Identity

These are exciting times for young people.

How can they even sleep at night wondering whether the economy will ever change, hence allowing them to secure something that used to be called a job? And now they have something even greater to think about: a new identity.

I myself have barely been able to attain 15 winks over the last 48 hours, as I have been considering what name to adopt to get away from the barely spellable and entirely unpronounceable name I have carried for far too long.

Should you be wondering why this thought might have entered my … Read more

Sometimes, genius can be erratic. Even when it's wearing a T-shirt and working in an Apple store.

Maria Avila had an old iPhone. It was time to give it some of that new 4.0 flavor. So she went to her local Apple store in Modesto, Calif., to have the iOS 4 software installed and came back with an installation she hadn't quite expected. Yes, a slide show of strange photos, 110 of them.

Thumbing through her new pictures, Avila told CBS13 in Stockton, Calif.: "I don't know these people."

Her upgraded iPhone seemed to have taken on a new personality. She couldn't send texts. The phone locked up. And then, having discovered the strange pictures, she found new information in her address book. As well as text messages.

"Someone named George is telling me I love you and we'll meet up in Costco," she told CBS13. Which must have not only been quite scary, but also made her wonder what on earth has happened to romance these days.

Turning her eyes upward to see whether she had not only had her phone upgraded, but perhaps also her whole persona, she looked to find her name and phone number at the top of her iPhone. Instead, she encountered the name and phone number of Marlene Hepner, a resident of Tracy, Calif.

So Avila called Hepner. And when she showed her the pictures that had suddenly appeared on her iPhone, Hepner was rather upset.… Read more

The White House is hoping to come up with a comprehensive strategy to better protect people in cyberspace and is asking the public for help.

Releasing a draft of the potential new National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (PDF) last Friday, the government is aiming to set up a system that would let people voluntarily create trusted identities to use in online transactions.

The goal, as described in a blog post by White House cybersecurity chief Howard Schmidt, is to secure and protect transactions in cyberspace through use of a special ID--a smart card or digital certificate--that would prove … Read more

Because I still have a Facebook account, I really want to protect my personal information.

So I'm forced to be in a prostrate position while writing this, as you should be in reading it, for this news might trouble your equilibrium.

Do you remember those ads for LifeLock, the company that claims it will protect your personal information so carefully it'll be made useless to nefarious types? You know, the ads where the CEO displays his Social Security number to make his point? That's right--the ones where any random viewer looks at LifeLock's CEO and says: &… Read more

Upscale grocery conglomerate Whole Foods Market said Friday that it is continuing to clamp down on a series of Facebook-based scams that entice users with a purported $500 gift card from the Austin, Texas-based supermarket chain.

The scam has been spreading virally through Facebook via "fan pages" with names like "Whole Foods Market Free $500 Gift Card Limited - first 12,000 fans only" and "Whole Foods FREE $500 Gift Card! Only Available for 36 hours!" The fan page asks Facebook users to add it as a fan, thus pushing awareness of the page … Read more

Albert Gonzalez, the computer hacker behind one of the largest known identity fraud cases in U.S. history, was sentenced on Thursday to 20 years in federal prison.

Gonzalez, a 28-year-old college dropout and Secret Service informant known as "soupnazi," had confessed to stealing millions of credit card and debit card numbers from major U.S. retail chains, including T.J.Maxx, BJ's Wholesale Club, and Barnes & Noble.

U.S. District Judge Patti Saris in Boston sentenced Gonzalez to the middle of expected prison sentences for charges filed in Massachusetts and New York, which ranged from … Read more

LifeLock has agreed to pay $12 million to settle charges that the company failed to protect customers against identity fraud as advertised and put customer data at risk.

The company was known for its bold marketing tactics, including one that backfired after Chief Executive Todd Davis put his Social Security number in ads to promote the company's service and then had someone use his identity to take out a loan in 2007.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and 35 state attorneys general had accused the Tempe, Ariz., company of deceptive business practices for making false claims to promote … Read more

When your wallet is lost or stolen, the first thing you probably do is call your credit card companies. You should also notify your medical insurance provider judging from the conclusions of a report to be released on Wednesday that finds that medical identity fraud can be very costly.

With identity fraud, most people think of criminals stealing Social Security numbers and credit card data to take out loans or make purchases that the victim is responsible for. But there is a growing amount of medical-related identity theft in which someone uses another person's identity or insurance information to … Read more

An unknown number of current and former employees of credit reporting firm Equifax received W-2 forms in the mail with their Social Security numbers visible through a window on the envelope, CNET has learned.

Equifax became aware of the problem on January 19 and informed employees in a letter dated January 27, according to a copy of the letter obtained by CNET.

Specifically, some of the tax forms mailed by Equifax's payroll vendor through the U.S. Postal Service had the Social Security number in a Control Number field, which was partially or fully viewable through the return address … Read more