My name is Todd Davis. My social security number is 457-55-5462.
I'm Todd Davis, CEO of LifeLock, and yes, that's my real social security number*. Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in America, victimizing over 10 million people a year and costing billions of dollars. So why publish my social security number? Because I'm absolutely confident LifeLock is protecting my good name and personal information, just like it will yours. And that is why we back our service with our $1 Million Service Guarantee. At LifeLock, We Guarantee Your Good Name. No one else does because no one else can. *Always protect your social security number. Do not share it unless necessary.
How many times have you seen this ad?? And how many times have you followed up on it?? No, I’m not trying to sell you this service; matter of fact I have had a couple friends tell me you can do everything they do for a fee, free. Since there are lots of “things” involved, I decided to focus on one of them that has a big impact on how safe your identity is! First, let me set the stage for you. According to a report released by the e-mail security firm MessageLabs, spam accounted for 90.4 percent of all e-mail sent in June. "If you're not concerned about spam, I would suggest you turn off your spam filter for about an hour and see what happens," says Sven Krassen, senior director of data-mining research at McAfee. Lots of spam is just a nuisance which wastes a lot of time and tries your patience but the real dangerous kinds are the ones that are looking for your personal info like SSNs, bank accounts and credit cards and lots of other information that would be devastating if it was in the wrong hands. Unfortunately, there is no iron-clad way to totally eliminate spam and therefore you need to do everything possible to protect your valuable information…your best protection is in the use of passwords that are really strong. For an excellent tutorial and password checker, go to http://tinyurl.com/ypc3dc where Microsoft provides you with valuable assistance. I would also suggest you take a look at Kim Komando’s article on passwords at http://tinyurl.com/ohawzu Kim has some good suggestions on how to make strong passwords and how to remember them…huh, you have to remember them? Do you have a system of your own like hiding yellow stickups with the passwords on them, or even better, just put them all in a folder on your desktop with a funky name no-one would suspect?
Guess what that never works and hackers know it too! Before I continue, FYI, the program I am going to tell you about also has a mobile version for all of you who are smart phone users and the best news is it’s a free APP, yup a freebie visit http://tinyurl.com/pnhmko for details. So on to the program which is called Keeper.
It’s by Callpod, an outfit that specializes in mobile software. Here is a quote from Callpods CTO: “Today, consumers need to do everything they can to keep important information as safe as possible,” said Craig Lurey, Callpod’s CTO and Co-founder. “Keeper uses one of the most powerful encryption tools in the world to do just that and users can feel confident that their information is safe against thieves and hackers.”
“Callpod’s entry into the software space is the perfect complement to our mobile devices business and allows us to offer consumers useful and innovative applications for their Smartphones and computers. Smartphones have become the fastest growing segment in addition to power devices in the consumer electronics space,” said Lurey. “We have a long list of new and innovative apps that we will roll out this year and beyond to capitalize on this expansion. It’s a very exciting time for Callpod as it has now established itself as an innovator of software and mobile devices.”
This statement indicates that Keeper is a simple program, very affordable ($14.95) but extremely effective in protecting your entire stable of passwords whether on your smartphone or on your PC. Not only that, but you can keep encrypted notes and folders with it. Keeper allows the user to manually store all relevant username and password information for any site, and keep it organized and easy to search for, to allow retrieval of the information at any time. The program also features a sync ability to sync the program with the iPhone to transfer and save any information on the desktop to the iPhone, and vice versa. There is also a feature set that allows you to back up your information to an encrypted file and then restore your information later from this file. In addition to backing up your data, there are also options for exporting the information to either unencrypted PDF, text files and Excel spreadsheets, or to an encrypted text file. It is interesting to note that the program also allows you to import your own text file, as long as it is tab-delimited so that the program can see the separations in information. A couple of interesting features as provided by the company involve self-destruct; Self-Destruct Mode is an important feature of Keeper desktop which prevents a person from accessing your private data. If your password is entered incorrectly 5 times, self-destruct will initiate and immediately erase all of your data. The default setting for Self-Destruct is ON. To enable/disable this feature, go to the "Settings" Tab in Keeper Desktop. Your data is not erased by activating or deactivating this feature. If you have performed a backup or export, your data may be recovered by performing a restore within Import/Export tab. If you forget your password, you will not be able to restore your data or get into the Keeper Desktop program. Customer support does not have access to your password or data. If "Self-Destruct" is on, you may clear out the data in Keeper Desktop and begin using it again by deliberately entering the wrong password 5 times and allowing the data to "self-destruct." Keeper will reset itself, and prompt you for a new master password and open a new empty database. If you have "Self-Destruct" turned off, you may clear out the data in Keeper Desktop and begin using it again by deleting the files located in the Keeper directory (default location for Windows - C:\Documents and Settings\[NAME OF PC]\KeeperData default location for MAC - /Users/[NAME OF MAC]/KeeperData.)
The following screen shots will give you an idea of how easy the program is to install and to use…with one caveat…if you have as many passwords as I have, you may be able to import them, but then again, you may have to spend lots of time typing them all over again. Look at that as an opportunity…you can clean out/update the list and make-up some really strong passwords.
First screen after install…type in a really good password!
After you export your database
And here is your vault
And your mobile synch
Your settings page
Your Backup and Restore
Finally, these last three are just for fun…they show 3 alternate skins for the program.
For a free trial download and lots of FAQs, go to www.callpod.com/keeper, it’s an easy install and easy to use; don’t wait to protect all your valuable information, start by using passwords that can’t be hacked.
That’s it for now, enjoy all the fun stuff, but be careful of all the bad guys lurking out there to grab your data!
Aloha, Lou
