Jun 11, 2018
Your Identity is getting Stolen. Jack and I discuss the rise of ID Theft, and what Governor Chris Sununu did in regard Credit Freezes for NH Citizens.
When you get down to it, the problem is with the use of our Social Security Numbers.
Technology is working on a solution using Blockchain Technology but it is not there yet.
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Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors.
Airing date: 06/11/2018
Identity Theft, NH Law and Social Security Numbers
Transcript:
Craig Peterson:[00:00:00] Craig Peterson here, New Hampshire just passed a law, in fact, the governor signed it on Friday that provides you with the ability to get a free credit freeze if you are the subject of a data breach. Now this is interesting in fact the way it's set up it's actually the first in the nation and no one else has a law quite like this not going to have to dig into this little more New Hampshire kind of snuck that passed me without me knowing but that's what we talked about this morning with Jack Heath. The bottom line is your identity is getting stolen, and there's not a lot you can do about it. We get into social security numbers and what's the new technology that might stop all of this mess. You know there are things you can do to stop malware. But how about if the data is stolen and you have no control over it. It wasn't malware on your computer but it was some other company some big company or the government, in many cases. MAN OH MAN Here we go Jack.
[00:01:09] Joining us on the Autofair listener line for a tech talk update is Craig Peterson. His show airs on Saturdays on I Heart news talk stations. Craig Good morning.
[00:01:18] Hey Good morning Jack. This whole thing about this bill that was passed and signed into law by John Sununu is really interesting. You know some of the specifics behind identity theft, but it's a really big deal.
[00:01:32] Yep, you just you just gave his father credit for signing the bill. The governor is Chris Sununu
[00:01:36] Yeah, yeah, Chris and his father would take the credit.
[00:01:41] Sorry wrong Governor Sununu.
[00:01:44] Tell us what you think about it. Tell us what your opinion of it is.
[00:01:48] Well, I haven't seen the bill and I'm sorry I've fallen down on that I wouldn't have looked that up and read the actual wording of the bill but when we're looking at identity theft, it is a huge deal. And it happened to me just a couple of weeks ago.
[00:02:04] You know we have this big Equifax breach last year which is a very big deal right. And I was part of that breach that happened Equifax. So, I started monitoring my credit report and monitoring the dark web and certainly out on the dark web. My information was there, yeah thanks Equifax and whomever else. But what happened, was, I got an alert on my credit saying my credit score has changed. So, I went online and I started to poke around a little bit and looked at my credit score and my credit report. Because I had signed up for a service where you pay a small amount monthly and it tells you when your credit report changes and lets you have a quick look at it. And, it doesn't bring your credit score down for doing it. Lo and behold there is a credit card that I do not have and that it had something like a 400 dollar balance on it.
[00:03:04] It was 60 days past to so I immediately knew. Wait a minute.
[00:03:11] I didn't open this credit card. That's not my balance right. And it was hurting my credit. And that's how I found out about it.
[00:03:20] It’s a very simple easy way to tell all of that, but you often won’t get notified.
[00:03:26] No, well I wasn't notified, other than I have a credit report being in place, right. Having a credit monitoring service is something everybody should do, anyway. But, yeah nobody told me. Hey, listen did you open this X Y Z credit card. Right. That just didn't happen. And when you get right down to the bottom of all of this, Jack, the big problem is our social security numbers right. They were guaranteed that they will never be used for anything other than Social Security. But now our Social Security number is used for everything from our taxes all the way through getting health insurance right. It's just this universal number.
[00:04:09] We don't have a good solution for what could replace this whole security number for with.
[00:04:16] There was an Eastern European country that tried something new. They tried to use some blockchain technology. There was another attempt where they had a card that was one of these smartcards kind like your credit card. If you look on it now it's got that little chip in it. And that little chip has an encrypted handshake it can do with the bank. And that helps to tell them it's really you. So, they came up with the special chip they put it on a card that uses a universal identity. And this is just last year. It wasn't two months before that whole system was hacked. So, you know bottom line here it's one thing to be able to know and hopefully recover your credit. In my case that was pretty simple because it was just a credit card. Someone wasn't pretending they were me. In the worst case, what happens is people use other people's identities when they have been arrested for a crime. And then, you're driving down the road, Jack, and you get pulled over and it's a felony stop and the police have you laying out in the middle of the road. They've got their guns drawn because you supposedly committed a crime right and you didn't. And, now you have to prove it wasn't you. Usually, you can do that without a lot of trouble. But, you're still the subject of a felony arrest. This whole thing is really, really, crazy and I think this move towards in NH to help to you know will help seniors and younger people both of those groups are the ones most likely to suffer the most.
[00:05:57] But, to make it so that you can start that road to recovery afterward, is a good thing. I think it will be years before we finally have a solution. Getting rid of a social security number moving toward something that's more secure by using some of these technologies are looking good but it is not there yet.
[00:06:18] All right Craig, the other thing if you want to make a lot of boatload of money and I don't know the answer, real quickly. But the other thing is most people cannot remember, they might remember the last four numbers their social but, they can’t remember all these other names and passwords. Trust me they cannot. And someone's going to figure out something to do with that. Anyway, thank you, Craig.
[00:06:34] Hey you're welcome. There is a free report on Passwords and Password security available on my Web site.
[00:06:38] Cool. I'll check it out.
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