identitytheft911With studies showing that only about half of us care about privacy online, services like Identity Theft 911 – one of the largest identity theft resolution firms on the net – are in demand more than ever. We had the opportunity to talk to Ondrej Krehel, Identity Theft 911′s Information Security Officer, about how to keep yourself safe from fraud and identity theft while your busy tagging yourself in those late night photos and sharing them with your entire network. Read below for 11 tips for protecting your identity on social networks and more from Krehel.

Can you give us a brief background of Identity Theft 911?

Identity Theft 911®, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., is an industry leader in identity management, providing innovative, enterprise-level fraud solutions and consumer education to Fortune 500 companies, many of America’s largest insurance companies and corporate benefit providers, and a wide spectrum of financial institutions, colleges, and universities. More than 12 million households are enrolled in Identity Theft 911′s comprehensive identity management programs.

What services does Identity Theft 911 provide to social network users?

Educational services related to social networking are provided via the Identity Theft 911 Newsletter and our educational portal http://identitytheft911.org/. Identity Theft 911 provides its services to ID theft victims, including social network users.

Can you give our readers some tips for protecting their information on social networking sites?

  • Review your personal and privacy settings carefully. If you don’t know understand some of them, it is safer to keep them closed than open.
  • Avoid social networking Web site quizzes that open the door on your personal info to the quiz developers.
  • Use strong passwords comprised of numbers, letters and symbols and change them often. Use different passwords for your social websites, personal life and financial life. If you can’t remember passwords, use secure programs for its storage such as password safe.
  • Treat your laptop as if you know it’s going to be stolen. Use the password-prompt on start-up and shut it down for the night. Consider using open source encryption programs such as truecrypt.
  • Avoid unsecured public “Wi-Fi” networks at Internet cafes and coffee shops while reviewing your personal and sensitive data.
  • Use firewalls, anti-virus and anti-malware software and regularly, or automatically update them.
  • Don’t accept friend requests from strangers in a misguided attempt to pad your social network numbers.
  • If you use social site plug-in on your mobile, consider having password and same basic security features turned on it.
  • Be careful of clicking on links on social web sites. They could lead to malicious code installation on your PC.
  • Be aware that even picture can contain virus, Trojan horse and worm. Don’t click on pictures just because they are cool, or hot looking.
  • Log out of any social-networking site when not in use. Use different log-ins for various sites.

Consider how much of your identifying information is posted on these sites. Are there photos that show the entire layout of your apartment, and everything in it? Do your pictures and videos release your location (geotags, personal metadata) or other personal information? Is your full birth date disclosed? Over-sharing is a bad idea for many reasons, remember sites pleaserobme.com and icanstalku.com.