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Open House

Securing Your Wireless Internet Network; Disposing Of Computer Components; Targeting For Identity Theft; Mari Frank Interview; Securing Your Home

Aired January 28, 2006 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: A Hamas leader is refusing to disarm. Earlier today, two Palestinian officers were hurt in an ambush, as tension continues to mount over the election outcome. The militant group Hamas won 76 of the 132 seats in the Palestinian parliamentary election this week, beating out Fatah, which has headed Palestinian government for years.
In about 30 minutes, a ceremony honoring the victims of the space shuttle "Challenger" will begin at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It was 20 years ago today the shuttle exploded after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts on board, including New Hampshire schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.

Mother, antiwar activist, and now senator? Cindy Sheehan says she's thinking about running against Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein if she does not support a filibuster against Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. The same day Sheehan issued her statement, Feinstein announced she would support the Alito filibuster. Earlier this month, the California Democrat said she did not see anything to justify one.

And those are the headlines.

"OPEN HOUSE" with Gerri Willis is next.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN ANCHOR: Are you worried that the government is eavesdropping on your phone calls, or maybe reading your e-mail? Well, Uncle Sam may be the least of your worries.

Good morning, I'm Gerri Willis.

Your neighbors, co-workers, even complete strangers have more access to your private life than you probably realize. Today, on a special OPEN HOUSE, your security. I'll show you how to keep your information and your identity safe.

And later, I'll talk to a reformed identity thief who will tell you how he ripped on consumers.

But first, securing your wireless Internet connection. Here's Daniel Sieberg.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No matter how you look at it, from several hundred feet up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're scanning for wireless networks. These are all wireless networks on the ground.

SIEBERG: To local hot spots, like cafes.

DAVID THOMAS, AIRDEFENSE: Understand that the information you're doing is very similar to standing up in the park here and shouting out all the information. Would I normally do that?

SIEBERG: To your home, wireless security is a critical step. Having wireless Internet access so you can surf anywhere is great. But without securing it, you're left vulnerable to attacks, illegal activity, and, at the very least, giving away free Internet access to your neighbors.

THOMAS: Borrowing wireless is pretty common, not the right thing to do, but it's pretty common.

SIEBERG: I invited David Thomas with AirDefense to my house to illustrate how easy and essential it is to be secure.

Outside, we could see wireless signals from my neighbors, some secure, some not.

THOMAS: One example here, you can clearly see, the person has put their own last name in the network name, which is not a good practice.

SIEBERG (on camera): Well, let's go in, let's go inside.

THOMAS: OK.

SIEBERG (voice-over): Once you set up the wireless Internet network, you're not finished. Straight out of the box, your wireless network is wide open.

(on camera): I have taken off all the security preferences, just so we can start at zero. But when someone does get this at home to set it up, they've got no security. They're totally vulnerable.

THOMAS: None whatsoever, right. And this is the perfect example of that. This security mode being disabled right now means that when your laptop connects to this access point, all the communication between the two points is totally unencrypted. So anybody sitting within 300 to even 1,000 feet, if they use directed antennas, can listen to everything that's on your network.

SIEBERG (voice-over): Remember the name of that neighbor's network? Well, Thomas says that's a target for identity thieves. And it's the best place for us to start.

THOMAS: The first one, and easiest, is the network name setting. You just want to change this to something that is unique to you, but doesn't necessarily identify you. So you'd never want it to be your name, right, or say that it's your home. SIEBERG (on camera): So you could make it your street name, for example.

THOMAS: Absolutely.

SIEBERG: That -- because that's pretty easy.

THOMAS: Absolutely. So you just tell me what you'd like ...

(CROSSTALK)

SIEBERG: Arbor, A-R-B-O-R.

THOMAS: And so once you type that in, you just save the settings on each page.

SIEBERG (voice-over): The next layer of security tends to involve an acronym soup. All that matters, says Thomas, is WPA, Wi-Fi protected access, which really means just an unguessable password.

THOMAS: The main thing here is to type in a password that is unique, as something that can't be found in a dictionary, and that mixes upper case, lower case, and some numbers.

