Posted by Jeremy Scott | 5 Comments

LifeLock’s ID Protection Tip of the Day: Do...

Surely you’ve heard the radio ad for LifeLock sometime over the past few years. It’s the one where the guy sounds all serious and says, “I’m Todd Davis, the CEO of LifeLock, and what I’m about to say is true. My Social Security Number is…” and then he goes on to give you his real SSN.

I’ve always thought it was a pretty slick marketing gimmick… and simply assumed that it was likely a fake number anyway. Even if you’re pretty confident in your company’s services, identity theft isn’t something you want to go messing around with. I generally assume that identity thieves are sort of a lot like computer hackers–they probably have some pretty good ideas and technical know-how. And you wouldn’t go daring hackers to infiltrate your website, would you?

Well apparently the number quoted in the radio spot is Davis’ real Social Security Number. And apparently it’s inspired at least 87 identity thieves to attempt stealing Todd’s ID. And at least one guy succeeded, convincing a payday loan company to send him $500 after using Davis’ SSN.

Oh, there’s also this part, from the article:

“Attorney David Paris said he found records of other people applying for or receiving driver’s licenses at least 20 times using Davis’ Social Security number…”

Hmmm. Okay, let’s take a poll. Raise your hand if you are really, really surprised to learn that giving out one’s Social to millions of people could lead to your identity being stolen.

You don’t see armored car services challenging the public to test their security prowess by robbing them. You don’t see the CEO of DuPont–which makes Kevlar–daring Americans to test his product’s effectiveness by randomly shooting him on the street. You don’t see Honda commercials that say “We’ve got the highest crash-safety rating in our class, and we invite you to test that by ramming your Accord into the next tree you see.”

Sometimes there’s a really thin line between killer marketing ideas and abject stupidity. And it’s up to me to point out when that line has been crossed.

There is now a class-action lawsuit against LifeLock… of course. Seems that some customers feel they were mislead as to the company’s ability to actually provide identity protection. Hmmm, where would they get that idea?

I almost feel bad for the guy. But then I remember that he gave out his Social Security Number to millions of people and I don’t feel quite as sorry for him.

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Posted by Jeremy Scott | 3 Comments

Getting Spam From Your Own Email? Not to Worry

A lot of the SPAM email you see in your inbox comes from strange email addresses.  I’m sure you’ve noticed some of them. 

Some SPAM even appears to come from your own email address.  If that happens… don’t worry.  We get SPAM messages all the time from ourselves.  It’s often a source of amusement to me, in fact.

As this article points out, the email address that appears in the “from” field has basically nothing to do with where that message really came from.  Sadly, it’s terribly easy to set up a message to appear as though it’s coming from a trusted source.  From the article:

In fact, so-called address spoofing is such a common trick that it’s become a major tool in phishing scams. The hope is that a suspicious recipient will just look at the sender, see it says “admin@ebay.com” or “service@paypal.com,” and assume the message is legitimate. Of course, it’s as phony as a three-dollar bill, and if you click on the links in that message, you’ll be whisked off to a scam website.

Long story short… you should have good antivirus and anti-spyware software running to protect your machine, just in case you ever click on a phony link unsuspectingly. But, in general, getting SPAM messages from yourself doesn’t mean that your account has been compromised. 

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Posted by Jeremy Scott | 2 Comments

Come See the Scary Side of Sears

Sears is a fine enough store. I don’t have any philosophical issues with them.

At least… not before today.

Seems they started their own MySpace-like social network (apparently they feel that their customers are nothing short of fanatical about all things Sears and that they’ll all leap at the opportunity to join an online community with other Sears afficianados). That’s all well and good, I suppose, except for the fact that signing up for the community somehow installs spyware on your computer. Spyware that tracks your every movement online, including logging in to your online bank account. Yikes!

(Look at the guy in the picture…he’s so giddy about stealing my bank account information!!)

Sears is claiming that they clearly notify customers during the sign-up process, but that’s got to be the thinnest excuse ever. What did it say to notify them, “Hi there, the form your completing actually installs tracking software on your machine that shows us all the sites you visit and your passwords?”

I know Sears is after the same thing every other store is after: demographic data. They want to know what you surf so they can better sell stuff to you (or so they can sell off the data about your habits to marketing companies). But if there isn’t a better way to get that data than this…then Sears should just accept that there’s only so much you’re allowed to know about your customers.

So, unless it’s too late… don’t sign up for the Sears online community. If you already did… well, my condolences. I also wouldn’t do any online banking or anything like that in the near future. (Geez, and people think Wal-Mart is evil!)

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Posted by Jeremy Scott | 0 Comments

New Years Tech Resolutions to Make your 2008 Great

It’s a brand new year, in case you hadn’t noticed. We thought it’d be a good time to look back at the past year and make some solid tech-related resolutions for the coming year. We hope these will help make 2008 a great year for your business, your website, and how you are able to use technology to better server your customers.

1. I will protect my data and the data of my customers.

This article says that computer breaches hit an all-time high in 2007, and show no sign of slowing in 2008. Those of us here in Nashville might wince a little more at this news, considering the recent theft of our voter registration records from a government building (the thieves used the rather high-tech break-in technique referred to as “throwing a rock through the window.”) If you voted in the last election as a registered Nashville voter, your full social security number is probably in the hands of some small-time crooks. Ouch.

