'Tis the season to be cautious. The season for giving is fast approaching. This holiday period make sure that you don't give away too much information, leaving you exposed to identity fraud.

Christmas is a wonderful time of year but it's also a time when we have a tendency to let our guards down. Increased spending, travelling and socialising all spell increased opportunities for thieves. Stay vigilant and don't let this holiday season cost you more than you planned.
 
Our handy checklist has been designed to give you a few tips to help you stay in control of your identity. These do's and don'ts also include a recap of many of the tips included in our previous posts to help you put everything you've learned into practice at work and at home.

FESTIVE DO'S AND DON'TS:

• DO have fun, eat, drink and be merry...just not too merry. Don't let fraudsters spoil your fun but take sensible steps to limit the damage. Alcohol reduces inhibitions and can result in out of character behaviour. Not having your wits about you can result in lost mobile phones, keys or wallets and purses left in the back of cabs. All of these items help identity thieves greatly. It may seem terribly suspicious but also be careful who takes your photograph. The Metropolitan Police have reported an increase in social networking related blackmail related to incriminating personal or work photos. For more tips on keeping your identity safe while enjoying social networking sites, check out our recent blog, Social Networking - The Safe Way.
• DO take extra precautions when shopping online. Experts have warned online shoppers to be especially vigilant and predict a surge in online ID fraud during the festive season.
• DON'T give personal data out in public. It sounds obvious but it's surprising how often we give away too much in public especially when on the telephone. When ordering goods on the telephone or on the internet, do so in private especially if it involves providing payment details. For more information and tips on how to protect your identity all day, every day, see It Could Be You.
• DON'T leave bags unattended in bars or restaurants. Unfortunately not everyone is as honest as you are. Keep an eye on valuable items and rather than leaving bags or wallets on the table, keep them about your person at all times. As well as containing credit cards, house keys and the like, bags and briefcases can also contain important paperwork such as email print outs, business cards, CVs and even post it notes with usernames and passwords - all of which are like gold dust of unscrupulous identity thieves. For more detailed tips on how to safeguard your paperwork, read our post Major Danger Documents.
• DO check your bank statement for any authorised purchases. Increased spending can make it difficult to spot fraudulent transactions quickly. Check bank statements regularly. If you use internet banking, you'll be able to do this in real time. If you're not completely sure of any transaction, contact your bank immediately and ask for clarification. Also be sure to shred bills, statements and receipts throroughly so that identity fraudsters can't piece together important personal information. As National Identity Fraud Week partner, Fellowes says: 'Use your head, shred." Shredding is one of the easiest and quickest ways of protecting your identity so make it part of your routine, starting today.
• DON'T let anyone see your PIN number. It's easy to get caught up in the Christmas shopping whirl but remember to keep you PIN details hidden when using cash points or in-store card readers.
• DO inform the police and your bank immediately if any of your personal belongings are stolen. Your bank will be able to immediately stop anybody else using your accounts, conduct a full fraud investigation and ensure your money isn't lost.
• DON'T let your credit or debit card out of your sight. Resist the temptation to run a tab and try not to let staff disappear off with your card in shops, bar and restaurants. It only takes a few moments to clone a card and start accessing your personal information. An extreme example of this is the US case of Albert Gonzalez who targeted Fortune 500 companies to ultimately stole more than 130millions credit card IDs. Read more about this and other cases in our recent post, The Top Three Corporate ID Thefts.
• DO be on the lookout for 'phishing' emails. According to the Anti Phishing Work Group (APWG) up to 150 million phishing emails are sent every day. Phishing emails are fake emails requesting private data while posing as a legitimate entity - most often a bank. Until digital encryption becomes more commonplace the simplest advice is not to click on the link in the supposed email from your bank. Go to the website via your browser and check.
• DON'T send cheques in the post. We've all been told not to send money in the post but cheques are equally problematic. Cheques include your name, back details and also your signature - making it relatively easy for anyone who is up to no good. This advice is especially pertinent at Christmas time but is valid all year round, especially for small businesses who often opt for cheque rather than BACs or CHAPs payments. For more advice specifically tailored to small business, check out our blog entitled 10 Things Small Businesses Must Do To Protect And Secure Data.
• DO check your credit report on a regular basis. Your credit report is a vital part of your 'financial CV', it lists your past and present credit commitments and repayment history (including credit cards, mortgages and loans). Lenders look at your credit report when you apply for credit. By checking your report regularly, you can easily see if somebody is impersonating you and trying to borrow money in your name.
• And most importantly, DO ask for help.

