by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
Even the most mentally stable individuals have multiple identities, and most don’t even know it.
This lack of knowledge could cause an individual to suffer a variety of damages if someone obtained their personal information for personal gain. Most people know about their financial identity and take steps to protect passwords and PIN numbers. But people also have identities through medical, criminal and driver’s license records and social security numbers that are not protected through a credit monitoring service.
The need for protection of vital information was one of the reasons Identity Theft Countermeasures Group of Orange Park was created by Tyler Wildman after some life-changing events.
Wildman was working in the security industry installing and maintaining home alarm systems about 10 years ago, but was always interested in becoming a pilot. He enrolled at FlightSafety International Inc. in Orlando to pursue his dream of flying for a living.
“I got my ratings and was ready to start working, but then 9/11 happened,” said Wildman. “The industry took a big hit and even senior pilots were getting laid off after that. So there I was with $48,000 in flight school loans to pay for.”
Looking into the events of 9/11 led Wildman to consider his next career move.
“The 9/11 attackers stole identities to be able to go to flight school in America,” said Wildman. “I had always been into security and protection, so that got me thinking about protecting people and identity theft.”
There is plenty of work to go around in Wildman’s current career. The United States Department of Justice has recognized identity theft as one of the fastest growing crimes in the U.S.
“I started PC Depot in Middleburg and I was getting more and more complaints about identity theft and problems with malware,” said Wildman. “Once I started looking into it, identity theft fascinated me. To think that someone was out there being you.”
Later, he even had a personal experience with the subject matter of his new fascination.
“I had my credit card information stolen and used at three different Walmarts in an hour for about $1,000,” said Wildman. “One of the hottest commodities on the black market these days is no longer drugs, it’s identity information.”
Wildman’s company opened about two years ago and offers services to help alert businesses to the practices they engage in during their daily operations that may make information vulnerable to theft.
There are two types of “intrusions” that he and partner Ken Geddie help businesses become more familiar with: physical and technical intrusions. Computer hackers who create viruses, malicious or malware and other tools to gather information may grab the headlines regularly, but Geddie reported 60 percent of information stolen is taken through a physical intrusion.
One of the services offered by Identity Theft Countermeasures is “Penetration Testing” — a service that includes a member of the company going into a business to test its information protection practices by staging a physical intrusion.
“It’s a lot easier these days with camera phones,” said Geddie. “We can go up to someone’s desk and ask for directions or just start talking to someone and be snapping pictures without them knowing it. We’ve gotten driver’s licenses, banking information from checks and social security numbers off the top of people’s desks.”
Once the testing is complete, the information is returned to the business and the results are provided with tips on how to make improvements.
“We haven’t seen a business we haven’t been able to get information from,” said Wildman.
The company can also do the legwork to test a business’ list of vendors, whom they regularly share information with.
“Some companies we have helped have over 100 vendors they deal with,” said Wildman. “How does the business know that the vendor doesn’t have an invoice with their banking information laying on a desk out in the open somewhere? We can provide that.”
The Federal Trade Commission is requiring this type of diligence with information involving customers’ and employees’ information and has developed “The Red Flags Rule.” It requires many businesses to establish a written identity theft prevention program created to detect any “Red Flags” or warning signs of identity theft in daily operations. Without this system in place, the business could be held liable if a customer or employee suffers damage due to identity theft because of the business’ negligence.
356-2466