IDENTITY GUARD® Total ProtectionSM, The Cadillac Of Identity Theft Protection

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Identity Guard should consider itself flattered. Not too long ago, before consumer lawsuits forced Lifelock to change its business model, companies like Lifelock centered their identity protection strategies around placing and renewing fraud alerts.

Now while studies show that fraud alerts can help secure access to your credit file, nobody will argue that it’s a foolproof way to prevent identity theft. In fact, a significant amount of fraud occurs with unauthorized access to existing accounts, something fraud alerts and credit locks will do absolutely nothing to prevent. Despite all the marketing you might see or hear, there is no way to completely safeguard you from identity fraud.

Identity Guard understands this and focuses all their resources into creating an advanced credit monitoring service. Unlike Lifelock or other competitors, you have unlimited online access to credit report monitoring and your credit score. There are many other cool features to Identity Guard’s Total Protection like IDVault® and MOBILE LOCKBOX® which will have technophiles smiling but the core of their service is the advanced public database scanning and credit monitoring system.

How Do They Protect You?

Personal Identity Dashboard

• Daily Credit Application Scanning

Identity Guard uses a proprietary system to regularly scan credit application databases for fraudulently submitted credit applications in your name.

• Quarterly Access To Credit File Score

Every three months you will receive to your credit file score with all 3 credit reporting agencies. In addition Identity Guard will monitor your credit file score daily with all three credit bureaus for maximum security and will email you if there are any changes to your credit file score.

• Scans Internet

Monitors internet black market sites where personal data is bought and sold for your personal information. You will be alerted promptly if any of your information is compromised.

• ZoneAlarm® Internet Security Suite

ZoneAlarm is an award winning security software which includes anti-virus, spyware, firewall, spam blocking, and stealth mode all which will greatly reduce the risk of personal; information hijacking on the internet. You will receive the software and updates free during the life of your subscription.

• PRIVACYPROTECT™

PRIVACYPROTECT™ is anti-key logging software which will encrypt every keystroke while you browse the internet to prevent identity thieves from recording your passwords.

• MOBILE LOCKBOX™

This is an innovative product from Identity Guard which will allow you to remotely secure your sensitive information, personal records, and important financial documents on Identity Guard’s servers. All this information will be available to you anywhere anytime via your web-enabled cell phone, PDA, or computer.

• Lost Wallet Protection

Identiy Guard will assist you in canceling all your credit card accounts plus give you access to $2,000 emergency cash from your account.

• $1,000,000 Identity Theft *Insurance

This policy is underwritten by National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh and covers expenses related to recovering from an identity theft including wage losses.

• ID Valut

ID Vault looks like a USB memory stick, but its actually a key that padlocks your identity. It protects you against cyber criminals, spyware, and other tricks criminals use to steal your passwords or account numbers.

What Do They Do Better Than Anybody?

The proprietary technology behind some of the products available to Identity Guard separates it from most other identity theft protection companies. While other companies focus on fraud alerts and credit freezes, Identity Guard takes a different approach. Drawing from their years of experience working with top financial institutions, Intersections has developed a sophisticated consumer protection package centered around the Total Protection Dashboard which allows you to monitor your credit file score and your internet protection services.

Credit Monitoring

Fraud Alerts and Credit Freezes are like locking the door to your valuables. While this approach works well for preventing identity thieves from opening new lines of credit, it does very little to protect your existing accounts from fraud. Reviewing your credit file score annually may alert you to fraudulent activity but the damage to your credit and accounts will already have occurred.

Monitoring your credit file score daily, and alerting you to any changes by text message or email allows you to promptly detect any suspicious activity. The near real time monitoring of all your credit reports and credit score only enhances the careful eye Identity Guard keeps over you.

Internet Security

The award winning Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite along with PrivacyProtect provides you with first rate computer and internet security. Also, Identity Guard scans the internet’s financial black markets daily for your registered information, including Social Security Number, credit cards, and bank accounts.

PC Security

Features like PRIVACY PROTECT and IDVAULT makes your computer virtually impossible for hackers to steal information. No other identity protection service offers this level of sophisticated protection.

What Kind Of Customer Prefers This Service?

A tech savvy consumer who can appreciate the proprietary tools Identity Guard provides to greatly enhance the ability to monitor and control your credit file score. The additional first-rate computer and internet protection offers total protection where identity theft victims are most vulnerable, surfing the internet.

