CBA Hosts Digital Security Specialist at Monthly Meeting
The Chatham Business Association (CBA) hosted guest speaker, Lisa Thompson-Bennett, Community Relations Liaison, Housing Government & Community Relations for the Office of the Illinois Attorney General, at its monthly meeting yesterday held at the QBG Building, 806 E. 78th St. Thompson-Bennett discussed the importance of businesses securing against digital identity theft.
“[Security breaches] are very widespread, I think that we usually hear about the big stores like the Targets and the Neiman Marcus’s of the world through the media but probably a lot of identity theft does take place in smaller businesses that may not be as well insulated against these kinds of measures,” said Thompson-Bennett as she addressed the CBA membership.
The Chicago Citizen Newspaper asked Thompson-Bennett to offer specifics on how small businesses can protect themselves against digital identity theft, especially since small business owners are encouraged to incorporate digital technology into their everyday operations as a way to cut costs.
“If you’re storing [information], the question is, how are you storing it? To protect [information], put it on a secure server, [and] destroy paper files or anything that’s written down," Thompson-Bennett explained. "That’s more often than not the easiest way to steal information, when it’s written down, so if you can put it on a secure server that’s password protected, that’s locked up, that [way] only you or your manger have access to [it]. We also recommend that everyone in your agency or your business has a separate password so you know who is using. Don’t have one password for everyone.”
Thompson-Bennett also stated that in the past year, her office has seen a 1600% increase in identity theft.
According to Thompson-Bennett, the Office of the State of Illinois Attorney General has compiled a team of experts including attorneys, Erik Jones, Policy Director and Assistant Attorney General; Matthew Van Hise, Assistant Attorney General, Consumer Fraud Bureau and the Attorney General’s High Tech Crime Bureau to help tackle the digital identity theft problem in Illinois. The Illinois Attorney General also works in tandem with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on this issue.
Additionally, Thompson-Bennett recommended simple tasks that everyone can do to protect against identity theft including: updating security software on smart phones, changing online passwords every couple of months and properly disposing of paper materials.
“One thing is being careful about swiping when you’re at a point of sale, if you can use a credit over debit that leaves you a little less vulnerable, [be] careful on not joining your social media like Facebook and LinkedIn with purchasing data because they do collect that data and store it and sell it, and be careful online,” said Thompson-Bennett.
According to the State of Illinois' Personal Information Protection Act:
Any data collector that owns or licenses personal information concerning an Illinois resident shall notify the resident at no charge that there has been a breach of the security of the system data following discovery or notification of the breach. The disclosure notification shall be made in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay, consistent with any measures necessary to determine the scope of the breach and restore the reasonable integrity, security, and confidentiality of the data system.
For additional information, visit www.ilga.gov.
For more information or to report any suspicious behavior concerning identity theft visit www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov or call the Illinois Attorney General Consumer Fraud Chicago Hotline 1-800-386-5438.
For more information about the Chatham Business Association visit http://www.cbaworks.org/.
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