Hackers Attack and Reak Havoc Identity Theft Prevent www.IDTheftSecurity.com

Joining us now with some tips on what you can do to protect yourself is IDTheftSecurity.com CEO Robert Siciliano. And to shed some light on this subject from a legal standpoint, we welcome former DA, judge, and Fox News legal analyst Jeanine Pirro. Good to see you, Jeanine.

Nice to be here.

Let's start with you. Tell us about this a little more.

Well, you know, identity theft is the fastest growing crime, not just in this country but throughout the world, and it threatens to bring down an individual's own, you know, credit rating and businesses and even topple governments. I mean, it's the kind of crime that is so— it goes by unnoticed, and people need to be on top of it. They need to understand where they can go to find out whether or not their credit is being affected and how the identity thieves are doing this. And I have to tell you, they do it so easily. They're dumpster divers, they go through your garbage, they get Social Security numbers, they hack into your computer, they do all kinds of things to access your personal information.

And Robert, I gotta tell you, I've done some of the things to try to prevent them from getting my identity, and it hasn't worked. I still see Despite trying to wipe off my identity off of some of these websites, they keep popping up there.

Well, the problem is that we use our personal information in so many different places on a daily basis that those closest to us, those who we work with and for, friends and family, and identity thieves and hackers throughout the globe who have access to these databases that they're compromising can continually access our information and compromise our identities.

So where do we go, Robert Siciliano, to find something that really works, that keeps those guys, those hackers, from compromising us?

Well, the solution at this point lies in tools that the credit bureaus themselves offer but aren't really implementing. There are services out there that will temporarily or monthly monitor your information and alert you when someone is making access to your accounts. They'll basically call you and say, hey, Do you want this particular vendor or entity or credit card company to open up a new account under your name? And if you give it a yay, then they'll grant them access.

Otherwise—

And you know, those 3 companies that you can go to, Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you are entitled to get that information for free. And I know we have those telephone numbers and hopefully we can put them up.

We will.

But you know what, it's really as simple as trying to make sure that when you go to a store like a video store where, when I was DA, 2,000 people had their identity identity is stolen, you give them too much information. You give them Social Security, driver's license, your mother's maiden name. Don't do that. Just say to them, "You want my credit card number? Here it is." You don't need more than that.

Jenny, you're a former prosecutor. Can we track down these thieves and really just throw the book at them to prevent them from doing it again?

Yes, because the laws have been changed to reflect these new kinds of crimes.

So they were getting away with murder before.

They were getting away with it, but you know why? A lot of people didn't know they were victims until it was too late, and companies are reluctant to admit that their databases are penetrable or that they're victims of crime, so they just let it go, right, Bob?

Well, it— you see, it's not just a matter of not giving out your information because you have to give out your information in so many different places. So you have to give out your data no matter whether you like it or not.

Yeah, but not all of it. That's the point, Robert. You don't have to give everything to every person. You don't have to give your Social Security number to just about anyone.

Let him finish. Go ahead, Robert.

That is true. However, there are so many other situations where you do, and therefore it's just inevitable that your information is going to be compromised.

So Robert, you're saying there's nothing we can do about it?

I'm saying there is. The best thing to do really is to flag your credit through the credit bureaus or third-party services that flag your credit so that if and when someone is to open up an account under your name, including yourself, that you will be contacted by that company to actually determine that you in fact are the person who authorized that transaction. This really is like a middleman-type solution to authorize you to authorize that account to be opened up.

Janine, I gotta be honest, sometimes I wonder whether law enforcement is really capable of stepping up to the plate because these hackers are so far advanced. And you look at some of the law enforcement officials who are trying their damnedest, but frankly they just law enforcement don't have what these hackers have.

You're absolutely right.

Law enforcement doesn't.

They don't have the ability, they don't have the resources, they often don't have victims who are willing to work with them on these cases.

Right.

But when this starts affecting the credit of countries, as I said, and of individuals and businesses, people will understand that it's in addition to monitoring your credit, you've got to shred everything that has your name on it. You've got to make sure that, you know, you— you know, I had places where people would simply pay for in a restaurant for a bill, and then they'd use scanners. They'd have employees who were, you know, scanning their credit cards and then selling them. I mean, this is crime that is rampant in this country.

Jeanine Pirro, Robert Siciliano, thank you very much to both of