Don’t Let the Identity Theft Grinch Ruin Your Christmas

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Secure Hard Drive Destruction Is The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Over the past few years electronic devices have become standard as gifts for the holidays. People are regularly given iPads, laptops, video game consoles and other personal electronics. Much of the time, some form of personal information is required to get optimal usage from these devices. Make sure you think about how you use them as well as how to dispose of your old devices.

Recycling and donating of old devices has become a very popular practice to a more environmentally conscious society. If you do recycle your old device, make sure to take the hard drive out and destroy it securely. Simply erasing the data doesn’t guarantee that it won’t fall into the hands of someone who is able to retrieve it.
Some devices, such as an iPhone can’t have the memory destroyed without completely destroying the device. If you can, find a different use for your old device. Even though it doesn’t have phone service it can still be used in a wi-fi hotspot to surf the web and play games, or turned into an mp3 player.
It may be tempting to trade the device in, or sell it, but what’s the fair trade value of good credit and peace of mind?

To be truly sure that there is no chance any of your information is compromised, simply clearing and recycling is not enough. You have to physically destroy the device. Contact a professional to do it safely and securely, as well as guarantee the work is done right.

If you’re going to do it yourself, make sure to destroy it with a hammer as thoroughly as possible and don’t ever just put it in the trash.

The Identity Theft Grinch hasn’t forgotten his old tricks.

Identity theft is an unfortunate byproduct of the holidays. Identity thieves specifically target individuals with a number of different tactics.

Beside electronics, there are some other things to consider around the holidays:

Monitor your checking and credit card accounts to make sure there are no unauthorized charges or other strange activity.
Take a look at your credit report. This can be found for free on websites such as freecreditreport.com. Federal regulatory pressures have also forced credit card to also offer credit checks with their services. Use these tools to make sure there are no lines of credit that you are unaware of.
Shred mail that has personal info/credit offers.
Only purchase online from sellers wrapped in an SSL.
Do research on giving to charities. These are the months that criminals take advantage of peoples’ caring to run their scams.

Stay alert this holiday season to stay safe all year long.

We offer secure on-site hard drive destruction, as well as on-site paper shredding and record purge services. We’ve serviced Kenosha, Racine, Walworth, South Milwaukee, Wisconsin and McHenry County, Lake County in Illinois.