One single criminal operation was responsible for two-thirds of all phishing” attacks in the second half of 2009 and is responsible for a two-fold increase in the crime, a report published by the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) stated. Over the last three years, the Anti-Phishing Working Group’s semiannual Global Phishing Survey has become a widely cited source of information about the state of phishing and its effect on Internet users.

“Phishing,” is the process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as user-names, passwords, social security numbers, credit card numbers and other personal and financial information by masquerading as a legitimate sender in an e-mail or other electronic communication. Messages that purport to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, on-line payment processors or web-site technical administrators are commonly used to lure individuals into responding. Phishing is typically done using e-mail or instant messaging, and messages usually instruct the reader to enter personal information at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the one it mimics.

There were 126,697 phishing attacks during the second half of 2009, more than double the number in the first half of the year or from July through December of 2008, the APWG report said. Avalanche, which was first identified in December of 2008, was responsible for almost one-quarter (24%) of attacks in the first six months of 2009 and for almost two-thirds (66%) over the remainder of the year. Avalanche targeted more than 40 major financial institutions, online services, and job search providers.

The APWG report stated that, during the attacks, “ … target institutions, the relevant domain name registrar(s), a domain name registry, and other responders and service providers to all be aware of the campaign and working on mitigation at the same time …” Oddly enough, the very scope of Avalanche’s early coordinated attacks may have resulted in the greater ability of the Internet community to neutralize the group’s later efforts.

The Avalanche gang’s infrastructure was briefly shut down in mid November, and ever since then phishing attacks generated by the group have dropped precipitously. Last month, the gang was only able to launch 59 attacks.

Identity theft is a complex crime. It usually starts with some grain of information about you, and a thief will use that grain to obtain another one, and another one, etc. Once he’s got enough information, the thief will be able to impersonate you, gain access to your credit accounts and create havoc in your life.

The key to preventing identity theft is to pay attention to the details, such as what you carry in your wallet and how you create passwords. These can make all the difference in the world when it comes to preventing identity theft. Passwords, in particular, can be a huge factor.

Your passwords online really are the key to your identity. Behind the passwords is personal information that’s worth a fortune to the right buyer. If you’re protecting that information with your date of birth, your child’s date of birth or your anniversary, you’re not as protected as you could be.

When creating your password, be sure to use letters and numbers; at least eight characters. Don’t use whole words. One of the best ways to create a strong password is to think of a phrase that can be represented numerically. Think in terms of personalized license plates.

Avoid sequences and repeated characters. Longer isn’t better if the letters and numbers you use are sequential or repeated. Use the entire keyboard when creating your password, and include symbols.

And finally, don’t use the same passwords everywhere. Even a strong password is useless if it’s cracked. Create a different password on every Web site that you access, even though it’s a lot of work.

But making things harder for identity thieves is the name of the game when it comes to the safety of you and your family.

Many internet bloggers and commenters have expressed their dislike for identity theft protection services that offer ways to help you protect your credit. One question for them is: do you actively protect your own identity?

Commenting that you don’t want to pay for a service that helps to protect you is fine. Many can do their own hair, but prefer to pay someone at a salon to do it for them. Many know how to change their own oil, yet they prefer to pay someone to do it for them. It’s the same with identity theft protection, only many do not know how to protect their identity on their own or are not aware that they should.

Advice to shred sensitive documents before discarding, keep sensitive information in a locked place, etc is extremely helpful and useful. However, no matter where you keep sensitive information or how you discard of it, companies and agencies are still likely to have your social security number, driver license number and more in their data files. These files can be accessed by dishonest employees and computer hackers.

What have you done to protect your own identity in this regard? Do you check your credit report, card statements regularly? Do you check for any loans or accounts opened in your name or address changes in your name that you did not personally authorize? Do you know how to find out whether someone has filed a change of address in your name?

This is why many people chose a service like LifeLock to protect them. Read thoroughly through the list of benefits that this company can offer and then decide for yourself whether you still choose to decline paying for a service that can help you.

A woman, who was employed as a police officer in Daytona Beach, was arrested last week for “uttering a forged check” and other charges. The Volusia County Headlines Examiner notes that Annie R. noticed on her credit report that an automobile was purchased in 2007 in her name. She was denied a loan in March of this year, which prompted her looking into her credit report. A Daytona Beach arrest report notes that $32,000 loan was given in the name of Ms. Robinson and her granddaughter, who is a Daytona Beach police officer.

Many don’t take into account that fact that family members, who have access to personal information, might use their identity to get a loan. Many identity thieves use their family members as bait, especially if they know that the person does not often check their credit report or would not otherwise be aware of the fraudulent loan. Many don’t feel they will ever be caught stealing the personal identity of a family member.

