Now that identity theft is a widely known occurrence, many people are doing what they can to be careful to protect their identity. Keeping close watch on credit cards, social security cards, driver licenses, etc. Being sure not to disclose their information to any who are not authorized to have it. But what about those companies or authorities who are authorized and do need to have it?

Doctor’s offices, local state and government offices, health care companies, banks and more also must be careful about how they store or discard of their records. Many data security breaches are not due to consumer error but to company error or due to careless employees not being careful with confidential records. Some of these do not even shred documents prior to disposal or purging. Careless dumping of confidential records in garbage bins or recycling bins is common.

Knowing that personal information is regularly being discarded of carelessly is good reason to look into being sure that your personal data is protected in a way where you can be alerted the moment that anyone tries to use your personal information. There have literally been millions of consumer records exposed over the past few years, giving an invitation to identity thieves to sit down to a feast of records for the taking. Not even the government got a good rating on protecting sensitive personal information. Monitor your bank and credit accounts closely and immediately act on any unusual activity.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 6:04 am and is filed under Articles Concerning Identity Theft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.