Robert Siciliano explains how to prevent identity theft before tax season. He recommends cross-cut shredders, locking filing cabinets, Norton Internet Security, and upgrading to 5 GHz cordless phones to protect your documents and personal information.
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Tax Day is a little more than a month from now. It's also a time when identity thieves are on the prowl. 9.9 million Americans fell victim to identity theft just last year. What can you do to prevent it from happening to you? Staples has teamed up with personal security expert Robert Siciliano. He's here with tips on how to keep your personal information safe and secure. Staples, Staples, Staples makes it real easy for you. Go online to staples.com/security and review all the different tips. Staples has done a great job of putting together all the tools that someone who's preparing their taxes needs to protect themselves. What would you say is the number one mistake most of us make when it comes to preventing identity theft? The real big problem really is what comes in the mail and what goes out in the trash. Shred everything in your life. Become somewhat obsessive about shredding. So I think it's important that you head to Staples and pick up a shredder. A cross-cut shredder destroys any and every document that has your name, address, Social Security, or account number. What can we do to make sure that we are not victims of identity theft? In your home office or your, your, you know, business office as well, pick up a locking filing cabinet. A locking filing cabinet is essential nowadays. So I always recommend Again, heading to Staples, getting a locking filing cabinet. Ah! Woo! Look at you! What is it that Americans are failing to do, or is it just that we're just so technologically advanced that people can take advantage of the system? Well, it's our PCs that are the path of least resistance. When you're computing online, you're using your home PC, your office PC. Go to Staples, pick up Norton Internet Security. Norton Internet Security from Staples can protect your transactions online by making sure that you don't have any viruses or spyware that actually records all of your transactions. If you're filing your taxes online or communicating anything over the internet, more than likely you're going to be that much safer by installing a Norton program. Cordless communications, what can we do there to secure ourselves? You have a 900 MHz cordless phone in your home or office. Identity thieves and hackers can buy scanners that actually can intercept these cordless communications. Upgrade to a 5 GHz cordless phone for your home or office that makes it that much more difficult for identity thieves and hackers to intercept those communications. Robert Siciliano joins us live. Now you're talking about how to protect ourselves from becoming victims of identity theft. As long as you're accessing the right resources, you're going to be fine. Staples really has made it very easy for you and I, you know, to— for a comprehensive identity theft prevention program to protect ourselves. Staples, they are the people with the easy button. Staples has made it real easy, and generally you'll be fine as long as you adhere to these tips. The best tip that I can give you is to go online to staples.com, staples.com, staples.com, staples.com/security, and they have all the tips you need to keep safe. That was easy. Staples really makes it easy. They're taking responsibility for this issue, and they're teaching you what you need to know. Just one last thing. That was easy.
