Let’s start off with something most of you have heard of – Lifelock. If you have seen their commercials on TV, you’d think if you paid the hefty price for Lifelock, you can rest easy — your identity is safe. \u00a0The truth is, neither one can. \u00a0But it’s simply not true. And it illustrates that some of those who sell security\u00a0software\u00a0will do anything to convince you – if only you bought their product you’d be\u00a0100%\u00a0safe. But it’s not true, and they know it. \u00a0The Truth: Lifelock does not prevent identity theft. A firewall does not \u00a0prevent identity theft, How can we say that even Lifelock does not stop identity theft (but they spend millions of dollars trying to convince to you they can). Want proof? Lifelock been sued by users and by the FTC. LifeLock paid a hefty fine to the U.S. Government for making false claims. It’s too bad the U.S. Government doesn’t take a closer look at the claims being made by \u00a0many \u00a0security and firewall vendors these days.<\/p>\n
Software vendors have never been above hyperbolizing to the point of prevarication. We subscribe to many security newsletters – some of them published by security software vendors like Sunbelt and McAfee. Sometimes reading the baloney these newsletters serve up to their readers almost makes us want to regurgitate. And it’s a shame that vendors will go to any lengths to sell a product knowing it can’t possibly do what they promise. Unfortunately, gullible readers gobble up the baloney – because scare tactics sell products.<\/p>\n
A firewall – no matter which one – cannot prevent identity theft; there isn’t a program made that can prevent you from giving your information away willingly. The best crooks can trick the innocent into giving up passwords, email addresses, credit card numbers, and even social security numbers.<\/p>\n
A firewall is necessary, but every version of Windows from XP though Windows 10, \u00a0has had a built-in firewall. If you listen to the so-called tech experts, they’ll tell you Windows firewall isn’t as good as brand x, y, or z. If you’re paying attention when you’re reading though, you’ll find that most of these so-called experts are selling brands x, y, or z – or all three. The motivation is money – your money. So in a sense those who twist the truth are our for the same thing as the crooks who trick you into giving up your personal information — your money.<\/p>\n
Firewalls can’t protect you from identity theft. In most cases, they don’t even help. LifeLock, now included with Norton, has been the target of many lawsuits and has already paid a stiff fine to the government for making false claims.<\/p>\n
When it comes down to it, you need a good anti-spyware program – or two, a good anti-virus program and you need to keep them updated. You need to keep Windows firewall turned on – not because it will protect you from identity theft, but because it can protect you from the unlikely event of unauthorized access to your computer via a network.<\/p>\n
What you really need to protect you from identity theft is something you already have – common sense. The same old common sense you’ve been using for years – the common sense that tells you not to leave valuables lying on the front seat of your car, to lock your car doors, to lock you house at night when you go to bed, etc. Most identity theft occurs when people get careless and click links in emails that look as if they came from a bank or credit card company. These links lead to counterfeit sites. Unwary users give up their personal information unwittingly – and that’s how identity theft most often occurs.<\/p>\n
A firewall isn’t going to stop identity theft. A 3rd-party firewall will certainly lighten your wallet -legally. Common sense will prevent identity theft better than any combination of security programs. Think before you click! And always make sure you know where you’re going and to whom you’re giving your information. When in doubt – leave it out. Don’t give away any personal information to any site unless you’re absolutely sure of the site you’re on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Let’s start off with something most of you have heard of – Lifelock. If you have seen their commercials on TV, you’d think if you paid the hefty price for Lifelock, you can rest easy — your identity is safe. \u00a0The truth is, neither one can. \u00a0But it’s simply not true. And it illustrates that some of those\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1670,1656,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8411"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8411"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8414,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8411\/revisions\/8414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}