I've Been Mugged

The Age Of Conversation: A Cool Social Web Experiement

Last year, I had just started blogging when the first edition of The Age of Conversation was published. 100 bloggers contributed to the 2007 edition, which is available for sale at Amazon.com. All proceeds still go to Variety Children's Charity (and if you click through the Amazon link, the affiliate money goes to Variety too).

I'm excited to be one of the contributors to the 2008 edition. I know and work with several of the contributors to the 2007 edition: Lori Magno and Ryan Barrett. Now, I'd like to introduce you to the team of 275 bloggers who are contributing to the 2008 edition, which is titled "The Age of Conversation: Why Don't People Get It." Perhaps you know some of the contributors:

Adam Crowe, Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob Carlton, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Bradley Spitzer, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Clay Parker Jones, Chris Brown, Colin McKay, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Cord Silverstein, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Goldstein, Dan Schawbel, Dana VanDen Heuvel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Darryl Patterson, Dave Davison, Dave Origano, David Armano, David Bausola, David Berkowitz, David Brazeal, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Emily Reed, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, G. Kofi Annan, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Graham Hill, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, J.C. Hutchins, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeremy Middleton, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, Joe Talbott, John Herrington, John Jantsch, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Flowers, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kris Hoet, Krishna De, Kristin Gorski, Laura Fitton, Laurence Helene Borei, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Barnes-Johnston, Louise Mangan, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Marcus Brown, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Mark McSpadden, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Hawkins, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Monica Wright, Nathan Gilliatt, Nathan Snell, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul Marobella, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Beeker Northam, Rob Mortimer, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Cribbett, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tiffany Kenyon, Tim Brunelle, Tim Buesing, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Longhurst, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

I hope you'll join me in buying a copy of one of the coolest social web experiments ever. You will thoroughly enjoy the book and the unique perspectives of 100 authors in the 2007 edition. The 2008 edition will be available later this year.

Suze Orman Identity Theft Kit Debuts

Recently, I was talking with a coworker who had purchased the Suze Orman Identity Theft Kit. In January 2008, the TrustedID blog announced:

"Financial expert Suze Orman and TrustedID have launched Suze Orman’s Identity Theft kit, the first identity theft protection solution that protects the financial and personal information of all members of a household. Shortly after launching on QVC, the kit will be available online at www.suzeorman.com and TrustedID.comas well as through leading retailers nationwide."

I checked www.suzeorman.com and consumers can purchase the kit online. At the site, click on "Identity Theft Kit" in the left column navigation area. According to the site, the kit contains the following:

• Two People Protection
• Medical Record Protection
• Anti-Spyware Software
• Lost Wallet Protection
• Address Scanning
• Enhanced Junk Mail Reduction
• Credit Card No. Scanning
• Annual Credit Reports
• Bank Account No. Scanning
• $1 Million Service Warranty
• Child Identity Theft Protection
• Fraud Flag Placement
• Elderly Parent Identity Theft Protection

At first glance, the service seems to have a lot of value. It definitely seems worth consideration for consumers who have no identity protection in place today. However, I found the web site content very thin. The site did not explain many of the kits features. So, it's hard to tell exactly what is offered for "Medical Record Protection," "Address Scanning," "Bank Account Number Scanning," and the "$1 Million Service Warranty." Unfortunately, the QVC page didn't supply any more detail either. Maybe the actual television pitches explains these features, but I rarely watch QVC.

There are about 46 user-submit product reviews at the QVC page. You may find some of these helpful. Most of the reviews are positive, but the negative ones seem to be where consumers encountered technical problems installing the kit software and returned the product. Some of the reviewers noted that the kit does not cover department store charge cards.

For me, the kit provides services I already have from other credit monitoring services. Regarding Fraud Alerts, I added those to my credit reports on my own. I already have anti-spyware software for my home computer from McAfee. To reduce spam and junk mail, I have already signed up at several free opt-out resources for consumers.

Later this Spring, I plan to post a detailed comparison of several of the leading identity protection solutions for consumers. The comparison will definitely include Orman's Identity Theft Kit. I've Been Mugged readers would love to hear the opinions or experiences anyone has had with the Suze Orman Identity Theft kit.

CIA Monitors YouTube For Intelligence

Here's a most interesting news item from InformationWeek magazine:

U.S. spies, now under the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), are looking increasingly online for intelligence; they have become major consumers of social media. In keeping with its mandate to gather intelligence, the CIA is watching YouTube.

Is there that much intelligence at the YouTube site? Who knows. The Wall Street Journal also blogged about it and the Secrecy News post with a link to the CIA speech document. The WSJ article also highlighted the fact that other countries' intelligence agencies probably monitor phone and Internet communications, too.

There are a couple implications. First, it means that the intelligence community monitors other social networking sites, too. Second, it demonstrates that whatever information (e.g., blogs, journals, photos, etc.) consumers post online about themselves is online forever and may be analyzed in some country's government mainframe computer.

In an unrelated matter, a check of YouTube found that somebody posted a CIA recruitment video.

