Beat Big Brother: Dodge CCTV, phone taps and spies

By Rory Reid on 19 March 2008, 2:55pm

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Identity theft costs the UK economy £1.3bn every year. In fact, someone's probably cloning your credit card right now. Oh look, that little piece of crumpled up paper you threw in the bin -- the one that looks like rubbish but is actually a bank statement -- yeah, that's on its way to your friendly neighbourhood refuse collector, who'll use it to clone your identity and buy himself a new TV. Here's how you can stop him.

Encrypt your data
Even if you believe nobody will gain access to your PC, it's always worth encrypting your files. All it takes is a little misplaced trust and an intelligence operative masquerading as your spouse/mother/offspring to blow your cover. Software encryption with applications such as AutoCrypt is a good start, but you're better off using hardware-based encryption such as DESkey. This can scramble your data and only unscrambles it when you insert the accompanying DESLock USB dongle, which you keep on your person.
£120 from DESkey
Paranoia scale: 3 tinfoil hats out of 5

Clean up your hard drive
Many of us sell our PCs on when they become too slow to tolerate. Many of us even have the good sense to delete their private data and format the hard drive before doing so. But even this method isn't enough to stop a determined hacker from restoring and accessing your files. That's why we recommend DriveScrubber. This software wipes all your personal data by overwriting them with gibberish multiple times. It's like spilling multiple buckets of paint over a confidential sheet of A4 paper -- the resultant cornucopia of mess leaves your old files unrecognisable and unrecoverable.
£15 from iolo
Paranoia scale: 1 tinfoil hat out of 5

Stay off Facebook
It goes without saying: leaving your information on social networking sites is like airing your dirty laundry in public. Dirty laundry with pockets stuffed full of cash. Spies can steal your identity with little more than knowledge of your name and rough whereabouts. All it takes is a quick Google search, a look at the Yellow Pages and a bit of imagination. If the pull of social networking is too strong, we recommend keeping your profile hidden from search or at the very least restricted to friends -- and no, rough acquaintances you met briefly at a party don't count. Keep anyone you don't know properly restricted to a limited profile and never, under any circumstances, add any applications. Any idiot can make a Facebook app and they all get full access to all your private information.
Facebook privacy
Paranoia scale: 2 tinfoil hats out of 5