Technology Reflections is a newsletter sponsored and prepared by Mickler & Associates, Inc. of Vancouver, Washington.  The newsletter addresses the technology concerns of small business in every day lingo and reflects on trends, issues, and tips to help your company gain competitive advantage from tech spend. Please feel free to distribute to colleagues and partners.

Some Words from the Identity Theft Guru
Allyson Burk on Identity Theft

Identity Theft… this is a scary word. We encounter it everywhere. It is on the news, you read about it in blogs and you get bombarded by this credit card company or that insurance company or many other advertisers about how their identity theft product is THE product that will prevent you from ever having identity theft… ever. So, what is identity theft and what can we do about it?

How many of you, when I say identity theft, think stolen credit card? Be honest, most of you did. That’s what most people think. And yes, credit card theft is part of identity theft. In my opinion, however, it is really the least concerning.

Identity theft can get a lot more complicated.

You have things like Social Security fraud where people who could not otherwise get a job use your SSN. This is usually discovered when you get a whopping bill from the IRS for unpaid taxes.

There’s medical identity theft. This is one of the fastest areas of identity theft. Thieves need (or want) medical procedures done and they just cannot afford them, so they stick the bill with someone else… YOU. This victimizes you in two ways. First, financially. I’d much rather get stuck with a $2000 credit card bill than a $20,000 hospital bill. Then, and I think this is just cruel irony, your medical records have now become intertwined with that of the thief and to protect THEIR privacy, you can no longer access your own records.

Now there is even an emerging trend of what has been dubbed synthetic identity theft. This is where they grab little bits of real information, gather it together and create a completely new person. Sue’s Social Security Number plus Jane’s driver’s license number plus Julie’s birth records equals Karen.

Can we prevent it from happening to us? Well, not really. Do you know what they did with your elementary school records? How about all of the job applications you’ve filled out over the years? The data is out there, so you can’t put Pandora back in the box.

Is this article meant to just scare and frustrate you? No. I think facts overcome fear. I want you to walk away feeling informed and empowered to do something to protect you and your family. There are some things you can do.


Credit monitoring is one. This really only helps you with financial identity theft, but it is important to do. Have all three credit reports monitored (Experian, Equifax and Transunion). They are supposed to pass information back and forth, but they don’t always. To get your free credit report, go to www.annualcreditreport.com (don’t listen to singing pirates, they aren’t free). If you cannot afford to have a service that continuously monitors your reports, the next best thing is to order one report every 4 months; one from each credit bureau.

Secondly, if you can afford a service, find one that offers full restoration and access to legal advice in addition to the monitoring. Now, as a caveat, I will let you know right off the bat that I sell a service that offers this and I’d be happy to sell it to you. However, I give this advice freely and really want you to understand why these two things are important.

First, I’d like to be clear what restoration means. Many services offer a resolution service, which is different. Resolution services are when the company sends you a kit and a toll free number. You fill out the kit and you can talk to a customer service rep over the phone who will help you. I liken that to calling the fire department, they send you a hose and walk you through putting out the fire over the phone. Restoration service means that someone actually does the work for you. You want experts putting out the fire, right?

The most important piece, really, is the legal services. What does credit monitoring do for social security fraud? Will fraud alerts help if your medical identity is compromised and you need access to your records? If a creditor is coming after you for debt that is not yours, do you think they care that you tell them the debt isn’t yours? An attorney can help you in these instances. Remember, identity theft is first and foremost a legal issue.

I hope this is helpful. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.

Allyson Burk
Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist
allyson@identity-theft-guru.com
www.identity-theft-guru.com

Want to continue the conversation? Maybe ask some follow-up questions of Allyson? Join her in the Forums where we're discussing identity theft right now!

WiMax Everywhere:
CLEAR Offers Consumers Mobile Broadband in the Portland, OR  and Vancouver, WA Market

Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR), headquartered in Kirkland, WA, recently launched a "Let's be Clear" campaign in January 2009 in the Portland and Vancouver markets to pitch new wireless Internet services offered as CLEAR. On the east coast - particularly in the Baltimore market - the technology is marketed under XOHM; Clearwire offers services in over 50 markets in the US and Europe. Although coverage and speeds vary, their website advertises speeds up to 6mbps download and 1mbps upload - enough bandwidth to stream a movie, or, transfer some rather large and complex files effortlessly.

Their plans for the Portland and Vancouver market range from a 2gb/$40 month package to an unlimited data package of $50/month, and even include a versatile day pass for $10. The closest competitor in this space would be Verizon Mobile Broadband with a 5gb/mo package offered at $60, and even then, you're looking at fractions of Clear's speeds: 1.4mbps max download.

The technology's competitive position (the ability to offer last-mile services at inexpensive rates to businesses and home consumers) why companies like Intel consider WiMax a significant and disruptive technology; Intel has equipped some of their microprocessors as being WiMax-capable. Furthermore, aside from Intel, the company has a number of strategic partners like Sprint, Comcast, Google, Time Warner, and Bright House Networks.

"The computer industry is going through a historic move to all computing being mobile," says Sean Maloney, executive vice president and Intel's chief sales and marketing officer in an interview with Forbes.com. "The wireless network will be how the majority of people get connected."

The technology behind CLEAR's service offering is referred to as WiMax (Wordwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) and is offered as an alternative to cable and xDSL to businesses and residential consumers. WiMax is also considered a 4G (4th Generation) secure mobile platform offering "anytime, anywhere" connectivity supporting multimedia messaging, video, chat, mobile TV, HDTV content, IP4 and IPv6, and Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB).

The bad news about this technology is that it's in its infancy and requires more infrastructure (towers, transmitters, and repeaters) to push the signal into more markets, and admittedly coverage gaps exist in its dedicated markets. 

However, what consumers are looking at here with Clear is the stepping-stone to the next-generation of wireless services that go beyond traditional PCS, GSM, CDMA, and TDMA (cell phone) solutions by US and European markets and into a purely IP-based wireless network: instead of pumping data across cellular and PCS services, this is a whole different animal with strong corporate backing and a promising future.

The technology is great for small business who:

1. Wants to allow for a high-speed mobile option within city limits. Employees who're constantly mobile and traveling within metro-city limits with a laptop are a great target for this solution.

2. Wants to offer a secure high-speed mobile option at lower costs than traditional cell-phone providers.

3. Wants to consolidate their expenses. Since the Clear device is a USB-based product, it can be shifted between laptops and PC's found at the office, on the mobile device, or at home. Instead of paying two or even three carriers for Internet services, the consumer need only pay for one.

4. Wants or require fast access for applications. Sometimes mobile computing can be tiresome because applications respond slowly. This technology allows for a similar application experience as working from a desktop computer - perfect for doing product demonstrations or attending web-based presentations and seminars.

5. Can take a risk and tolerate the growth pains. This is an emergent technology and, inasmuch, it's likely to be more on the bleeding edge of adoption. Users would have to be patient with some of the coverage difficulties and limitations of the service while traveling outside of their dedicated markets. Although the risk is moderate, the company would be betting that this technology and Clearwire in particular would become a mainstay for delivering this service throughout the continental US.

If you're looking for more information on Clear and want to ask some follow-up questions, I know the right guy for you. His name is Scott and he's the ComputerGuy in the Northwest. He's a Clear agent and can help get you setup in the right direction. Join Scott in our Forums for more discussion on WiMax, Clear, and how his services could help your Portland-area business!

Russell P. Mickler, CISSP
Principal Consultant, Mickler & Associates, Inc.
360.601.0818 | rmickler@micklerandassociates.com