The headlines have been filled in the past year with thousands of data breaches – from universities to hospitals to private companies. There are many more that occur and don’t get reported. And for each breach, there are thousands of people who are affected, and who could become victims of identity theft.

Hackers are getting more and more knowledgeable on how to get into systems and steal customer and patient information. With just a few key pieces of info, like Social Security numbers, addresses and full names, a thief can do major damage – often ruining a person’s credit and good name. This damage can take years to repair, as well as thousands of dollars.

Companies are becoming more sensitive to the fact that they must step up their response to this growing problem. And LifeLock is leading the pack by providing them a way to protect their customers and employees.

LifeLock Breach Services can prove invaluable in helping businesses quickly restore public confidence and avoid unnecessary costs in the event of a breach. LifeLock’s services will help lessen potential fallout by:

• Initiating a rapid response.
• Communicating to people at risk.
• Establishing identity theft protection for those affected persons.
• Tracking results, providing reports and ongoing information about enrollments and fraud incidents.

LifeLock will also work with companies, providing support to stay ahead of any future complications.

Interested in protecting your business? Call LifeLock today at 1-877-511-7906.

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Your personal information may be leaked more than you know.

Records with private information such as driver’s licenses, financial documents and medical forms, either in paper format or electronically, are put at risk more than ever before, and more often than not, these risks are not disclosed to the public.

This year, more than 341 individual breaches have been tracked, compared to 498 for the entire year in 2009. But dozens of breaches have been kept from the public eye, delayed in publication or not disclosed at all.

So what can you, as a consumer, do?

If you receive a letter saying your information is at risk, don’t panic. It doesn’t necessarily mean you are a victim of identity theft. You should first check to see what information is at risk. You should then take action accordingly. If it’s a credit card, contact your credit card issuer. If it involves your Social Security number, you should place a fraud alert on your credit report.

Other actions you can take to protect your financial identity include:

• Use unique passwords for each Web site you visit, including shopping and online banking sites.
• Check your bank or retailer’s security measures for online transactions. They should have policies in place to prevent hacking.
• Always review credit card and banking statements when you receive them.
• You can request the three credit bureaus to free access to your credit files to prevent any new accounts being opened with your stolen information.

But the best thing you can do is to sign up for LifeLock. LifeLock will monitor for any threat to your personal information, and will notify you immediately. This includes monitoring for the sale or trade of your personal information, which often happens when a thief hacks into a database or gets information due to a breach.

Call LifeLock today. Receive 30 days free and get a 10 percent discount on enrollment with the LifeLock Promo Code “Defense.”

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Data breaches in hotel industry higher than any other sector in 2009, according to Trustwave report

Which is most worrisome: (A) that hackers hit the hotel industry in 38% of data breaches last year; (B) that it took the hotels an average of five months to notice a data breach; (C) that the hackers often got into the data by using software glitches that had patches available 10 years ago; or, (D) all of the above?

A new report from security firm Trustwave indicates that the hotel industry was targeted for data breaches more than any other last year primarily because they were such an easy target and the takings were so rich. The hackers gained access to potentially millions of credit card account details from hotels that did little to protect the data, and never reported the resulting identity theft risk to officials or customers. (Picture a frisky young pit bull gleefully trotting after a fat, blind, three-legged cat while the cat’s owner sleeps in a hammock nearby.)

Nicholas Percoco, a Trustwave security auditor and data breach investigator, presented the report at an annual gathering of cyber security experts, the Black Hat Conference. The data was drawn from the results of 1,900 audits and 200 post-data breach investigations.

The Trustwave report also points out an interesting negative correlation between sectors that proactively hired Trustwave to attempt penetrations to identify weaknesses, and those sectors that hired Trustwave to conduct post-data breach forensic investigations. Last year, companies in the hospitality industry accounted for only 3% (roughly 60) of the 1,900 proactive audits Trustwave performed in 24 countries last year. However, the hospitality industry accounted for 38% (roughly 76) of the forensic investigations they were for after data breaches had taken place.

Most companies avoid reporting data breaches if they can, but data breaches Radisson Hotels, Wyndham Hotels and Hilton Hotels all reported data breaches in 2009.

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