But stories like this are a dime a dozen. Federal government agencies have seen laptop thefts compromise the data of hundreds of thousands. Companies everywhere are still being reactive instead of proactive. Identity theft has tripled in the past year.

Here’s a resolution that can save a lot of strife down the road: protect your computers and the data that they store. Password-protect things, and use a real password, not “12345“. Run a firewall (please, for the love of all things holy, run a firewall). Don’t put employee or client data on laptops. Encrypt your wireless router. Basically, all the security steps you’ve avoided because you thought these things couldn’t happen to you.

Start 2008 off fresh, lock down all your data, and be prepared. The consequences are far too scary to skimp on security. We’re happy to help you get set up.

2. I Will Do My Part to Help Search Engines Rank My Site Properly

The latest numbers on search are in, and guess what… search engines are more important than ever. In November 2007 alone, over 61 Billion searches were performed. That’s an average of more than 10 searches per month for every living person on the planet.

According to Enquiro–a web search statistics firm–56% of people use search engines on a daily basis. 26% of those people will give up their search if they can’t find what they’re looking for in the first two pages of search engine results. So, the point is, if you’re site isn’t listed in the first two pages of the rankings for your target keyword phrases, you’re not reaching the very audience that’s looking for you.

It is simply no longer acceptable to just have a website. If you’re not being found in search engines, you’re business is falling behind. Again, we’re happy to help with this sort of thing, but whether you use us or someone else… the fact remains that if you’re not optimizing your site for search, you’re throwing money away.

3. I will stop spamming my clients with ugly, unsolicited emails.

You type up a wonderfully-worded marketing message, paste it in the body of a new email message, and then carbon copy your entire contact list… raise your hand if you’re guilty of this?

This may be annoying some of your customers who don’t necessarily appreciate SPAM messages. What’s worse, your messages probably aren’t even getting to many of your intended recipients. One of the first things spam filters look for is numerous recipients of a single message–even the most basic filters will often block your message before the customer even has a chance to see it.

What if I told you there was a way to send a marketing message through email that looks beautiful, a message so branded and personalized that the customers actually wanted to recieve it? Would you believe that such a thing already exists? We call it Keymail. Keymail is an email marketing product that conforms to all spam laws. It is custom designed to match your existing website, logo, or other graphics. It has personalization features to make recipients feel like a prized client. And best of all? It’s cheap. So cheap that not using it is almost criminal.

4. I will stop wasting time and money dealing with unwanted spam emails.

Spam costs money. Most of our clients say they get between 100-200 unwanted solicitation emails per day–at least, those not using our Postini email filter. Wading through all those messages to discern the junk from the business correspondance wastes precious time. Even if you only spend 10 minutes a day sorting email, that adds up to over 43 hours a year. I don’t know what you make per hour, but multiply that number by 43 and you’ll see a very real dollar amount for how much money spam is costing you.

Google–you might have heard of them–they own Postini, and use it on their Gmail service. Google says more than 70% of all email to their Gmail accounts is spam. If you’re not experiencing a similar level of spam, count yourself lucky. Oh, and act now, before it gets worse.

You owe it to yourself to free up your time. And like Keymail, Postini email filtering is every bit as inexpensive as it is effective.

5. I will throw my server down a flight of stairs in a cathartic release

Okay, we don’t really encourage you to do that. Servers don’t tend to survive such trips, as our video above shows. Yes, that’s really us, at our real office, chucking a useless and hated server to its death. (Hey, we thought it would be best to end this list of resolutions with something fun). Should you ever find yourself so frustrated with your machine that you can’t help but recreate the above scene–we’ll do what we can to help you get back on your feet. But it’s easier if we set up the new server before destroying the old one!Happy New Year, Keystone clients! May 2008 be filled with technology solutions that see your business grow beyond your dreams.

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Posted by Jeremy Scott | 0 Comments

Identity Theft Has Tripled in the Last Year

Identity theft is a growing problem…a rapidly growing problem.  As USAToday reports:

“More than 162 million records have been reported lost or stolen in 2007, triple the 49.7 million that went missing in 2006, according to USA TODAY’s analysis of data losses reported over the past two years.”

Wow.  That’s… alarming.

So now is as good a time as any to brush up on some basic identity protection tips (actually, it’s way past the time to brush up on this, but if you’ve had a hard time getting motivated, allow this new report to wake you up and help you smell the coffee).

Identity theives operate in a varitey of ways, but one of the most common is also the easiest to guard against:  unattended laptops, mail, computer equipment, disks, and flash drives.  Apparently, the section of the population most prone to leave their computer lying around unattended are also among the most likely to have their sensitive information on said computer, in easy to find places.

Another problem is employees skirting the rules:  the study finds that 35% of empolyees felt compelled to end company rules on internet and email usage just to get their jobs done.  So these folks end up emailing things from work to their home or to friends–things they shouldn’t email such as account numbers and passwords. 

Phishing is another trend on the rise, where thieves create copycat websites that look and behave just like the real ones.  So you think you’re logging into your Yahoo mail account, but you’re really just giving your account information and password to the bad guys.  Yahoo and many other online firms have taken steps to help avoid this problem, by having users choose a Site ID Key or unique color scheme, so that users can quickly know they are logging in to the correct place.  Unfortunately, millions of users simply don’t take advantage of this technology, further opening themselves up to attack. 

While identity theft’s rise has been sharp, the fact remains that the majority of instances of this crime are avoidable with proper planning and precaution. 

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