In The Boardroom™ With...

Mr. Scott Mitic
President
TrustedID
www.TrustedID.com

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Thank you for joining us today, Scott. Please give us an overview of your background and a brief company history of TrustedID.

Scott Mitic: I've been in the security and consumer data industries for nearly 10 years. I co-founded TrustedID four years ago, after my wife was a victim of identity theft twice in two years. We discovered that there were literally no services available that could reduce the risk of the crime happening to her a third time. And so TrustedID was born, with the mission of offering proactive identity protection for consumers.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Please give us an overview of the solutions and services you provide to consumers, enterprises and small businesses.

Scott Mitic: TrustedID offers identity theft solutions to consumers. Hundreds of thousands of people count on TrustedID to help them reduce their risk of identity theft. We also help companies who breach customer data - offering services that protect affected individuals after a breach as well as help prepare a company before a breach occurs.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: There are an ever increasing number of threats to enterprises who store personal and financial data, why are they a target and what are the main causes of data breach?

Scott Mitic: Identity thieves understand the value of a database is vastly greater than the value of laptop on which the data may be stored. There are economics incentives for stealing data that attract the crime. The leading cause of data breach is lack of safeguards, both in terms of technology and processes. The more data a company collects, the more connected a company is the Internet, the more a company digitizes customer data, the greater the risks and the greater the need for safeguards.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Now that we understand a bit about what can cause a data breach, what can companies do to protect themselves from data breaches?

Scott Mitic: Companies need to think about security at many levels. Clearly there is the obviously data encryption, data permission, perimeter security, etc.But there is also the less obvious, such as who has access to the memory chips in the photocopiers or permissions for the corporate email servers. And finally, an ongoing problem is social engineering - the use of personal information to trick individuals into exposing information that can be used to commit identity theft. Every company that stores significant amounts of sensitive information about employees or customers needs to have a company-wide task force that considers security and maintains stringent levels of protection.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: How does TrustedID help companies to both prepare for a possible data breach and work with companies who find themselves needing to deal with an actual loss of data?

Scott Mitic: TrustedID works with companies in advance of a breach by setting up a quick response program, allowing them to notify affected individuals within hours or days of a breach, and provide them with powerful protection to reduce the risk of a criminal using the data for financial gain. After a breach, TrustedID works with companies to get protection to affected individuals as quickly as possible.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: Without divulging any confidential or proprietary information, of course, can you tell us about the success stories TrustedID has achieved with an international insurance company where over 100,000 individuals were affected and a major pharmaceutical company where thousands of individuals were also affected?

Scott Mitic: Yes, TrustedID has recently worked with a number of major companies who have unfortunately experienced data breaches. We have a process that lets us provide exceptional and consistent services - a strong product together with high-quality customer care. Because out company is focused serving consumers, we are very successful in giving consumers the peace of mind that their identities will be safe, even following the unsettling experience of being part of a data breach.

SecuritySolutionsWatch.com: TrustedID has one of the best Resource Centers we've seen with a wealth of information for consumers about how to protect themselves from a variety of scams such as phishing, medical identity theft, phone fraud, college identity theft, military identity theft, videos with consumers about their identity theft nightmares, and much more. There's also information for corporate managers about how to ensure that their organizations are compliant with best identity theft protection practices. Please tell us more about the educational and other resources which are available at www.TrustedID.com

Scott Mitic: At our website, we add an article or blog post nearly every day. We started this because information regarding identity theft and data breach is constantly changing. We ourselves were having a hard time finding and sharing the most up-to-date information within the company, so we just decided to create a definitive source information - both for ourselves and others.

Scott Mitic: I'd suggest that every company start to think about data breach as a "when" not an "if." Even with the best efforts and highest levels of security, no plan is foolproof. The damage can be significantly mitigated by planning ahead, investing in as many safeguards as possible and knowing what you'll do in the event of a data breach.