SIEBERG: The onus for wireless home security is on you. But it's worth it. Someone could be using your unsecured network without you ever knowing about it, and possibly stealing your information. And what they do on your wireless network, like spamming or downloading illegal content, could come back to haunt you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIS: So Daniel, obviously you got to pay attention to this stuff. There are a lot of ways of encrypting information. I've heard of a Web standard. Is that old hat?

SIEBERG: It is kind of old hat. And if you want to use the hat analogy, WEP (ph) is kind of like a hat that might shield you from the sun, whereas WPA is like a stormproof suit that would shield you from all inclement weather.

WEP's been around for a while. It's one of the original wireless standards. But unfortunately, most security experts agree that it's not secure enough to protect everything on your network.

WILLIS: So you got to upgrade, move on.

Daniel. what if I want to let a friend or family member use my connection on their computer?

SIEBERG: Well, the good news is, you don't have to input all of this information every time that you want to log in. You -- that's a one-time thing. If you got a friend or a family member who comes over, you just need to give them the password, and then they can log in.

But remember, think of your wireless network as a gateway to your computer. You just don't want to give the keys to anybody.

WILLIS: You bet. Daniel, that's great advice. Thanks for being with us.

SIEBERG: You bet.

WILLIS: There's another way you can get your personal information stolen from an old desktop or PDA. But it's easy enough to prevent. I went to an electronics recycling plant to find out more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIS: Let's talk about some of this equipment. Now, you say you can't just throw it in the garbage can.

MARK REA, ADVANCED RECOVERY: No, you shouldn't.

WILLIS: Why not?

REA: Absolutely. There are some harmful toxins in there, plus, there are regulations in place which prohibit, for example, monitors and televisions from being placed in dumps.

WILLIS: But there's also a lot of personal information, at least on my hard drive, that I should be worried about if I'm throwing it away.

REA: Absolutely. And what we recommend when people call up is, we ask them to format their hard drive.

WILLIS: What does that mean?

REA: What that means is, you wipe the hard drive. It's a very preliminary step to cleaning your data.

WILLIS: All right. So, Mark, what do I do? Do I get a hammer out and smash my hard drive? How do I make sure nobody's going to get my information?

REA: I've seen that shown on TV before. Many people are a little reluctant to open their computer and pull out a hard drive. When we have hard drives that are taken out... WILLIS: Wow.

REA: ... we actually shear them. We break them in half. If you were a real sophisticated bad guy that was looking for some information, you probably could still piece together some information. But that type of person isn't going after, you know, your machine.

WILLIS: OK.

REA: But there's a function which brings you to a C: prompt, and you type in the word "format." And it will put a very high-level wipe on the drive. It will wipe the drive. Is it going to guarantee a hardened criminal doesn't get your information? No. But odds are, hardened criminals aren't going to get your drive if you bring them to any recycling-type operation like we have here.

WILLIS: Is there anything special to know about recycling cell phones and PDAs? Because my Rolodex is on my PDA, right? And I don't want people to get that. What should I do...

REA: If you don't want people to get that...

WILLIS: ... to wash that information out?

REA: You should wipe it out.

WILLIS: And how do I do that?

REA: And the easiest thing to do is to smash it, OK?

WILLIS: Really So just go get a hammer?

REA: Do you, do you want to smash it? No. You should be -- you could do it electronically. You could basically -- There is an erase function, after you highlight everything and erase it, that will stop most simple people from ever getting your information.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIS: Check with your local garbage collectors or city hall to find out how to dispose of electronics where you live.

But if the equipment still works, you might want to donate it. Many schools and nonprofits will appreciate your old working computers, and national cell phone carriers will take donated phones at their stores.

And you can always check eBay. We found that even a broken iPod can fetch some cash on eBay. Just remember to erase all your phone numbers and reformat that hard drive before you get rid of any electronics.

Coming up on OPEN HOUSE security special, keep yourself safe from consumers' biggest fear, identity theft. I'm going to show you how.

And later, there's old-school theft too, don't forget. Coming up, tips on avoiding burglaries at your home.

