Learn how to protect your business today!
Goto: http://tinyurl.com/y9dred8
Basic Self-Defense for Your Business.
“Personal information” is information that allows you to identify an individual customer or employee. This might include such things as the individual’s name, address, age, gender, identification numbers, income, employment, assets, liabilities, source of funds, payment records, personal references and health records.
If your business maintains people’s personal information, you must protect that information from theft or misuse. Here are some basic rules:
* If you don’t need it, don’t collect it. This seems obvious, but many businesses collect more information than they need. Here’s an example: Maybe your store wants to start emailing a newsletter to customers that have asked to receive it. So, you need each customer’s email address. But someone suggests that - since customers are filling out a form anyway - maybe you should get their name, address and phone number as well. Then someone else suggests that getting customers’ dates of birth would allow you to email a birthday card. So, instead of simply storing the information you currently need (the email address), you end up storing a lot more. The more you have, the more tempting it becomes to a thief and the more damaging it is to your customers if the information is stolen.
* If you need it once, don’t save it longer. Companies sometimes collect information that’s necessary to complete a single transaction, then compulsively file that information away (either in a paper file or in a computer file). For example, what happens to job applications for people you don’t hire? These contain all sorts of personal information, including the all-important social security number. Again, if you aren’t required by law to keep the information, and you seldom, if ever, use it, then get rid of it. If you don’t keep it, it can’t be stolen.
* If you’ve got it, but you don’t need to save it, dispose of it carefully. As we’ve pointed out in our general advice to consumers, a good deal of identity theft happens in the trash barrel or dumpster. Even the smallest business can afford an inexpensive paper shredder. Make sure you use yours to destroy customer or employee records.
* If you have to keep it, think security. First, make sure those paper records that contain personal information are kept under lock and key when they aren’t in use. Make sure computer terminals are password protected. Limit the eyeballs that have access to these records - only those who have an absolute need-to-know should have access to personal information. Don’t allow customers or others to wander around the private areas of your business.
* Don’t broadcast personal information. How often have you stood in line at an office or store behind someone who was being asked to give his/her social security number or telephone number or birth date? How many times have you watched a company’s employee pull up personal information on a computer screen that was visible to other customers? Or seen personal information on a file that was left open on a desk or counter. Instruct your employees to be sensitive to these issues. Turn computer screens so they can’t be viewed by anyone other than the operator. Instruct employees who need to have personal information to have customers jot that information down, not repeat it out loud where it can be overheard by others. Don’t put personal information like account numbers in billings or letters where that information is visible through windows in the envelope.
* Don’t use Social Security numbers as account numbers. While not common, this practice is just downright dangerous - to you and your customers.
* Don’t give out employee or customer information to anyone whose identity can’t be positively confirmed. Information thieves and stalkers tell authorities over and over how easily they were able to obtain all sorts of valuable information simply by calling small business owners or personnel departments and asking. Posing as government agencies or credit grantors or health insurance providers, these thieves have found that a well-crafted, believable story can often get past the best locking file cabinets or password-protected computers. Your organization should have very strict policies on when and how employee or customer information is shared.
* Locks and alarms are a real deterrent. If you’ve done everything we’ve suggested, you records — and your customers — will be more secure during business hours. Make sure you’re at least as secure when your business is closed. Make sure all vital records and offices are locked during non-business hours. Exterior doors should have deadbolt locks. Hinges on exterior doors should be secured to prevent removal. Exposed windows should be protected with bars, screens or shatter-proof glass. The business’ exterior should be adequately lighted from dark to dawn. Naturally, the business should be protected by an alarm system, preferably one that is monitored by the security company. Your business insurance company — or, in some cases, your local police - may be able to assist you with a security assessment.
Learn how to protect your business today!
Goto: http://tinyurl.com/y9dred8
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
IRS Information Returns: An Identity Thief's Dream?
It’s a new year and you may already be thinking about filing your income tax return. Perhaps you have received your tax forms in the mail from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). You may be in a hurry to file if you are expecting a refund. Before you file, we want you to understand about IRS “information returns”. These important documents are mailed to you not by the IRS, but by other organizations.
An “information return” is used to report certain income and financial transactions to the IRS. A copy must be mailed to the taxpayer. Most people are familiar with W-2 Forms, which employers use to report wages and tips of employees. However, there are many other types of income that must be reported on other IRS information returns. For example, there are over 30 variations of IRS Form 1099. You may receive a Form 1099 if you had non-wage income such as unemployment benefits, Social Security benefits, interest, dividends, pensions, death benefits, or consulting fees. (Read the IRS's Guide to Information Returns for a complete list.)