In The Blogosphere: IT Project Failures and The Hartford's Data Breach

Whether or not you work in the Information Technology (IT) profession, IT Project Failures is a well-written blog. Michael Krigsman chronicles the missteps, mishaps, fumbles, and failures by IT departments in corporations and in government agencies. Michael is a good friend and I hope that more IT professionals read his blog and learn from the examples.

In a recent post, Michael wrote about a data breach at The Hartford insurance company. Data breaches are just one of the many types of IT department fumbles and mishaps.

The Hartford's data breach reminded me a lot of IBM's data breach earlier this year, when IBM lost my personal data. After reading the news reports in PC World and Cleveland.com (Note: State of Ohio Insurance Director Mary Jo Hudson is asking good questions), both companies' data breaches have some similarities:

1. Both companies lost backup data tapes
2. Both companies claim the data tapes were "lost" and that there's no evidence that the lost data has been misused
3. Both companies took more than a month to notify identity theft victims
4. The data tapes included sensitive personal data like SS#'s and driver's license numbers, and
5. Both companies offered the identity-theft victims one year of free credit monitoring

There are a couple differences. First, The Hartford was open and honest about the number of records exposed/stolen. To this day, IBM has never disclosed the number of records lost/stolen. It's difficult to trust a company that is not open and honest.

Second, The Hartford's data breach included lost/stolen customer information, while IBM's data breach included lost/stolen employee and former-employee information.

Now, back to the similarities...

It really seems dishonest when companies claim immediately after a data breach that there's no evidence of the data being stolen. First, the fact that they can't find the data tapes would be evidence enough. Second, identity criminals aren't going to announce that they've stolen or copied the tapes. Third, it'll be the identity-theft victims that discover the evidence, when identity thieves try to access their financial accounts or commit fraud in the ID-victims' names.

When companies make this claim of no evidence, they really need to be specific. Was their search for evidence only within the company? Did they approach law enforcement? Is their claim of 'no evidence' based on law enforcement's investigation?

Both companies seem to believe that one year of free credit monitoring is enough. It isn't. Identity theft victims have to monitor their financial and credit reports for a far longer time period than one year... like the rest of their lives. Both companies' data breach created this risk for the identity theft victims. So, the period of free credit monitoring should match the risk period.

In The Blogosphere: Chronicles of Dissent

A tip of the hat to the folks at Chronicles of Dissent blog for their coverage of my posts about correspondence with Attorney General Coakley's office about online breach notification. If you are a Massachusetts resident and you feel as I do, I hope that you'll contact Mass. Attorney General Coakley's office and tell them you want corporate breach notifications posted online.

Blogtoberfest (Meeting Boston Bloggers, Part Two)

During the day I'm super busy at my day job building web sites. However, I'm glad that I made time yesterday evening to attend the 2007 Boston Blogtoberfest event at the Pour House bar on Boylston Street.

This event was an opportunity to meet other Boston-based bloggers. I'd like to publicly thank Jenny Frazier for organizing the event. There must have been 40 or 50 bloggers in the downstairs room at the Pour House.

As I wrote in a prior post, I'm fairly new to blogging and this was my second blogger social (this week). It felt very empowering to meet several local bloggers, who write about a wide range of subjects:

• Wade Roush at Xconomy,
• Tammy Schuetz at Boston Food & Wine,
• Michael Krigsman at IT Project Failures,
• Victoria Welch and Jon Petit at the Bostonist,
• Ryan Barrett at Cheap Thrills,
• Jonathan Feeley at Digital Interactif,
• Boston Transplant,
• Christopher Ott at the ACLU, and
• Eileen's very funny Divine Comedy of Errors.

The event was an added treat since I won one of the raffle prizes... a framed photograph of beautiful and historic Fenway Park.

Boston bloggers who weren't there, and I hope they attend the next event: Lori Magno's Moda di Magno, Kate Beaton's The Dish, Diane Danielson's Downtown Women's Club, and Mick O'Brien's Attention Shoppers.

Meeting Boston Bloggers (Part One)

This week is one of those weeks where I need 48 hours in each day. I've been so busy that I haven't been able to read all of the posts I'd planned to this week.

First, my day job as a usability professional (I architect web sites for corporate clients) has been especially hectic and jam-packed. We're working simultaneously on two huge web site re-designs which have to launch between now and November 30th. Second, there have been several Boston-area blogger events this week which I just had to attend.

I'm fairly new to blogging, so I registered and attended the Tech Blogs event at the Cambridge Innovation Center Tuesday evening. The panelists included some well-known, heavyweight technology bloggers including: Don Dodge, Director of Business Development at Microsoft; Jimmy Guterman, Editor of Release 2.0; Barbara Heffner, partner at CHEN PR; Nabeel Hyatt, CEO at Conduit Labs; columnist Scott Kirsner from the Boston Globe; and Bijan Sabet, a venture capitalist at Spark Capital. Podcaster Dan Bricklin recorded the event posted the audio on his web site.

The panelists and audience shared several tips and suggestions about blogging as senior corporate executives, how to grow your blog audience, emerging trends, and common issues all of us bloggers face. If you are a business executive interested in how blogging can benefit your business, then I suggest you read Jonathan Feeley's post at Digital Interactif: 5 Reasons to start a Blog for your Business.

I learned a lot at this event and noticed that many of these successful bloggers use the same Typepad service which I use.