Are you Protected From Identity Thieves?

1. INVESTIGATOR TIPS
A service of the Investigators of Kroll Advisory Solutions
These materials are derived from the research and discovery activities of Kroll Advisory Solutions Fraud Specialists and Licensed Investigators, and have been gathered from personal, historical, and aggregated
experience performing specialized restoration services on behalf of Identity Theft victims. While believed to be accurate, these materials do not constitute legal advice, and are not guaranteed to be correct,
complete or up-to-date. No part of this document may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into a language or computer language, in any form by any means,
electronic, mechanical, optical, chemical, manual or otherwise, without the express written consent of Kroll Advisory Solutions. These materials are provided for informational purposes only.
MEM-063-2013-05-10
Social Networking Security Tips
Protect your information when being “social”
There are certain steps that every consumer can take to minimize
the risks to their sensitive information when they participate in
social networking. Here Kroll’s Investigators offer tips consumers
can use to be social more safely.
» Use the website’s security features. Default settings generally
offer no privacy. Explore the privacy settings available on
the website and use them to control who gets to see the
information you post.
» Share personal information sparingly:
› In your profile. You don’t have to fill in every blank in the
profile just because the blank exists.
› On your wall or page. Even with privacy settings
employed, the best practice is to not post anything that you
wouldn’t say in public.
› Within third-party applications. Some popular
applications, like quizzes, ask for a lot of information
about you, your life, and your interests. Before you provide
information, think about how the answers you give can
potentially be used elsewhere.
» Consider how your friends’ privacy settings can affect your
privacy. If your friends use less stringent privacy settings, then
your information/photos might be seen by others to whom you
are not connected.
» Use caution when adding applications. Some apps are vehicles
for malware that can affect your computer or capture information.
Refrain from downloading anything to your computer if you
cannot verify the app’s security or do not recognize the developer.
» Understand social engineering attacks. These attacks arrive
in the form of a message that appears to be from a trusted
contact. The message often contains a link to a site where you
are asked to share information or to perform some other task.
One attack relays a dramatic story about the need for money
because the sender is stuck in a foreign country. Think before
you respond to such an urgent message and try to reach the
apparent sender to verify or dispel the story.
» Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security by the “nothing
to hide” argument. Seemingly innocuous bits of information can
be combined by an identity thief to commit various fraudulent
acts, such as taking over an existing credit card or bank account,
hijacking your social networking or email account or opening
new accounts.