began one morning, as I made my way into the office. The world was still grappling with how to deal with a pandemic. Although, things were begining to open up, and fewer people were wearing masks, or adhering to authoritative compulsion. It was a fairly ordinary morning for me at the time, all things considerd; except, this morning, after I made my usual cup of coffee and setteled in at my desk for the morning, the phone rang. The ringing itself wasn't unusual, but the letters that flashed across the screen were indeed. As I saw the letters "HR" display across the console, I paused, and within a split second my mind began to play through a few plausible reasons I might receive such a call from Human Resources. I don't normally receive calls from HR. Was I in some sort of trouble? Do I need to do some sort of manadatory employee sexual harrassment training again or something? Is the company laying people off? For what possible reason would HR call? I picked up the phone. "Hello", I said, curiously. "Hello Biny, this is Sally from HR", she responded. "Hi Sally, how can I help you?", I asked. Sally: "Have you taken out unemployement recently?"Me: "No, as far as I know I still have a job." Sally: "Someone has attempted to file for unemployment insurance in your name."
After the call, my mind began to race again, filing through memories of how my information may have been compromised, and how it wound up in the hands of a would-be theif. Was it the Experian breach? Was it an employee at work who had access to my information? Was it one of the countless other breaches we hear about, or one of the ones that never get reported? Years later, I found out AT&T lost all their customer's information, including SSN's, and denied it for four years before fessing up and informing the public.
The questions I had after that call from HR about who has my information, who's securing it, how well are they securing it, and who are they sharing it with have never stopped coming. Companies are demanding more and more of our information for service, yet they seem to be completely unable or unwilling to secure it. Therefore, personal information privacy is a simple matter of self-defence. So, take SHELLter and turtle-up!
~biny_bash