It's a gray, cold  Monday, November 23, 2009 in Bellingham, WA. The temperature says 48 degrees, but the real feel is 37 degrees, according the weather stats on the Herald site. I tend to agree!

One of them is intended for guests at the Marriott. Others are private networks for individual businesses. Farao, of Coral Gables-based Enterprise Risk Management, said the security of any of those networks could be compromised via Albert Gonzalez. "It's a matter of time," Farao said, "even for networks that are encrypted and password protected."

And who is Gonzalez? From Miami, he pleaded guilty in August to 19 felony charges in a Massachusetts indictment for tapping into the computer networks of T.J. Maxx, OfficeMax and other stores, stealing customers' data and selling it overseas. Federal prosecutors say he stole 40 million credit card numbers as a part of that scheme. He faces charges that he stole millions more from other companies.

Wayne Ivey, a Florida law enforcement officer who has specialized in identity theft investigations for more than 15 years states that whatever tools an identity thief is using, whether dumpster diving for individual credit card numbers or stealing identities by the millions, "the damage that you can do to someone is exactly the same." Ivy added that this rapidly evolving crime is becoming more difficult to stop since only one in 700 identity thieves is ever arrested. "We're looking at a crime that has reached epidemic proportions," he said.

Let's say your credit card is stolen and you notice purchases charged against it that you did not make. The credit card company may forgive the charges you claim you didn't make because your card was stolen, BUT some craftier crooks can take the credit card information, coupled with other personal data, and apply for more credit - buy cars, TV's, a home, get a job or even get arrested using someone else's identity. SCARY, isn't it!

"The average person will expend over 400 hours trying to get their credit restored," Ivey said. "And the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) estimates the average length of time between when identity theft occurs and the victim finds out is more than 12 months."

• In the early days of wireless there was no encryption-the process that masks information as it travels from one place to another. WEP, one of the first encryption systems was riddled with security problems, but is still widely used in homes. Make sure at your house you're not using WEP. (Older routers aren't equipped with the newest, more secure types of encryption , WPA and WPA2)
• Be cautious when using public networks - at a coffee shop, airport, hotels or the like - for anything more than browsing the internet. (i.e. Arries in less than minute demonstrated how simple it is for someone to grab information streaming from a computer using a public wireless network.- when he logged onto his Facebook page, the intercepting computer was able to read his username and password-in plain text.) A hacker might also detect, while having unencumbered access to your Facebook page, the password you use for more sensitive information.*

 *The Bellingham Herald, September 13, 2009, Identity theft growing, getting harder to stop by Nirvi Shah