It is good to always be aware of how you store and use your personal information. Who has access to it in your family that might be in desperate need of money or a loan?

Check your credit report often for any fraudulent activity. If you find that accounts were opened in your name that you were not aware of, report this to the proper authorities immediately.

Consider using a proactive identity theft monitoring service, that can alert you if new credit is issued in your name. Representatives can also be extremely helpful to you if you find that you do become the victim of identity theft and you are a member of an identity theft protection service.

There are so many stresses that are associated with travel: making sure that everything is packed, hoping that all arrangements for flights and accommodations have been taken care of adequately and being sure that you have access to the fund you will need to take your trip.

The Identity Theft Resource Center offers many tips that travelers will find valuable and helpful to review prior to traveling, whether business or pleasure. These tips include many facts that travelers never consider, and should be taken seriously:

-Do not carry checks and bills with you on your trip. Pay your bills at home prior to leaving for your trip or upon your return. They can easily be lost or stolen during travel, especially if stashed away in your hotel room while you visit the pool, local sight seeing, etc.

-Carrying credit cards is much safer than carrying debit cards. Debit cards can be used as credit (requiring a signature and ID when applicable) and can be PIN activated, so that no signature or ID are required. This is an identity thief’s dream, so avoid using them when possible. Debit cards are often PIN activated in a public area and it is easy for someone to look over your shoulder and get the PIN number to the card. Also, these are directly linked to cash in your bank account and can cause you to lose all funds if the account is accessed.

-Be sure that you carry as little information as possible. It is not normally necessary to carry your social security card, more than one credit card, checks, health insurance cards and identity information of family members not with you, etc.

-Have photocopies of all important documents in case you need the information contained on them to report them lost or stolen and keep them in a separate place from your wallet. This will prove helpful when you are reporting any lost documents to the police.

Well, you may or many not take precautions when it comes to your private information, but what do you need to do if your computer is hacked into and/or you are the victim of a computer virus?

To continue alerting consumers of helpful tips during National Internet Safety month, we have found more helpful information from OnGuardOnline.gov.

Computer virus’ make it close to impossible to use your machine properly, so it is possible that you will need to get software that will erase your entire hard drive, forcing you to start over. This is where having a back up of your files would come in handy, however, if they were not backed up to a device other than your hard drive, you have lost that data forever and have to start over.

It is also important to alert your internet service provider that you have become a victim. If you are able to determine the internet service provider of the hacker, report the incident to that company as soon as possible. They will want to know and take action to prevent the virus from being spread or the hacker from continuing to look for victims.

Here are other helpful resources:

-You can alert the FBI at www.ic3.gov
-If you have become the victim of  internet fraud or have given out your personal information in response to a scam, inform the Federal Trade Commission at http://ftc.gov and http://ftc.gov/idtheft
-Spammers often use “phishing” emails to bait consumers into providing information in response to an email that looks like it came from a reputable company. You can forward these deceptive emails to spam@uce.gov and reportphishing@antiphishing.org

The next tip offered to our readers for National Internet Safety Month involves password protection. Passwords are your personal and secure way of entering into websites that contain sensitive, personal information. However, when not carefully protected, those passwords can fall into the wrong hands and prove to be a way of blocking your entry into those same websites.

Your passwords should be kept somewhere that is secure and that is not easily accessible by others. Never share your passwords on the internet, via email or over the phone.

Make it hard for identity thieves to gain access to or guess your passwords by using the following tips:

-Use a minimum of eight characters. Don’t limit your password to just letters and numbers. Include symbols or characters and make the password as long as is allowable. For instance, 12 characters is a very strong password.

-Avoid using a commonly used word. There are programs used by hackers that will try every word in the dictionary, so be careful of what you choose!

-Passwords you want to avoid include anything that contains your personal information, adjacent keys on your keyboard or your login name.

-You need to change your password at least every 90 days. Every 30 days would be better.

-Use different passwords for different websites. Sing the same password for every account you access online can be a security risk.

Keep in mind that strong passwords can be created by coming up with a phrase that you can easily convert to letters, numbers and symbols using upper and lower case. View this post, for more ideas.

In addition to some tips that we listed in our post, Tips For National Internet Safety Month – Part 1, we are providing more tips that can help you to prevent your personal information from being accessed online. These tips come from OnGuardOnline.gov.

Install good anti-virus software onto your computer. There are many internet users that do not have anti-virus software installed and this is important to have. Computer virus’ can cause your computer to crash and destroy all the data you have saved. It can also give spammers access to your email which will send out a virus to your email contact list.  Good anti-virus software will update automatically and scan your computer for virus’ daily. You can find this type of software in office supply stores or from trusted anti-virus websites that allow you to download and install the software.

