Most adults today know of the importance of protecting personal information to avoid the havoc and hassle that comes with identity theft. But as Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge points out, not as many adults are as vigilant when it comes to identity protection for the children in their lives.

“This is an ever-evolving, constant problem with identify theft and with personal security threats against children,” she says. “One of the things that we talk about often at the Attorney General’s office is teaching not only children to be smart and safe online, we want parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles to be smart as well.”

If it seems a fool’s errand to rip off the identity of a person well before they have any assets to steal, remember, personal information such as Social Security numbers from children (even infants) are as valuable to criminals looking to commit fraud as those of adults.

The Identity Theft Assistance Corporation (ITAC), in its 2012 Child Identity Fraud Report, reported 1 in 40 households with children under 18 had at least one child whose personal information was compromised. However, reliable statistics are hard to come by—most children aren’t applying for credit cards, getting bank statements or receiving the other kinds of notices that might alert parents that something is wrong. Identity theft of children often goes undetected, sometimes for years.

Rutledge says exposing children’s identity isn’t always a case of parents being careless or even negligent. Seemingly innocuous things such as information provided to school or daycare can be the gateway by which criminals gain access to children’s information, often leading to the family’s information.

“We put so much personal information out on social media or the white stick figures on the back of a vehicle that may say the child’s name and what number they are on the baseball team,” Rutledge says. “And unfortunately, parents and grandparents don’t think about how ‘I’m proud of Johnny, Number 5, second baseman,’ can lead to an identity thief expanding on it and perhaps even tapping into passwords and other information.”

Rutledge even discourages personalizing clothes or backpacks, as the child’s name combined with a birthdate (gleaned from birthday party photos posed on Facebook) give would-be criminals a good start tapping into the child’s or family’s identity.

Of course, protecting children’s information is merely one niche in the overall problem of criminal intrusion into people’s private data, a problem that has grown to global proportions and dominated law enforcement efforts all the way up to the FBI. Jon Pascoe, director of information security and privacy for Arvest Bank, says being an informed and vigilant consumer is a crucial first step in protecting one’s information. He recommends taking advantage of a multitude of informational sources, in particular, websites managed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

“The website OnGuardOnline.gov includes articles and videos related to topics such as online security for grown-ups and kids, avoiding scams, computer protection and even has topics for small businesses,” he says. “In addition, the FTC manages www.IdentityTheft.gov which provides step-by-step guidance to victims of identity theft. Of course, new threats arise all the time as fraudsters constantly evolve their methods and react to protections taken. Families have to be ever vigilant.”

Meanwhile, companies dealing in everything from Main Street retail to international finance have taken dramatic steps to help protect customer information. Arvest Bank is no exception, Pascoe says. “We have specialized departments dedicated to operating information technology activities and others that focus on oversight and monitoring of these activities,” he says. “In addition, a variety of reviews and audits are conducted both by internal audit as well as third party specialists to regularly monitor and assess network security and systems performance.

“While we can’t describe security components in detail, our approach includes multiple types of firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, access control systems, patch management systems and a variety of anti-malware systems.”

Banks, health care institutions and a range of other businesses have also invested considerable resources in educating their consumers about how to keep their personal information safe. Arvest Bank makes such information available via the bank’s website. Pascoe says many banking systems make a variety of technological tools available to their customers as well.

“Consider using configurable online banking alerts, a feature provided by many online banking systems, to monitor activity in your bank accounts,” he says. “These alerts, which can be delivered via email or text message, can give you ‘just-in-time’ information about balances and transactions and the opportunity to spot unauthorized activity.”

Asked what she’d like the people of Arkansas to come away with on the topic, Rutledge’s message was clear: “Identity theft can happen to anyone,” she says. “Identity theft knows no geographic boundaries, knows no socio-economic boundaries. Those who steal your identity do not care; they’re simply after that personal identification and information in order to obtain your financial records or to obtain credit cards to essentially use your identity to defraud the system.”

Stay Informed

The following resources offer a wealth of information concerning identity theft and ways to keep your data safe and secure.

Arkansas Attorney General: GotYourBackArkansas.org/My-Identity
Federal Trade Commission: OnGuardOnline.gov; IdentityTheft.gov
Arvest Bank: Arvest.com/About/Privacy-And-Security