I recently received a well-crafted press release from Identity Finder. CEO Todd Feinman prepared these tips (presented as received with minor edits) which you may find useful for your own internal security newsletters (please include a reference to Identity Finder if you do use them):

1. When storing a copy of your tax return on your computer, make sure you secure it with a password so that your Social Security number (SSN) cannot be read if the file is lost.

2. Securely delete all electronic, financial documents used to prepare your tax returns so any personal information is safe.

3. Ignore all refund/rebate/warning e-mails claiming to come from the IRS and never click on links within those e-mails because it is most likely a phishing attack.

4. Do not provide personal information to anyone calling you claiming to be from the IRS; the IRS already has your information and it’s likely to be an identity thief calling you.

5. Check your credit report with one of the three credit bureaus for free every four months at annualcreditreport.com to make sure your identity hasn’t already been stolen.

6. Install the latest updates to your operating system so known Windows or Mac vulnerabilities can't be exploited by hackers.

7. Don't save your password in your Web browser when accessing banks and other institutions that keep your personal information because it could be leaked if you ever get a virus, Trojan, or if your system is hacked.

8. If you provided your bank account and routing information to the IRS for payment or refunds, check your bank accounts to ensure that the proper transfer occurred.

9. Visit your bank account online and set up alerts on your accounts to monitor when high amounts of cash are withdrawn.

10. Check to make sure you do not receive incorrect payment liability or refund information; a thief could have filed a tax return on your behalf fraudulently. If you suspect tax preparation fraud, call the State Tax Department toll-free at 1-888-675-9437.

I went online to find out about Identity Finder and became interested in its flagship products. The site describes Identity Finder software this way:

“Identity Finder plays a unique and crucial role in helping individuals and businesses prevent identity theft by finding and securing personally identifiable information such as social security numbers, credit cards, dates of birth, passwords, and bank accounts in files, e-mails, databases, Web sites, Web browser data, and system areas. You then have the option to shred the information, quarantine it to a secure location, or protect it through encryption. Antivirus and antispyware programs don't offer this level of in-depth data mining to protect you and your business.” (Compare Identity Management products)

There are functionality-limited trials of the full versions available for home and professional use; these search and display the information in question but do not facilitate action as the complete product would. There’s a detailed feature-comparison available. Costs are modest: $24.95 for the home version, $34.95 for the professional version (with bulk discounts available). There’s also an enterprise version that costs a variable amount per seat (less than for the home edition) depending on details of the configuration and the size of the enterprise. The sales representative with whom I spoke for research on this article assured me that any enterprise requiring a trial of the product will get the company’s full cooperation.

[Note: I have no financial relationship whatever with the company named in this article, nor have I received any consideration whatever in return for writing this summary.]

M. E. Kabay, PhD, CISSP-ISSMP, is Program Director of the Master of Science in Information Assurance program at Norwich University.