But first, your tip of the day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIS: Make sure no one is using your credit. Check the credit report every year. Log on to AnnualCreditReport.com, or call 1-877- 322-8228. It's free, secure, and you can request your information from all of the three major reporting agencies.

If you notice something wrong, dispute it with those agencies immediately.

And that's your tip of the day. (END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIS: It seems everybody is worried about identity theft these days. Just this week, the Federal Trade Commission named it the number one consumer fraud complaint.

So how are people being targeted?

Well, Ronald Hemphill can answer the question firsthand. He is a former identity thief, who spent 18 months in prison. He says he's reformed. He's even written a book about the experience, called "Rollin'."

Ronald, welcome to the show.

RONALD HEMPHILL, FORMER IDENTITY THIEF: Thank you for having me.

WILLIS: So I got to ask you, how easy is it to rip people off, to steal their identities?

HEMPHILL: It is incredibly easy. The thing that I did most, 100 percent of the information that I used for my identity theft activities, came from inside sources. I bought information from employees from virtually every industry in America.

WILLIS: You bought information from employees. You've said before that this is easier than you think, that anybody can be bought. Is that what you found? What do people charge you to deliver the info?

HEMPHILL: Well, the standard fee was anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000. And once you did that, you pretty much have them eating out of your hand. And you have the ability to, once you demonstrated that you had the ability to compensate them, you could buy as much information as they could steal out of the back door.

WILLIS: Wow, that's unbelievable. Now, you actually targeted really good credit risks. Tell us about that, and why you did it.

HEMPHILL: Well, I did target -- what I did was -- the bank employees were the biggest targets for me. And what I did, in a nutshell, was, I would request certain names, specific names, specific credit scores, credit ratings, you know, zero balances, minimum $15,000, all the specific information that I could go out and fraudulently charge up $100,000 in excess of that per name.

WILLIS: But the thing that's so disturbing about this is, I don't think there's any way to protect yourself if the employees of the banks are giving out, doling out your information for a few bucks.

HEMPHILL: You're right. And what happens is -- and that's the biggest part today that I'm saying, and is the fact that workplace theft is really huge. That's where most of the information is coming from. Like I said, 100 percent of the information I used came from employees from every industry that you can think of in America.

WILLIS: So Ronald, what advice do you give people who are worried about this, who don't want to run into somebody like you? You're reformed. You've thought about this a lot. What can people do to protect themselves?

HEMPHILL: Well, people can demand that these companies -- because the biggest problem is, companies must protect the data that they have.

WILLIS: Right.

HEMPHILL: And until that happens, identity theft is going to continue to soar out of control.

WILLIS: Ron Hemphill, thanks so much for being with us today. I think you shed a light on a really complicated problem.

HEMPHILL: Thank you for having me.

WILLIS: OK, you've heard from the criminal. Let's hear from the victim.

Mari Frank had her identity stolen 10 years ago. Today, she's an attorney and author of "Safeguard Your Identity."

Mari, welcome.

MARI FRANK, FORMER IDENTITY THEFT VICTIM: Thank you for asking me to come.

WILLIS: All right, let's talk a little bit about what happened to you. One day, out of the blue, you pick up the phone, you're with the kids. What do they tell you?

FRANK: Right. I got a phone call from a bank I never heard of, asking me why I hadn't paid my $11,000 bill. And I said, Well, who are you? You know, first I thought it was a, you know, phony phone call.

And then I found out that indeed, this company had issued credit to a fraudster in a city four hours from my home. And this impersonator got over $50,000 in my name. At that time, there were no laws making identity theft even a crime, so that...

WILLIS: Right. So this happened a while ago, right, Mari?

FRANK: Yes, that happened...

WILLIS: How did they get your identity in the first place?

FRANK: Well, you know, just as Ron was talking about that it happens beyond your control. I did find out that this woman had downloaded my credit report from a law firm about four hours from my home. She saw my name in the newspaper, and she decided to pick out names and steal the identities of people who had good credit. WILLIS: That's scary.

FRANK: So she would download the credit. Yes, and that's beyond your control again, right, Gerri? I mean...