Why the recession is increasing the problem of Identity Fraud.

Hardly a day goes by without another report detailing the state of the UK economy with experts warning us not to expect a return to growth before 2011. Even projections of a double dip recession abound.

The Recession - it's the topic we're all thinking about, talking about, and ultimately trying to protect ourselves against. And yet, are you protecting your most precious asset - your identity?

If not, it's time to start now.

The latest figures from CIFAS, the UK's Fraud Prevention Service, show that nearly 60,000 of UK residents have fallen victim so far this year - a 36% increase when compared with the first nine months of 2008! The figures speak for themselves -the threat of identity fraud is real and current - yet people continue to ignore the advice that could keep their identity, their finances and their reputation safe.

Unfortunate, but perhaps unsurprising, when we consider that these figures coincide with the period economists believe that the UK officially entered into recession.
 
And although figures are bad, it can be argued that the worse is yet to come. It is likely that it will be a number of years before the impact of the recession fully feeds through into fraud statistics.

The unhappy truth is that hard times inevitably mean that more people will be driven to commit identity fraud because of personal pressures.

The Metropolitan Police predicts that fraudsters will become even more resourceful targeting both individuals and businesses alike.
 
So how can you protect your identity and safeguard your business? By doing more, it seems.

LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Bebo, Youtube, Flickr, Ning, MeetUp. The options go on and on.

Social networking has exploded in popularity in the last few years - so much so that this fun, collaborative resource has started to become a part of modern business as well as home life.

And yet the problem with online sharing is that it is easy to sometimes give away just a little too much information.
 
Two sets of independent research commissioned by Fellowes and the National Fraud Authority exclusively for National Identity Fraud Prevention Week (NIDFPW) show that one third of small and medium-sized businesses have been impacted by fraud and that 60,000 UK individuals have personally been affected.

It's only natural though. After all, the online environment is a brand new world to many of us and one in which it's easy to forget to exercise the same caution you do in everyday real life.
   
So, while it's great to reconnect with former work colleagues, share job opportunities and ride the crest of the e-marketing wave, it's important to take a step back and consider exactly just what private information you're happy to place in the public domain. And what information you're most definitely not.

In order to help, we've compiled our top 10 tips and hints to staying safe while social networking:

Back in the 1960s, a meteorologist at MIT called Edward Lorenz decided to use his computer in an attempt to simulate weather patterns.

In doing so, he accidentally discovered that small differences in his calculations could cause substantial changes to his simulations.

Or to put it another way, that 'a butterfly flapping its wings in Hong Kong, can change tornado patterns in Texas.'




Unsurprisingly Lorenz's findings became known as the 'Butterfly Effect' and brought the Chaos theory (as it is known in mathematical terms) to a wider audience.

So far, so interesting but how does it relate to modern business security and the problem of corporate identity theft?

The reason is because - despite being largely aware that small changes can have large-scale repercussions - many of us forget to apply this logic to our business data.

A mobile phone left on a train, a confidential report discarded in a hotel conference room or even a corporate credit card left in a coffee shop. Unwittingly we can set off our own chain of events, causing a potentially damaging 'Butterfly Effect' every day.

Identity fraud awareness is deeply cultural. Corporations can take the necessary steps to protect against corporate ID theft if they train their employees on safe practices and processes, safeguarding both, employees and the company, from identity fraud.
 
However, education and training needs to go beyond just the company. Companies exist within frameworks set up by governments. Do you know what your government is doing to protect your company's identity?
 
