Unfortunately due to the way we work, study, buy and do our banking a lot of our personal information is forwarded in a digital format. This has led to a huge increase in criminals using this information for their own purposes - often to create a new identity using your information. There is certainly increased awareness and controls to minimise this from occurring but it does happen. When you look at this website this week
www.ag.gov.au you will see that one in five people experience the misuse of their information at some point in their lives and 5% of people have experienced significant financial loss in the last 12 months due to the misuse of their information. On this page you will find out how to protect and recover your identity. Please click on those links and read the information - it is not just about what may be available online but there are other things that we do that leave us open to identity theft.
The section on identity theft is at
http://www.ag.gov.au/RightsAndProtections/IdentitySecurity/Pages/default.aspx
There are also some great resources to download, you will receive a copy of their posters this week in the courier. The government and banking sector certainly take Identity theft seriously and there are a number of new initiatives like the Document Verification Service and the National Identity Security Strategy which are discussed on this website.
AH-There is so much information on this site about protecting your identity and what you can do to recover your identity if it is ever stolen. There is also a quick survey from the Australian Federal Police to check how safe your identity is, there are three levels at the end of the survey depending on how you answer the survey. ‘Dangerous. Be Careful, Good, I took the survey and I got “Good” so hopefully my identity is secure. Being online isn’t the only risk when it comes to identity theft, disposing of bank details or anything that has personal information on it should be shredded instead of just thrown in the bin. Also keep important documents such as birth certificates, marriage certificate, visas and other forms of id in a safe, secure place. The document verification service sounds like a really good idea providing automated checks of people’s identity and it doesn’t store the data so can’t be hacked and information can’t be used in any way by unauthorized people.
ReplyDeleteThis site is definitely a useful resource especially in today’s digital world.
KT - The sight was great to find lots of information. I liked how you could get a Statutory declaration form. Some things you get really excited about and then it proves to be more difficult or costly. No, you can't just go on this Document verification service put in the details you want to check ie your passport and get a result. You have to go through an organisation who will do that. At no time do they indicate if there is a cost involve on the DVS sight. I find that really frustrating. They had a grants register too and I thought - great lets see what grants are available but this is only grants that have been issues and because of privacy you can't see who got them which is understandable. I took the Australian Federal Police safety survey and unlike Ash I only got - be careful - need to lock my mail box and read the conditions on line. But at least I know now where to go for this information.
ReplyDeleteSH I took the how safe is your identity survey and received a good but I do not nor will I ever bank online and I have always shredded any personal details even before putting things in the bin. Protecting your identity is something you should always be aware of. Good solid information I thought it was an excellent site.
ReplyDeleteDG - It's good to know that there is a service available for verifying documents, but I found this website a little short on some significant details. ie I would like to at least know a ball park figure of the costs involved before I applied for a check and none of the sites seemed to have anything about cost on them. SO much information out there when you know the right places to go!
ReplyDeleteAB- I found this website interesting, particularly the information on how to protect your identity and recover your stolen identity.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to previous comments I think the Document Verification Site is not publicly available to government and some private organisations.
NS- DVS initiative looks good. It’s great to know who to contact if we suspect we are victims of identity theft and l guess we have all probably thrown something in the bin that should have been shredded! Personal information sharing online can be a trap also and lm sure people have set up fake accounts on social networking sites in order to steal information from people for illicit use. In the age of so many passwords and prolific hacking l guess we really just have to verify who we are sharing things with online, are really who they say they are.
ReplyDeleteA very useful site with lots of information and helpful tips about protecting your identity. I took the survey and found there are some extra measures I can take to protect my personal information. I have observed young people sharing apps from one device to another, and as this site mentions, not all sites security check apps before they are made available for download. This site recommends to check permission before accepting apps and to check for viruses after downloading. Something else I thought was relevant from a previous site was to erase your hard drive before disposing of your computer. Just deleting your individual files is not enough to remove personal details, documents and passwords stored on your computer. Special wiping software can be downloaded or purchased to help you clean your hard drive. WW
ReplyDeleteLW - I thought this was a good site, with lots of interesting and helpful information. Identify theft can cause major problems with far reaching ramifications so following some of these simple tips could save a lot of grief in the future. There are also some easy to follow instructions on what to do if you find yourself a victim of this type of crime. Just goes to show we should all remain vigilant and work hard to protect those personal details, regardless of how insignificant we think they might be.
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