WILLIS: Right. Well, let's talk about what you're doing now, because you really dedicated your life to trying to prevent this crime in the first place, right?

FRANK: Right. Well, right now, we've done a lot in terms of legislation. And one of the things that I'd like to respond to what Ron was saying is, about the only -- the best way to protect yourself is to put a security freeze on your credit report. Unfortunately, most states don't have this, like California has this. If you're a consumer and you want to lock up your credit so no fraudster can be issued an account...

WILLIS: Right.

FRANK: ... what you do is, you put a security freeze on. That means that you get a password with the credit bureaus, and no one can see your credit report...

WILLIS: Mari, what about those fraud alerts, though? Do you like those? Do those make sense?

FRANK: Well, the fraud alert is very important. The problem is this. The fraud alert says, Don't issue credit without calling me first at this number. But a lot of the creditors really don't follow that. And if...

WILLIS: Oh, you're kidding.

FRANK: No. And actually, under federal law, if a creditor doesn't call you, you have no right to sue them.

WILLIS: All right, Mari, I've got to get you to some of your other advice, because it's interesting, and it's different from what most people say.

FRANK: Right.

WILLIS: A-number-one, you say don't think about online banking. That's not a good thing. Why?

FRANK: Well, what I say, mostly, and I want to kind of stop you, Gerri, is, what's most important is, don't use checks. And that's what people don't even realize, that the check has a routing number and your account number, and that is used to make up new checks, and the banks don't even look at the name on the checks.

WILLIS: Wow.

FRANK: So they just push it through. And all the money can be siphoned out of your account.

WILLIS: Let's talk about debit cards for just a second. We're running out of time.

FRANK: OK, debit cards...

WILLIS: But I know you're not a fan of them at all.

FRANK: No, debit cards are terrible, because the number on your debit card can be used to order things on the Internet without even a password. And the money is completely siphoned out of your account. So believe it or not, credit cards are about the safest thing to use besides cash, because if there is anything on -- any fraud on your credit report, you see it first, you dispute it, and you're not going to be held responsible.

So I say, use a credit card, but be diligent about paying your bills and...

WILLIS: Right.

FRANK: ... scrutinizing those invoices.

WILLIS: And you got to check all of your credit histories on all your accounts and make sure nobody's stealing your identity.

FRANK: Right.

WILLIS: Mari, thanks so much for your time today.

FRANK: OK, thank you for inviting me.

WILLIS: Next on our security special, don't get cleaned out when you go out. How to keep the crooks from getting in your home.

Here are the mortgage numbers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIS: OK, so thieves don't only exist in cyberspace, obviously. You have to take steps to beef up your home security too.

So I met up with home improvement expert Tom Kraeutler to show us some easy and inexpensive ways to safeguard your house.

So Tom, when it comes to security protection with your house, I think people worry about buying the latest gimmick and not getting something that's reliable, that's really going to keep the burglars out. What can they do?

TOM KRAEUTLER, HOME IMPROVEMENT EXPERT: Well, that's a good point, because typically, manufacturers want to sell you one product and say that's going to be your end-all solution. But I really think it's a matter of layers, it's layers of security protection. It's lights, it's timers, it's a burglar alarm system, it's locks. All those things work together to keep you and your family safe.

WILLIS: Well, let's talk about lights first. I know you've got a couple of things here that are really going to scare, we hope, they're going to scare the burglars away, right?

KRAEUTLER: Yes, I love this. It's a big spotlight, and it's on a motion detector. Now, what you would do is, replace your outside light sconce with this. And if anyone comes on your driveway or walks up your walk, bam, the lights come on. They're super-bright, and they're really going to scare the burglar, because burglars are mostly cowards. And if you throw a lot of light in their face, they're gone.

WILLIS: Now, I know you've got some products here. I'm not a geek. I don't know how to program the outdoor lights. But you say there's an easy way to do it.

KRAEUTLER: Yes. Can you change a light bulb? If you can change a light bulb, you can use this.