And let's not forget about the new rage, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Bebo and blogs! These social media and social networking sites have quickly gained popularity. Some users, especially younger generations, are sharing everything from what they're eating to where and who they were out with last night. Are we nurturing a future generation of workers who are naturally careless with personal information, making their employers more susceptible to corporate ID theft?

So what are governments doing to reduce identity crime? Do businesses have clear and updated policies implemented to protect private data and information? Is society teaching younger generations about the dangers of sharing too much information? Let's take a look at what has been done and what needs to be done to safeguard our businesses from corporate identity fraud. 

While paper presents a considerable threat to a company's ID -and makes safe, secure disposal of it a prime concern for organisations - electronic data also presents numerous online challenges to a company's identity.

Increasingly, companies such as Symantec are helping companies not only to protect their systems from attack, but to secure their corporate data - and, in so doing, their clients' identities.

In this podcast, recorded by Symantec, Donna Childs of Prepared Small Business discusses some best practices to help small businesses keep their information secure, protected and well-managed.

Click on link below to listen to podcast:
Podcast_10_Things_Small_Businesses_Must_Do_Protect_Secure_Data.mp3

It goes beyond antivirus and offsite back-ups and looks at all information across the business, from human resources data to intellectual property. It also considers the implications of scanning critical paper documents to protect against disaster.

On the whole, the figures on corporate ID fraud awareness are fairly shocking.

Research conducted by Fellowes shows that 79% of businesses make no effort to destroy the sensitive material that they throw away or are preparing to recycle. This risks not just their identities being stolen, but those of their colleagues, their company, and its clients.

Furthermore:

• Shockingly, only 64% of businesses have put in place a clear policy on how to handle documents with sensitive information - which no doubt goes some way to explaining why nearly one-third (32%) of employees admit  to always throwing sensitive documents directly into the bin!
• The 97% of employees are therefore justified in their beliefs that their company does not completely protects customers' identities; furthermore, 64% of employees believe that bins are a bigger risk to customer details than computer systems or document theft
• Overall, 71% of UK employees think their companies should do more to ensure confidential documents are handled responsibly - and the UK is not alone.  66% of German, 70% of Belgian, 61% of Dutch and 85% of Irish employees agree that more should be done.
• So we spoke to top professionals from different lines of work to find out how aware they are of corporate identity fraud and the dangerous consequences associated with it.

Do the results match with the Fellowes research? You decide... 

It's all very well scaring you by telling you about the threats of corporate ID fraud, but how do you stop it happening in the first place?

Today, we thought it might help if we provide pointers from the professionals.

Check the facts, say Equifax

Equifax is a global leader in information solutions, so it knows a thing or two about creating, analysing and - importantly - protecting its clients' intelligence.

Equifax believes identity verification is an important component to avoiding corporate ID fraud. So here are some simple, yet highly effective tips from Equifax that will help you sleep better at night:

Corporate ID fraud comes in many forms. The consequences can be serious, both for companies generally and their staff and customers specifically.

Yet some cases are so bizarre or big, or - let's face it - ingenious that they raise eyebrows and show the importance of security and vigilance.

Case #1: If you can't beat them - recreate them

Possibly the most astonishing case of corporate ID fraud comes from China.

It started with a few reports filtering back to the Tokyo headquarters of the Japanese electronics giant NEC in mid-2004. Pirated keyboards and CD/DVD discs were appearing branded with NEC's logo, and were being sold in retail outlets in Beijing and Hong Kong.

Do you have your wallet or purse on you now?

Are you sure? You might want to check. Because if you leave it lying around, not only do you put yourself at risk, but you're putting your company at risk of ID theft too.

How you ask? Those business cards you're carrying in it - for your company, for the company rep you met yesterday - and those credit cards and ID cards all offer valuable information for a corporate ID fraudster, especially if you're a director.

Or, perhaps you left your utility bill lying around? If so, you could be opening yourself to personal ID fraud as utility bills are a key piece of identification required to open a bank account, benefits payments and other accounts.

Of course, it's fairly obvious that your wallet is important. How about other 'obvious' documents? Do you think they're that obvious?