Walk right into the unknown and the fear of it.

Being a retired bank president, when I had heard the term “identity theft”, I immediately thought of financial breaches. Now that I am much more educated in this identity theft field, I must communicate to you that financial theft is the smallest of the whole. Here is the entire “pie” of identity theft breaches. In elementary terms, here is the circle of what has been stolen to-date: 100%. Within this circle, only 23% is financial theft. That is the smallest part of the pie——— 23%.

So, you say ………. what? What encompasses the rest?

Well, over the next few days, let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about how your identity can be stolen and how this can affect the rest of your life………..and, also that of your company. Should we own a small business, we each represent our respective businesses. This is vital information that under federal regulations now, we each must be aware. In light of the increasing number of data security breaches, the government has stepped in.

Congress recently amended the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) with a set of conditions called the Red Flag Rule. According to the rule, a business that maintains a credit-based relationship with its customers must have a written information security plan that outlines what it is doing to protect customer records from theft. Effective this year, this Red Flag Rule came into play. Businesses that are not compliant are open to the possibility of class-action lawsuits if its customer data are stolen, and are also subject to fines and penalties.

All businesses are affected. However, the rule specifically calls out five industries: automotive, financial, health care, insurance, and mortgage. If you are a customer of businesses in these areas, you should ask them to explain what plans they have in place to protect your sensitive customer information in compliance with the Red Flag Rule.

Tomorrow, we will return to the PIE to learn more about personal identity theft breaches.

It is up to each of us know about this crime. It is not “If” it is going to happen to you. It is “When”. You must be prepared.