Identity Theft Suspected Powered by Limewire

As a follow up to a highly popular article
we posted in March, the Limewire file sharing
software is suspected again with a massive
identity theft case this time in Denver, CO.

It seems, 75 individuals and businesses
across America have their highly confidential
financial information exposed to three suspected
identity thieves who operated computers in an
Denver apartment.

Amongst the information retrieved by police
included:

• Tax Records
• Bank Account Data
• Online Bill Paying Records

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) millions
of computer users share files online every day using
file sharing software such as the popular Limewire.

"The potential harm to people is huge."

This is why, we suspect, the potential for a massive
identity theft exposure could occur from this Denver
incident as unsuspecting normal user safeguards
may have been breached.

Once breached, beyond just music and pictures, any
files on the unsuspecting user's computers
could be illegally accessed by hackers.

As in the case in Denver, the district attorney's
office issued a warning this past Friday they
believe the Limewire file sharing program had
been exploited to enable someone to illegally
access every file and document on computers
all across America.

So, our tip for today is to simply check if
your children may have installed any file
sharing software such as Limewire on
your computer. Also, even if you do not find
Limewire installed on your personal computer,
it's a prudent step to make sure your hard drive
or main document folders are not listed as
"shared"- especially if you utilize a persistent
internet connection such as DSL.

Identity Theft Using P2P Network

A Seattle man was arrested Wednesday on charges
that he illegally downloaded peoples' tax returns,
student aid applications and credit card numbers
through the use of popular peer to peer networks
used for file and music sharing.

According to the Seattle Post Intelligencer:

"The feds accuse Gregory Kopiloff, 35,
of using the information to steal people's
identities, then buying tens of thousands
of dollars in such electronics as laptops,
iPods and cell phones that he sold for
50 cents on the dollars.

Kopiloff is believed to be the first
person in the nation to be arrested
for using peer-to-peer software for
the purposes of identity theft."

The story continues with how he
was able to easily commit identity
theft against other people using their
own computers:

"In peer-to-peer file sharing, people
download software allowing them to
connect to networks such as LimeWire,
Kazaa, Soulseek, eMule and Morpheus,
which gives them access to every other
laptop or PC that is part of those networks.

When people log in to these networks, they
type in a search term for the music they want,
such as Bright Eyes or Madonna.

But instead of typing in Madonna, Kopiloff
would type in tax return or credit report,
authorities said."

Relating to an original story we first published
last year regarding the dangers of using
LimeWire, a similar warning has arisen in
this latest espisode involving popular P2P
file sharing software:

"People engaged in peer-to-peer file sharing
don't realize what they are sharing is their
entire hard drive."

"This is the new world of identity
theft," he said.

"There are tens of thousands of
individuals making a living doing
this kind of work."

So, our tip for today is directed towards
those parents of children or even any
unsuspecting adults who are unware
of the potential identity theft which
can arise from using P2P file sharing
networks.

Make sure to either complete delete
and disable the P2P software altogether
from your personal computer -or- store
any confidential data on a separate hard
drive which is not online altogether.

To not do so, is to open yourself up to
identity theft and financial fraud.

Identity Theft from Teen's Free Music

Just after Christmas, her cell phone was
suddenly shut off from receiving any
incoming calls. Then came purchases and
credit cards from all across the country.

At one point, the Seattle area woman even
discovered there was an order in her name
for a $500 phone to be shipped to Florida.

At this point she and her husband were
well on their way to suffering the
financial ravages of identity theft
and credit fraud.

According to the story, investigators
determined a free music file sharing
program called "Limewire"
downloaded by the woman's
15 year old son was the
genesis of her identity theft
problems.

Evidently, hacker identity thieves had
planted the "Limewire" file within the
shareable music files for unsuspecting victims
to mistakenly download which subsequently
shared her banking, billing, & private
document folders.

So, instead of her son just getting free
music - the family got a pile of fraudulent
bills and credit headaches for many months.