Why Should You Consider Anybody Else?

The absence of fraud alerts and credit freezes means your credit file score is as vulnerable as before. While Identity Guard believes the sophisticated credit monitoring services they employ would detect and minimize any fraud, some consumers would like the protection these tools were designed to provide. The use of fraud alerts and credit freezes are central parts of the theft protection strategies of companies like Lifelock, TrustedID, and Equifax.

ProtectMyID.com from Experian offers a more affordable version of three bureau credit monitoring. You can read a detailed ProtectMyID review here.

Give It To Me Straight

The question with Idenity Guard becomes one about credit monitoring versus fraud alerts. If you believe Lifelock’s commercials, the marketing message is fraud alerts are proactive and credit monitoring is reactive. But how proactive are they? Remember that fraud alerts and credit freezes on your file do nothing to protect your existing accounts. If an identity thief has secured enough vital information to open new accounts, doesn’t he have the ability to tamper with your existing accounts as well?

The advantages to be able to recognize and react quickly to any changes in your credit file score cannot be understated. Certainly Identity Guard provides a degree of monitoring and control over your information no other company offers. Add the plethora of additional useful products such as ID Vault, Privacy Protect, Mobile LockBox, and the award-winning Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite and you’re talking some serious value for the consumer. Personally, I prefer Identity Guard Total Protection and find all the products and features incredibly useful.

If Lifelock and TrustedID claim to lock the doors to your house with fraud alerts and credit freezes, even they’ll admit there are cracks in that door. Identity Guard may leave that door open, but they’re watching your back. If anybody comes in and they’ll text, phone, or email you if they see anything suspicious.

Try Identity Guard FREE For 30 Days

**Reimbursement will be provided by insurance carrier. Insurance underwritten by National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, Pa. The description herein is a summary only. It does not include all terms, conditions and exclusions of the policies described. Please refer to the actual policies for complete details of coverage and exclusions. Coverage may not be available in all jurisdictions and is subject to actual policy language.

DISCLAIMER: Intersections, IDENTITY GUARD, EXTRA CAUTION, PRIVACYPROTECT, MOBILE LOCKBOX and Total Protection are federally registered trademarks of Intersections Inc.

Intersections pointed out that recent statistics that were released by the Department of Justice at the close of 2010 revealed that approximately 11.7 million people were victims of identity theft between 2008 and 2010. In a recent report on identity theft, Intersections listed the top methods that criminals use to steal your identity. According to the Identity Guard report criminals use the following methods:

Read our detailed Identity Guard review

Spyware

This is malicious software that tricks unsuspecting users into downloading software that is capable of collecting your personal information from your PC and sending it back to a remote server where it is harvested by criminals for illegal use. The software usually disguises itself as a fake antivirus or anti-malware program and tricks you into believing your PC has a virus and in order to remove it you must purchase the bogus software. While your attention is diverted, the program downloads spyware into your PC to spy on all of your computing activity.

Phishing Messages

These are messages that you receive in your email that appear to be from your financial institution or other source that requires you to enter personal information. It usually states something like to continue using your account you must click on the included link and log in to verify your personal information. The website where you log in is made to look very much like your financial institution site when in reality the information you enter goes to the criminal’s site.

Phone Scams

Phone scams where criminals pose as an authorized person from your financial institution and request your personal and financial information to continue using your account. If you use caller ID there is software that the criminal can use to disguise their telephone number to look like it is coming from your financial institution.

ATM Scams

Everyday locations such as ATM machines and other places where you swipe your card may have a card reader or hidden camera installed by the criminal to read your credit card information or PIN number. Recently criminals have gone as far as hacking into the computer system in ATM machines to gather financial information for illegal use.

Data Breaches

Data breaches can occur from companies you trust where your financial or personal information is accidentally compromised due to a criminal that hacked into the system and breached data security.

These are a few of the ways that identity theft can occur. Identity Guard recommends that you should be careful when providing your personal information, take precautions when opening your email and surfing the Internet, and take a proactive approach to installing multiple forms of protection on your PC. Additionally, identity theft can still occur so it is a good idea to use an identity theft protection service to notify you if there has been a potential breach and to help you pick up the pieces if you have become a victim of identity theft.