This is a light control. It's very simple to use. You simply unscrew your light bulb out of your wall sconce as it is now. You screw this in, in between that and the electric fixture. And it's a dawn-to-dusk control. So these lights will be on all night long. You don't have to put a timer in. You don't have to set a timer, you don't have to worry about anything. You just screw this in, and you're done.

WILLIS: All right. If I do want to put those lights on a timer, you've got several products. You can get the digital, you can get the nondigital. There are a lot of choices.

KRAEUTLER: Exactly, exactly. And, you know, I should think you should just start with something very, very simple like this, for just a few bucks. You can have a light timer. And you want to have one timer stay on the first floor of your house, one timer on the second floor. You can have them on lights, you can have them on radios. You want to create the illusion of activity inside your house.

WILLIS: Even though there's not any if you're away, say, for example.

KRAEUTLER: Exactly.

WILLIS: Let's talk about doors, because, you know, these burglars are coming in the doors, they're coming in the windows. What can I do about locks, for example?

KRAEUTLER: When there's buy the locks that come with tiny screws to attach the latch plates to the wall. I think you should have a longer latch plate, a security stripe plate, something like this, for example ...

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIS: Now, that's really long.

KRAEUTLER: A big piece of steel with long screws that go all the way through and into the frame of the wall. Because remember, if you don't have an attachment to the frame, the door can easily be kicked in. WILLIS: All right. So let's take a look at these. These are peepholes, but they're different than what you're used to.

KRAEUTLER: They're a peephole, and basically, all you need to install those is one drill bit. You drill one hole in your wall, and you screw it into your door, and you're done.

WILLIS: And what do you get, though, for the trouble?

KRAEUTLER: You get a 200-degree view of who's on the other side of your door from the inside of your house.

WILLIS: So you get a clearer vision of what's on the outside of your door.

KRAEUTLER: Exactly.

WILLIS: All right, well, let's go look at how we might put some of this equipment into practice.

OK, so Tom, show is the strike plate, what we could do to make our door safer.

KRAEUTLER: This is, like, the weakest area of your door right here, because typically, when these locks are installed, people tend to do this. They put very, very tiny screws in that.

WILLIS: These are so short.

KRAEUTLER: They're so short. So if someone tried to kick this door in, this would easily break right through the wood and pull out.

So what we're going to do is, we're going to pull this out, and we're going to replace it with a much larger piece of metal. We're going to install that. And then we're going to use long screws that are going to go all the way through the doorjamb and into the wall that's supporting the door.

WILLIS: So Tom, just a few minutes, and we've got another layer of protection.

KRAEUTLER: Exactly. A couple of dollars of hardware and 10 minutes of work, and this house is secure.

WILLIS: Thanks so much for your help today.

KRAEUTLER: You're welcome.

WILLIS: So if all else fails, you could always use these as a deterrent. These are the cheapskate security system right here. Just put the stickers in your windows, and hope they're enough to scare intruders away.

I'll be back with tips on securing your garage right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WILLIS: When it comes to security, don't forget your garage door. That's right. You may think you're safe because you have a garage door opener. But in fact, that can make you more vulnerable. Here's how.

Garage door openers operate on infrared codes, and unlike fingerprints, these codes are not unique. In fact, companies selling this technology may use only a dozen or so different signals. That means a burglar using somebody else's garage door opener could get into your garage.

And for that reason, you'll want to make sure your interior door to your garage is secure. And keep those keys out of the car, even when it's sitting in the garage.

We talked a lot today about thieves who steal your personal information. But you may want to keep an eye on the family pet. An African gray parrot, like this one you're seeing right here, is behind the breakup of a couple in Leeds, England.

It seems every time Chris Taylor and his live-in girlfriend, Suzy, would kiss or cuddle, the bird would yell out the name of another man, Suzy's co-worker, in fact. That forced her to confess she was having an affair.

Now, Suzy says she never liked the bird. It seems the feeling was mutual.

We want to hear from you. Send us your comments, your questions to openhouse@cnn.com.

And you'll find more on today's guests and topics on our Web site, cnnmoney.com/openhouse.

Thanks for watching OPEN HOUSE. We'll see you here next week.

The day's top stories are next on CNN SATURDAY.

Have a great weekend.

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