In addition to anti-virus software, install some type of anti-spyware software as well. Spyware is malicious software that is downloaded to your computer, without your knowledge or consent. There are some ways to tell if this type of software is affecting your computer, such as your browser taking you to sites other than the website you type in or unexpected activity such as weird error messages and slow performance. Some operating systems offer free anti-spyware software or patches that you can use. Be careful that when you download anything to your computer, that you trust the website you are downloading from. People who often download music, games and other file-sharing programs are more susceptible to this.

Firewalls are also an important part of protecting your computer. These are used to keep remote users from accessing your computer and can alert you when another source is trying to gain access to your system.

Be sure that your web browser settings are as secure as possible. Some web browsers offer the option to use the internet with either low, medium or high security settings. Use the setting that best fits your needs and allows for the maximum amount of security. Also, disconnect your computer from the internet whenever you are not using it so that it doesn’t sit as a dormant window to your information.

June has been declared National Internet Safety month. Many benefits can be derived from using the internet, but there is also risk involved, especially for youth. This month, IDTheftNews.com will be highlighting some tips that have been compiled to help educate consumers on the risks of identity theft as a result of online

We now have more accessible and convenient ways to get to information, services and products than ever before, thanks to the progressive development of the internet. You can do everything from buying music to booking travel to online banking.

Identity thieves have progressed along with all of the changes that the internet has introduced. They have ways of gaining access to the contents of your computer which can lead them to as much personal information as your “hard drive” currently holds. So is the convenience worth it?

National Internet Safety Month was started to help make people more aware of how they can make their personal data more secure and less likely to be hacked by internet or “digital” thieves. The website OnguardOnline.gov offers many helpful tips to prevent digital identity theft.

They offer several helpful tips to make your web browsing safer and more secure:

Protect your personal information – don’t give your name, email/home address, phone/account/social security numbers or other sensitive information to anyone without knowing how it will be used and protected. Children need to be taught to follow these practices as well, they are prime targets since majority of them don’t realize the danger behind giving a strange website their name and address or phone number.

When shopping online, be sure that the website you are using to make a purchase or save your personal information is secure (usually indicated by a lock symbol at the bottom or the page or “https:” at the beginning of the website address, rather than just “http:”

Be sure that you know who you are dealing with before giving out information. Many scammers will impersonate a legitimate business website by using emails, pop-ups or website names that sound like the legitimate company. Never respond to email messages that require you to click a link to update or verify your information. This is not a practice most companies use and you should always type the web address of the company into your internet browser yourself or call the company directly to verify the information.

Also, beware of file sharing software that is downloaded to your computer in order to share music, software, games, etc with other computer users. This type of software often has settings that allow others to access information on your hard drive that you didn’t want to authorize them to see.

Many of us hear about the threat of identity theft and do nothing to prevent it because it hasn’t happened to us. The scenarios below are based on a few stories that were found on another blog, but they help us to think about how real this crime can be.

What if you are out grocery shopping and you leave your purse in the cart for a brief second and then it is quickly stolen? In this purse, you had your credit cards, debit card, checkbook some cash and your cell phone! Now, the thief sends a text to the entry you have for your “hubby” asking him to remind you of your PIN number. He texts it back to your phone and the thief can now steal your cash. This shows how important it is to:

1) Keep your personal belongings with you. Leaving them for just a second can prove to be a huge mistake.

2) Do not save your husband, mom, children, etc. in your cell phone by a title. Use their first name so that it is not easy for anyone who might steal your phone to figure out who they are.

3) Be sure that you call to follow up with anyone asking for sensitive information (like your PIN number) via text. This is especially important if it is unusual behavior for you and your spouse or other family members.

Here is another scenario from the same blog:

You go to the gym and put your wallet, phone, keys, etc in your gym locker. You shut the locker, not realizing that it is not locked. After your workout, you see that the locker is open so the first thing you do is check to be sure that all of your valuables are still there. Once you realize that your keys, phone, credit cards and even cash are still in there, you think all is well.

A month passes by and you go to check your bank/credit card statements that just arrived in the mail (or via email). You notice a huge balance on a card that you know you haven’t used. You go to your wallet to be sure that you are in possession of the card, only to realize that it is a different credit card from the same bank. Someone switched out the card while they were going through your wallet at the gym. It is close to impossible to plead your case with the credit card company because you didn’t report the card stolen earlier.

What can we learn from this? First, be sure to check the contents of your wallet carefully and regularly, but especially when you notice anything unusual. Go with your gut feeling. Second, don’t take all of that with you to the gym! When you leave home, chances are that you only need maybe one card from your wallet for purchases you will make, IF you are not using cash. Why take more than one credit card with you?