l credit worthiness is huge.

So, what to do?

Well, we must have a fundamental change in philosophy.

Just as we lock our doors on our car and insure our cars for loss, we must do the same with something that is even more valuable.

We must lock our identity and then insure it against loss.

At present, the best option I know to accomplish this is the bright rising star in the industry: LifeLock. This company does just what I've described. They lock the doors and insure the car. Or to be more precise, they lock my identity and then insure my identity.

We insure our houses against financial loss. We insure our cars. We insure our boats, RV's, planes, etc. We do this at some considerable expense. Why? We do it because we know the potential of loss is significant and such loss would have serious consequences for us.

In some cases, we would owe a huge debt to our mortgage company, and their collateral (our house) would be gone. That's why insurance on our house is mandatory when we have a mortgage. Same goes for cars or other assets that we normally finance.

This business of buying insurance has been with us for many years. True enough, insurance costs are greater and greater, but the concept is quite old.

Now all of a sudden, it is 2007 and we live in a rather strange new world. Its a new world where gangs of thieves still steal from us, but they steal in ways we never imagined. They steal our identity.

I imagine that trying to explain the concept of a "stolen identity" would be nearly impossible should a person from the 1800's should time-travel forward into our generation. But even for all of us the concept can be a bit fuzzy.

The simple answer is that criminals now pretend to be us. They assume our identity to some measure (large or small) and we are hurt in the process. The damage can be crippling. Thieves may steal our identity, apply for loans, and then of course not pay the loans. The bad data goes onto our credit report (not the thief's) and ruin our good credit scores.

But it may be much worse. The thief may do things that trigger alerts to the authorities. That is, they may act in such a way (e.g. passing bad checks) that warrants are issued for our arrest - when we've done nothing to deserve it. You can't hardly blame the authorities. They see that John Doe is passing bad checks all over town. They go to arrest John Doe.

But poor John Doe knows nothing of this criminal behavior. He pleads his innocence to the police, but then again, everyone pleads their innocence to the police. This certainly won't dissuade an arresting officer.

Some have even spent jail time, wrongly so, until they could finally prove that while they are John Doe, they are not that John Doe.

The end result of all of this is financial loss. The amount of time and energy to recover your identity and good financial credit worthiness is huge.

So, what to do?

Well, we must have a fundamental change in philosophy.

Just as we lock our doors on our car and insure our cars for loss, we must do the same with something that is even more valuable.

We must lock our identity and then insure it against loss.

At present, the best option I know to accomplish this is the bright rising star in the industry: LifeLock. This company does just what I've described. They lock the doors and insure the car. Or to be more precise, they lock my identity and then insure my identity.

y years. True enough, insurance costs are greater and greater, but the concept is quite old.

Now all of a sudden, it is 2007 and we live in a rather strange new world. Its a new world where gangs of thieves still steal from us, but they steal in ways we never imagined. They steal our identity.

I imagine that trying to explain the concept of a "stolen identity" would be nearly impossible should a person from the 1800's should time-travel forward into our generation. But even for all of us the concept can be a bit fuzzy.

The simple answer is that criminals now pretend to be us. They assume our identity to some measure (large or small) and we are hurt in the process. The damage can be crippling. Thieves may steal our identity, apply for loans, and then of course not pay the loans. The bad data goes onto our credit report (not the thief's) and ruin our good credit scores.

But it may be much worse. The thief may do things that trigger alerts to the authorities. That is, they may act in such a way (e.g. passing bad checks) that warrants are issued for our arrest - when we've done nothing to deserve it. You can't hardly blame the authorities. They see that John Doe is passing bad checks all over town. They go to arrest John Doe.

But poor John Doe knows nothing of this criminal behavior. He pleads his innocence to the police, but then again, everyone pleads their innocence to the police. This certainly won't dissuade an arresting officer.

Some have even spent jail time, wrongly so, until they could finally prove that while they are John Doe, they are not that John Doe.

The end result of all of this is financial loss. The amount of time and energy to recover your identity and good financial credit worthiness is huge.

So, what to do?

Well, we must have a fundamental change in philosophy.

Just as we lock our doors on our car and insure our cars for loss, we must do the same with something that is even more valuable.

We must lock our identity and then insure it against loss.

At present, the best option I know to accomplish this is the bright rising star in the industry: LifeLock. This company does just what I've described. They lock the doors and insure the car. Or to be more precise, they lock my identity and then insure my identity.

retend to be us. They assume our identity to some measure (large or small) and we are hurt in the process. The damage can be crippling. Thieves may steal our identity, apply for loans, and then of course not pay the loans. The bad data goes onto our credit report (not the thief's) and ruin our good credit scores.

But it may be much worse. The thief may do things that trigger alerts to the authorities. That is, they may act in such a way (e.g. passing bad checks) that warrants are issued for our arrest - when we've done nothing to deserve it. You can't hardly blame the authorities. They see that John Doe is passing bad checks all over town. They go to arrest John Doe.

But poor John Doe knows nothing of this criminal behavior. He pleads his innocence to the police, but then again, everyone pleads their innocence to the police. This certainly won't dissuade an arresting officer.

Some have even spent jail time, wrongly so, until they could finally prove that while they are John Doe, they are not that John Doe.

The end result of all of this is financial loss. The amount of time and energy to recover your identity and good financial credit worthiness is huge.

So, what to do?

Well, we must have a fundamental change in philosophy.

Just as we lock our doors on our car and insure our cars for loss, we must do the same with something that is even more valuable.

We must lock our identity and then insure it against loss.

At present, the best option I know to accomplish this is the bright rising star in the industry: LifeLock. This company does just what I've described. They lock the doors and insure the car. Or to be more precise, they lock my identity and then insure my identity.

thorities. They see that John Doe is passing bad checks all over town. They go to arrest John Doe.

But poor John Doe knows nothing of this criminal behavior. He pleads his innocence to the police, but then again, everyone pleads their innocence to the police. This certainly won't dissuade an arresting officer.

Some have even spent jail time, wrongly so, until they could finally prove that while they are John Doe, they are not that John Doe.

The end result of all of this is financial loss. The amount of time and energy to recover your identity and good financial credit worthiness is huge.

So, what to do?

Well, we must have a fundamental change in philosophy.

Just as we lock our doors on our car and insure our cars for loss, we must do the same with something that is even more valuable.

We must lock our identity and then insure it against loss.

At present, the best option I know to accomplish this is the bright rising star in the industry: LifeLock. This company does just what I've described. They lock the doors and insure the car. Or to be more precise, they lock my identity and then insure my identity.

l credit worthiness is huge.

So, what to do?

Well, we must have a fundamental change in philosophy.

Just as we lock our doors on our car and insure our cars for loss, we must do the same with something that is even more valuable.

We must lock our identity and then insure it against loss.

At present, the best option I know to accomplish this is the bright rising star in the industry: LifeLock. This company does just what I've described. They lock the doors and insure the car. Or to be more precise, they lock my identity and then insure my identity. If someone sneaks through the walls of security, they pay up to $1 million to set things right.

In the interest of full-disclosure, I am a partner with LifeLock.

However, if you should determine that the benefit LifeLock offers is meaningful to you, then I encourage you to sign up with them through my web site.

You may use promo code: IDBLOG and receive a 20% discount on their normal rates of $10/month. A whole year of protection prepaid costs just $88.