If the safety of your personal information is not currently at the top of your radar screen, please move it up to the top TODAY. Why? Because there are really bad actors lurking for over one or two decades – in the background of email, credit agencies, and whatever cyber universes exist – and these bad actors are both patient and aggressive about seeking to compromise your identity and financial transactions.
This is not new. In 2017, Equifax, one of the world’s largest credit reporting and monitoring agencies with sensitive data for over 800 million individual consumers, was hacked. Private information of over 147 million American citizens along with British and Canadian citizens were compromised in a security breach. This from a leading company whose entire purpose is monitoring the most sensitive of personal information.
Yahoo; First American, the huge real estate and mortgage insurer; Facebook; and Marriott all have been prey to the world’s largest security breaches. A breach at eBay years ago compromised 145 million consumer records. Another of the leading credit monitoring agencies, Experian, in 2015 experienced a breach of 15 million T-Mobile customers’ data. The bad actors behind the aggressive breaches are persistent and they are “pros” (although the term “pros” gives them too much credit).
Several of these episodes may have affected readers of this edition of TGIF 2 Minutes, or other readers may have merely heard these stories for a day or two in the news media. In any event, identity theft and hacking of financial transactions are on the rise. So much so that an entire industry of cybersecurity risk management has been created and is growing.
A detail to note: most of my friends and clients are literally some of the busiest people on the planet. They have families, stimulating jobs with much work travel and activities. Even for younger people without kids and CEO duties, life in the city is BUSY.
When it comes time to buy a car, a condo, a new house, or piece of property, time is NOT at a premium. The attorney or realtor says, “Send me your bank statement to prove you have the cash”, or the CPA on April 12th says, “Get me (or your financial adviser) your W-2 and last year’s tax return document”. There is the urge to send the info FAST.
S – T -O – P.
There is a basic technology available to most every professional (emphasis, professional) and that technology is encrypted email. And a telephone. And hard copy documents. Either a combination of all three of these or at least one of these items – along with an extra 5 or 10 minutes – could save a person tens of thousands of dollars.
There are a number of security resources to consider including purchasing credit monitoring services and security apps. Those ideas are for Part Two of this edition. For now, please make sure to have a conversation with your trusted financial adviser about the communications processes that are in place whenever your money is in motion or being transferred or wired.
This material has been prepared for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied upon for, tax, legal or accounting advice.