With the stolen information, not only did
the identity thieves order cell phones, but
they also ordered at least two computers and
conducted money transfers in at least 2 states
each.

The identity thieves even set up gambling
accounts in the United Kingdom and Costa
Rica before they were caught by authorities.

Police arrested two teenagers in Florida
who admitted being the identity thieves
that committed the $10k+ fraud against
the Washington state woman. But, authorities
indicated they were not sure if others
could also be involved as identity thieves
often trade stolen credit and personal
information with other would be thieves.

So, our tip for today is to advise your
children to only download music from
your chosen on-line music store - like
iTunes - and avoid altogether the free
file swapping web sites. Additionally,
since teenagers are often tempted by
free offers from identity thieves, it's
best to reinforce your parental direction
by installing a firewall, anti-virus,
and anti-spyware software to catch would
be identity theft files in real time before
they can do their damage.

We run not 1, not 2, but 5 overlapping
tools (constantly updated) to protect
our servers from malicious attacks by
identity thieves.

Finally, be aware that no amount of software
protection can ever out perform common sense
and frequent scrutiny of your financial accounts.

We'll supply the anonymous tips to keep you on the
look out for the new schemes, scams, & identity
theft tricks designed to steal your family's hard
earned income and financial well being.

Identity Theft Greatest 2008 Threat From P2P File Sharing

While 2007 saw a record number of consumers negatively impacted,
2008 promises to continue with an abnormally high amount of data
breaches as identity thieves continue to adjust their tactics to match
evolving information security practices.

According to statistics published by the Identity Theft Resource
Center, 125,142,405 consumers were unnecessarily exposed to
identity theft in 2007. Folks, that's nearly 1/2 of the entire U.S.
population.

While we have reviewed a financial services industry research firm's
claim that 2008 is forecasted to be a year of decline in terms of the
number of aggregate data breaches involving consumer identity
theft exposure, we believe there is considerable room for improvement.

Here's why.

According to the Identity Theft Assistance Center & the SANS
Institute, popular P2P file sharing applications pose one of the
single most vulnerable internet security holes to be exploited
this year by identity thieves.

From a recent Help Net Security article on the topic, the
Associated Press reported that “more than 1 billion
searches are conducted daily over peer-to-peer systems.

A good number involved bank names, the word “password”
and other terms that appear to be attempts by would-be
thieves to dig up other people’s sensitive documents.”

Think this is just a warning only, think again as the
Help Net Security article pointed out how just 3 of the
top consumer data security breaches from 2007 were
attributed to file sharing applications:

November, 2007 - Thirty-five year old Seattle man
pleads guilty to using P2P file sharing programs to access
the computers of victims and steal their personal information
from tax returns, credit reports, bank statements and
student financial aid applications.

September, 2007 - Over 5,000 social security numbers
and other personal information on customers of
Citigroup’s ABN Amro Mortgage Group were
exposed over a P2P file sharing network. A
former business analyst joined a file sharing
network where people share music and video.
Work-related information that she had downloaded
onto her personal computer was inadvertently shared.

June, 2007 – Over 17,000 social security numbers of
current and former Pfizer employees were exposed
by a laptop owned by Pfizer and used by an employee.
The employee’s spouse used a P2P file sharing program
and inadvertently shared documents containing the
personal information.

So, our tip for today is directed to parents who let
their children utilize popular P2P file sharing applications
such as Limewire, etc.

You have two choices to protect yourself from inadvertent
identity theft exposure. First, you can simply delete the
P2P file sharing software from your hard drive and
make sure your child does not have administrator
level rights to reinstall it at some later date.

Or, secondly, you can backup any sensitive files to a
thumb drive and then subsequently delete those
files off your hard drive altogether.

Failure to do either of these two can result in your sensitive
personal information from being needlessly exposed to
identity thieves who could even by half way around the
world operating in some foreign country well beyond the
reach of our local law enforcement authorities.