FTC Releases Alert on Identity Theft

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released an alert about how quickly criminals begin using your personal information once it is posted to a hacker site by an identity thief. FTC researchers found that it can take as few as 9 minutes for crooks to access stolen personal information posted to hacker sites. To prevent identity theft, a user should follow password security best practices, such as multi-factor authentication, which requires a user to simultaneously present multiple pieces of information to verify their identity.

US-CERT encourages users to refer to the FTC alert and the US-CERT Tips on Preventing and Responding to Identity Theft, Choosing and Protecting Passwords, and Supplementing Passwords for more information.