Lancasteronline.com reports that when a couple applied for public assistance at a local government office, they discovered that someone has used their personal information to obtain a job in Ohio.  In fact, their personal info, including Social Security Number (SSN), had been used several times between 2003 and 2009 to collect paychecks from various companies in Connecticut, New Jersey and Minnesota. 

Why would someone work under your identity instead of their own?  They may use your SSN and identity for any number of reasons: running from the law, evading taxes, or an illegal immigrant seeking a job.

The Social Security Number is currently as our national identification card – even though it’s not supposed to be used for identification.  A 1998 NY Times article states: WASHINGTON— For many years, Social Security cards carried an admonition that they were to be used ”for Social Security and tax purposes — not for identification.” That assurance rings hollow today. Congress has authorized so many uses of the nine-digit number, and Americans use it for so many unauthorized purposes, that it has just about become a national identifier.

Today your social security number is connected to everything.

Identity theft protection will not prevent employment fraud. However having a fraud resolution agent assist in identity theft restoration is an invaluable asset.  McAfee Identity Protection, offers proactive identity surveillance, lost wallet protection, and alerts when suspicious activity is detected on your accounts. For additional tips, please visit http://www.counteridentitytheft.com

Robert Siciliano is a McAfee Consultant and Identity Theft Expert. See him discussing how to protect yourself from identity theft on CounterIdentityTheft.com. (Disclosures)

Last year, 32 million passwords were posted online after a data breach at RockYou, a company that creates applications for social networking sites. The breach revealed the weakness of most people’s social networking passwords.

InformationWeek reports, that all the major sites have the same minimum password length of six characters. And password complexity checks are few and far between.

Of the 32 million people whose passwords were exposed, almost 1% had chosen “123456.” The next most popular password was “12345.” “Princess,” “qwerty,” and “abc123” were other common choices.

In another instance, phishers posted thousands of Hotmail addresses and the associated passwords in an online forum. These passwords were equally obvious. Those used most frequently included “111111,” “123456,” “1234567,” “12345678,” and “123456789.” Many of the phishing victims used people’s first names as passwords, most likely the names of their kids, spouses, and so on. 60% of the exposed passwords contained either all numbers or all lowercase letters.

Naturally, anyone using an insecure password is far more likely to be hacked. It is crucial to have strong, secure passwords for all online accounts, including social media accounts. And it is equally important to use different passwords for different accounts. Using the same password for social media sites as for critical accounts, like webmail and online banking, is an invitation for identity theft.

To protect your identity, observe basic security precautions. Consumers should also consider an identity theft protection product that offers daily credit monitoring, proactive identity surveillance, lost wallet protection, and alerts when suspicious account activity is detected. McAfee Identity Protection includes all these features, plus live help from fraud resolution agents if your identity is ever compromised. For more tips on protecting yourself, please visit www.counteridentitytheft.com.

Robert Siciliano is a McAfee consultant and identity theft expert. See him discuss hacked email passwords on Fox News. (Disclosures)