Issuers of information returns generally must mail copies to taxpayers by January 31, so you can expect to receive them in your mailbox by early February. Unfortunately, information returns are likely to contain your full Social Security number.
Until 2009, the IRS required that all information returns contain a full Social Security number. A voluntary IRS pilot project will allow businesses to truncate (shorten to 4 digits) Social Security numbers on some information returns. (Read the IRS's 2009/93 Notice on the pilot program.) In implementing the pilot program, the IRS notes: “A person’s identifying number is sensitive personal information. A risk exists that this information could be misappropriated from a payee statement and misused in various ways, such as to facilitate identity theft. In an effort to minimize this risk, this notice creates a pilot program allowing truncation of individual identifying numbers on certain paper payee statements.”
The IRS pilot project is permissive. Businesses are not required to truncate Social Security numbers. Furthermore, the pilot project does not include IRS Form W-2, the most commonly used information return.
Therefore you can expect to receive in your mail at least some information returns that will contain your full Social Security number. Your Social Security number is the key to identity theft. For this reason, an IRS information return can be an identity thief’s dream come true. In fact, some information returns may contain not only your full Social Security number, but your bank or other financial institution account number(s)—the perfect combination for identity theft.
So, what can you do to protect yourself from your IRS information returns falling into the wrong hands? Here are some suggestions:
* Use a mailbox that locks or consider having your mail sent to a Post Office Box.
* Try to retrieve your mail as soon as possible after it has been delivered. Never leave it in your mailbox overnight.
* If you go on vacation, have your mail held at the Post Office, or have a trusted neighbor retrieve it.
* If you have moved during the year, notify any payers of your new address. Do not rely on the Postal Service’s change of address service.
* If you share a mailbox with roommates, make sure that you (not your roommates) receive all mail that is addressed to you.
Paying taxes can be a chore. Don’t let it also be an opportunity for identity theft.
An “information return” is used to report certain income and financial transactions to the IRS. A copy must be mailed to the taxpayer. Most people are familiar with W-2 Forms, which employers use to report wages and tips of employees. However, there are many other types of income that must be reported on other IRS information returns. For example, there are over 30 variations of IRS Form 1099. You may receive a Form 1099 if you had non-wage income such as unemployment benefits, Social Security benefits, interest, dividends, pensions, death benefits, or consulting fees. (Read the IRS's Guide to Information Returns for a complete list.)
Issuers of information returns generally must mail copies to taxpayers by January 31, so you can expect to receive them in your mailbox by early February. Unfortunately, information returns are likely to contain your full Social Security number.
Until 2009, the IRS required that all information returns contain a full Social Security number. A voluntary IRS pilot project will allow businesses to truncate (shorten to 4 digits) Social Security numbers on some information returns. (Read the IRS's 2009/93 Notice on the pilot program.) In implementing the pilot program, the IRS notes: “A person’s identifying number is sensitive personal information. A risk exists that this information could be misappropriated from a payee statement and misused in various ways, such as to facilitate identity theft. In an effort to minimize this risk, this notice creates a pilot program allowing truncation of individual identifying numbers on certain paper payee statements.”
The IRS pilot project is permissive. Businesses are not required to truncate Social Security numbers. Furthermore, the pilot project does not include IRS Form W-2, the most commonly used information return.
Therefore you can expect to receive in your mail at least some information returns that will contain your full Social Security number. Your Social Security number is the key to identity theft. For this reason, an IRS information return can be an identity thief’s dream come true. In fact, some information returns may contain not only your full Social Security number, but your bank or other financial institution account number(s)—the perfect combination for identity theft.
So, what can you do to protect yourself from your IRS information returns falling into the wrong hands? Here are some suggestions:
* Use a mailbox that locks or consider having your mail sent to a Post Office Box.
* Try to retrieve your mail as soon as possible after it has been delivered. Never leave it in your mailbox overnight.
* If you go on vacation, have your mail held at the Post Office, or have a trusted neighbor retrieve it.
* If you have moved during the year, notify any payers of your new address. Do not rely on the Postal Service’s change of address service.
* If you share a mailbox with roommates, make sure that you (not your roommates) receive all mail that is addressed to you.
Paying taxes can be a chore. Don’t let it also be an opportunity for identity theft.
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