10 Simple Tips to Avoid Identity Theft

An unfamiliar bill. A call from a bank asking about unknown charges. Being turned down for a loan or an apartment because of red flags in your credit check. All these are signs your identity may have been stolen. Forms of identity theft include using stolen payment-card information to make a purchase; taking control of existing accounts with banks and online payments platforms such as PayPal; and opening new accounts with online sites such as eBay and Amazon, mobile carriers or utilities. The No. 1 consumer complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission for the past 14 years, identity theft is on the rise. More than 13 million people were victims of identity theft in 2013, according to the latest report from Pleasanton, Calif.-based Javelin Strategy & Research. It's also big money for the thieves, with Javelin estimating $18 billion in identity theft-related losses in the United States for 2013. MORE: Best Identity-Theft Protection Software "The situation around credit card and identity theft is getting worse, and shows no signs in the near or intermediate term of getting any better," said Christopher Budd, a threat-communications manager at Tokyo-based anti-virus company Trend Micro. Identity theft can happen to anyone — there's no single group that is more or less susceptible to being victimized.

iOS 7 Glitch Kills Find My iPhone Without Password

There's an adage among iPhone owners that you should never update your phone to the last version of iOS that works on it, usually because a newer operating system can slow down an older device. Unfortunately, a different kind of glitch appears to affect iPhone 4 and 4S models running iOS 7. It may be possible to turn off Find My iPhone without a password by simply hitting two buttons at the same time, a bonus for iPhone thieves. MORE:Mobile Security Guide: Everything You Need to Know American iPhone tweaker Miguel Alvarado posted a video on his YouTube page yesterday (April 2) demonstrating how to do this. Alvarado showed that if the virtual toggle switch to disable Find My iPhone and the button to delete the attached iCloud account are pressed at the same time, and then the phone is switched off when the Apple ID password is asked for, the security settings can be overridden.

Facebook Could Go Anonymous

Facebook may be feeling some backlash for its lack of privacy and anonymity, both of which users are enamored with, as evidenced by the rapid popularity of anonymous social apps such as Secret and Whisper. According to a report from Re/code, Secret and Facebook may be in talks about how they can work together. One rumor points to an offer of $100 million from Facebook to buy Secret outright. Facebook has a well-documented history of purchasing buzzy new companies — such as the $19 billion it spent on WhatsApp and the $2 billion for Oculus Rift — so this rumor may not be outside the realm of possibility. However, Re/code does say that representatives from both Facebook and Secret declined to comment. MORE: Secret vs. Whisper: Which Anonymous Sharing App is Best? Also giving credence to this rumor is the fact that the social-networking giant recently started playing with ways to log into some Facebook-owned apps anonymously, including Instagram. In an interview with Bloomberg, CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that private Facebook Group messaging was one idea that came out of recent Facebook Creative Labs hackathons. Both of these ideas would be contrary to the always-on, constantly-updating-the-world, real-names-only philosophy that Facebook has operated under since its inception. We look forward to finding out more about how Facebook may update its privacy settings, and roll out new features, at the Facebook F8 developers conference later this month.