Intersections, Inc., creator of award-winning Identity Guard, and Harland Clarke Corporation, a leading provider in integrated payment solutions, recently formed a partnership to provide identity theft protection services to more than 11,000 Harland Clarke banking industry clients. The joint venture is part of Intersections Inc. plans for expansion and Harland Clarke’s mission to expand its security solutions and marketing services to the financial industry.

Terms of the Alliance

Under the terms of the agreement financial institutions will be able to provide their customers with two security options. The first option involves the inclusion of Intersections’ Identity Guard services in a checking or banking account plan that the consumer chooses or the account holder can opt into the identity theft protection service as a standalone option.

The service is known as ITAC Sentinel which is provided by Intersections, Inc. and provides the consumer with extended monitoring of credit and personal information. ITAC stands for Identity Theft Assistance Center and provides consumers in financial institutions with assistance in the event their identity is stolen, resolution services, and identity theft protection for sensitive data associated with banking information.

The partnership between Intersections, Inc. and Harland Clarke is partially to fulfill a consumer need and in response to an Identity Fraud Survey Report from Javelin Strategy and Research. The report showed that during the year 2010 approximately 8 million consumers were affected by identity theft with an out-of-pocket cost increase by nearly 63 percent. The average time a consumer spent with the recovery process increased by 53 percent.

Results of the Partnership

The partnership between Intersections Inc. and Harland Clarke will provide a comprehensive identity theft protection approach that will have a broader reach to financial institutions across the United States. It is the hope of both Harland Clarke and Intersections Inc. that the project will bring piece of mind to a greater number of consumers by providing a convenient way to tap into identity theft protection services for their specific financial institution or credit union.

CUNA Strategic Services, Inc. will be promoting the identity theft protection services provided by the partnership between Intersections, Inc. and Harland Clarke to all of its members. CUNA is the Credit Union National Association in which CUNA Strategic Services is a subsidiary. Harland Clarke is a trusted resource by credit unions throughout the United States and more than 90 percent of the credit unions across the US are members of CUNA. Harland Clarke provides integrated payment solutions, marketing services, and security solutions to more than 11,000 banks, credit unions, and major investment firms.

Intersections, Inc. is known for its Identity Guard solution and provides a variety of consumer and corporate identity risk management services. The company formed an exclusive partnership with the Identity Theft Assistance Center which is the national voice for victims of identity theft and identity policy. Intersection Inc. is the exclusive service provider of ITAC Victim Assistance. If the consumer’s financial institution is an ITAC member and supporter, the consumer can be granted access to ITAC services with the identity theft protection services provided by Intersections, Inc.

For more information on Identity Guard’s services, read our Identity Guard review.

Entrust IdentityGuard recently released a versatile authentication platform which is
compatible with many of the Windows operating systems including Vista, Windows
XP, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008. Entrust is a leading provider in identity
protection services for companies, consumers and online businesses. The new
security solution will provide access authentication for Windows desktops and
servers.

Entrust IdentityGuard allows businesses and corporations to secure access to
computers for the end user by providing authentication choices from the grid
card which has been patented by Entrust and one-time password tokens. The
authentication applies regardless if the end user is accessing the desktop while
connected to the network or using the PC offline.

With IdentityGuard businesses can provide security in layers which regulates
the type of access each user can have and according to a specific transaction.
IdentityGuard is compatible with many different types of applications and a diverse
organization of users.

The authentication process for IdentityGuard involves a username and password,
one-time passcode (OTP) which is delivered over SMS or email, a grid and grid eGrid
cards for two-factor authentication, IP geolocation which identifies the IP address
location, digital certificates for use in software and smart cards, and a wide variety
of one-time passcode tokens which also include a token for mobile devices. The
token for mobile devices works with the Entrust IdentityGuard Mobile which allows
businesses to verify their customers, business associates, and vendors through a
smartphone device.

For business security IdentityGuard provides hefty authentication for remote access
through a secure VPN (Virtual Private Network) which is provided by leading VPN
providers such as CheckPoint, Cisco, and Citrix. There is also an 802.1x for wireless
access security.

IdentityGuard provides multichannel support for phone, email, kiosk, SMS, and
onsite service if necessary. Businesses are protected when they deploy the
appropriate authenticator system for user groups which is customized according to
the level of associated risks, needs of the end user, and cost. IdentityGuard also
provides comprehensive security for consumers with a wide range of authentication
methods, security tokens, Entrust TransactionGuard, and the Entrust Open Fraud
Intelligence Network.