High tech identity theft is less common than you think

We’re attending the Secure360 conference in (surprisingly) sunny St. Paul, MN this week, learning everything from lockpicking to disaster recovery. It’s a great event and reasonably priced, so if you’re in the area we highly recommend attending every year.

One topic that interested us was identity theft, especially with the catchy title of, “Identity Theft Prevention – YOU ARE VULNERABLE!” We went into the session, presented by Kelley “Mike” Archer, and were prepared to hear about all of the cool (and scary) technology attacks in the wild that are stealing everyone’s identity.

What we learned instead was that high tech attacks, such as spyware and phishing, make up only 15% of all identity theft cases. Instead, most identity theft attacks are basic things like someone stealing your purse/wallet, taking mail from your mailbox, and dumpster diving. What a letdown!