USB Thumb Drive Can Be a Source of Identity Theft

The great invention called: USB thumb drive is a source of identity theft. That little gadget you can’t live without is causing some people the unnecessary pain of dealing with credit bureaus and financial institutions.

Size doesn’t matter
I remember that a few years back you could only get a 1 gigabyte usb drive for hundreds of dollars, now that type of memory power is minuscule when compared to the 8 GB or 16 GB models.  But no matter the size of your portable drive you must consider that most of the information identity thieves need is in small size text format like:

• Text Files
• Microsoft Word Documents
• Adobe Reader or Acrobat Files
• Spreadsheets
• Saved HTML Files
• And more

Forget me not
In my experience, the most common reason identity theft happens is because we leave these small forgettable devices in the USB drive.  We only begin to remember that we left it when we are on the bus, on the train, on the plane, or already at home.  I recommend finding a way to keep the device on some kind of long string, a shoe lace will do, or a neck string that is sold in local and online electronic stores.

U lazy squirrel
Identity theft is much easier for someone to commit when they have easy access to the right information. I often find myself deleting stuff from my thumb drive as soon as I transfer it on my home computer or when I don’t need it anymore.  Don’t be a chronic hoarder as keeping unneeded sensitive info can lead to the theft of your identity.  If you don’t want to trash your valuable documents keep your most important files encrypted.  There are USB thumb drives that offer encryption protection either via software or hardware means.  These portable mini hard drives are more expensive as the encryption software or fingerprint recognition are not a standard in the industry.