There are four million British identities for sale according to a weekend story from the UK’s Times Online. The compromised data contains highly sensitive, personal financial information like credit card details, bank account numbers, and PIN’s, and it’s all available to the highest bidder.
You may be wondering how such a large bounty of confidential information was collected, and what organization is responsible for the massive data breach. The startling answer is that no one is directly responsible for the leak; it appears everyday email users like you divulged their digits to these hackers.
“Most of the personal data has been gathered as a result of phishing. Unsuspecting victims hand over the information by e-mail to people posing as reputable sources such as banks or online stores. Other data has been stolen after criminals infect a person’s personal computer with viruses and then raid it for information,” the story states.
The truth is, you are the key component in protecting yourself from phishing attempts. Being smart, web savvy, and even leery about requests for personal information that show up in your inbox can help keep you protected.
In addition, there are sophisticated, spam-protection applications and appliances that can eliminate the bulk of the work for you by “sniffing out” phishy emails and preventing them from reaching your inbox.
The benefits of spam protection are two fold. Flagging and quarantining potentially dangerous email will make checking your email a more pleasant experience, and removing spam from your inbox can reduce the potential for having your identity ruined.
To learn more about FireHost’s unrivaled spam protection and other online security services, visit our secure web hosting add-ons page.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 at 9:00 am and is filed under Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
