The Identity Theft Flu: 5 Ways to Keep Yourself Healthy

June 16, 2013— -- intro: Identity theft is a lot like the flu. You can do everything right – minimize your risk of exposure and so forth – but if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, then you're toast. You can be standing next to the wrong person on a bus and get the flu, and when your data is sitting on the wrong database and the wrong person gains access, you become a victim of identity theft.

According to the latest study by Javelin Strategy & Research, "almost 1 in 4 consumers that received a data breach letter became a victim of identity fraud, which is the highest rate since 2010."

A couple of months ago, I commissioned a poll by GFK Roper to gauge awareness and concern about identity theft. To my chagrin the results were worse than I expected. Approximately 40 percent of the respondents said they believed that threats about the danger and probability of becoming a victim were little more than a marketing ploy cooked up by communications departments at identity theft service providers. Even Consumer Reports recently said that they believed the threat of identity theft was "overblown."

While your risk of becoming ill fluctuates depending upon factors such as the strength of that season's particular flu strain, your chances of becoming roadkill for an identity thief continue to rise. The percentage of all consumers who have become identity theft victims has increased in each of the last three years, as the crime spread to affect 12 million victims in 2012 alone, according to Javelin.

If your Social Security number is exposed in a breach, your risk multiplies. Javelin found that, "consumers who had their Social Security number compromised in a data breach were 5 times more likely to be a fraud victim than an average consumer."

According to the Open Security Foundation, more than 267 million (yup, that's "million") records were exposed last year in 2,644 data breaches and at least 60 million pieces of personally identifying identification wound up in the hands of identity thieves and fraudsters. Even this astronomical number paints an unnaturally rosy picture, since the actual number of breached records is not reported in more than a quarter of all incidents.

Scammers are able to slither into our lives through more cracks and crevasses these days because they are extremely patient and grow more sophisticated by the hour. This spring, hackers cobbled together enough personal information belonging to celebrities and public figures, including First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Jay-Z, Beyonce and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to access a government-mandated free credit report site and export the purloined data to a Russian website where it was posted for the world to see. Last month, security researchers discovered a piece of data-stealing malware that attacks Android phones and cannot be deleted. Meanwhile, across the globe, hackers manipulated bank computer systems to create fake prepaid debit accounts, hired thugs to withdraw cash from thousands of ATM machines across more than two dozen countries, and stole more than $45 million in a matter of hours.