Some Good Examples:

Keller ISD (TX)  Enrollment forms were mailed to students and parents for the 2008 - 2009 school years. Unfortunately, some of the forms containing sensitive personal information were mailed to the wrong people. Social security numbers, student ID numbers, home addresses, phone numbers were on the forms.

Four East Texas school districts were burglarized in late 2007. One district has reason to believe the burglars' target may have been student information. Thousands of dollars in computer equipment were untouched. A small amount of petty cash was stolen from a couple of the schools.

Newton ISD (TX) – 08/18/09 A network intrusion has potentially exposed sensitive information   on approximately 150 employees. (FBI is still investigating)

Williamson County Schools (TN) - 6/26/08 More than 5,000 students may have been affected when a school employee accidentally posted their personal information online.

As you can see, schools need to be pro-active, not re-active in the fight against identity theft.

Preventing data breaches takes more than technology, and even good procedures. Stopping data breaches before they occur requires building a “Breach-Free Culture” within your organization. Properly training employees across all areas of data protection is a necessary component to breach-proof an environment.

A good reason to incorporate training into your data breach prevention efforts is that, although cyber-criminals may get the headlines and media attention, the fact is that that most breaches are caused by human error and process failures. (Hackers are getting all of the credit unjustly).

Technology can't stop someone from making unknowing mistakes - but training them in a way that changes thinking and behavior, can bring about a proactive culture within an organization.

Creating a “Breach-Proof Culture” where employees across all departments and areas share a heightened awareness, understanding and commitment to eliminating breaches, can protect organizations from risk, liability, and unnecessary costs.

Organizations that proactively educate their employees regarding identity theft drastically reduce their chances of a costly data breach. TBG Fraud Solutions training impacts the way you think! When you change the way someone thinks it results in a change of behavior reducing the risk of a data breach resulting in Identity Theft.

This does not have to be an expensive undertaking - in fact, it isn't costly at all. Training is immediate, affordable, customized to fit each individual employers needs.

Business and Legal Reports says, “One solution that provides an affirmative defense against potential fines, fees, and lawsuits is to offer some sort of identity theft protection as an employee benefit.  An employer can choose whether or not to pay for this benefit.  The key is to make the protection available and have a mandatory employee meeting on identity theft and the protection you are making available, similar to what most employers do for health insurance. . .”

. . . Greg Roderic, CEO of Frontier Management, says that his employees ‘feel like the company values them more, and it’s very personal'.”