Recently our friends at American Family Life Insurance Company of Columbus (AFLAC) rolled out a new service to support the fraud and identity protection needs of its voluntary insurance customers.
Over the last year, AFLAC had been working with its customers with a cost-effective service to help protect business owners and their respective employees personal and financial information complete with internet monitoring and identity restoration services to keep at bay a growing threat in the US consumer marketplace.
In 2014, Americans lost $16 billion due to fraud and identity theft victims spent hours trying to recover from this emerging white collar crime.
This is an important issue to this Blogger and it should be front and center to your current business processes if it isn't already.
As the Internet of Things or IoT continues to evolve, the focus of much of this emerging technological crime, we thought we could share some advice to protect you and your devices from compromise. Keep in mind, this has been a growing issue since 1985 and many would have never thought that such crime would be proliferated while the technologies or "smart devices" have brought the world closer to our fingertips.
First, consider setting up a separate network for your IoT devices in your home or office. By keeping IoT devices and other information separate, those unscrupulous hackers will have a harder time gaining access to your personal information. Second, never connect your IoT devices to unsecured networks. Sure it is convenient when you are on the road or when you need to quickly respond for fear of losing that business lead. Be sure to create strong passwords for your Wi-Fi networks-the easiest way for hackers to gain entry into your home or business device that will further compromise your respective Wi-Fi network. Finally, look into any available security measures offered for your smart devices. It helps that once you get it, to constantly update your IoT software since these devices are especially susceptible to cyber attacks.
Do not be discouraged by such news or the threats of the hacks of IoT devices worldwide.
Just take the necessary precautions to avoid having your information compromised and keep yourself aware of other threats to your identity.
Our hats off to AFLAC and Independent Insurance Agents like ours, Jenny D. Sarmiento, for their advocacy on this important issue. For more information on the AFLAC suite of fraud protection services via EZ Shield, please contact Jenny at 671-488-3669 or jenny_duenas@us.aflac.com. For all of your network security needs in the Western Pacific, please contact GET, LLC for information on our solutions that can be of assistance to you and your respective businesses including access to the Panduit and Cisco line of network security products-of which we are proud Business Partners of both. Give us a call at 671-483-0789 or find out more at our website at www.get-guam.com.