Identity Finder Student Initiative Aids Universities in Helping Students Prevent Identity Theft

NEW YORK, July 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Identity Finder, LLC (http://www.identityfinder.com), a global leader in identity protection and data loss prevention (DLP), today announced the launch of their Student Initiative program, enabling college students to receive a free license of Identity Finder Home for Windows/Mac - a $79.80 value.

There were more than 11 million victims of identity fraud last year - a 37% increase since 2007 - which has resulted in a total 2009 annual fraud of $54 billion. With the nation's struggling economy and students' frequent sharing of information, the effect of identity theft is even greater. Identity Finder hopes to help students prevent identity theft and truly understand their individual risk by providing a way to find and secure unprotected forms of their personally identifiable information (PII) on their computer.

"Identity fraud is a challenging problem to solve because there are so many forms of our identities, more places to store them, and the threats that exploit them continue to grow," states Todd Feinman, Identity Finder's CEO. "We used to just worry about our social security number and the credit card in our wallet, but today we have online usernames and passwords to our bank accounts, electronic healthcare information, and multiple credit and debit card numbers - data often saved or hidden on our computer, in e-mails, and in web browsers."  

Identity Finder empowers students to take steps to protect their own identity while learning more about the risks of identity theft and eliminating risky behavior. Schools including Cornell, Penn State, Harvard, University of Virginia, and University of Iowa already use Identity Finder Enterprise to help prevent data loss and protect students' personal information on university-owned computers. The Home Edition provides a rich feature-set similar to the enterprise product but focused on quickly identifying the greatest risks for a single user.  

Feinman adds, "When users see the results they will be shocked at what is on their computer, but as important they will learn where the data is stored and how to prevent this going forward by changing their habits."  

Some schools such as Indiana University and University of Houston were early adopters of the Identity Finder Student Initiative and started offering their students the home version last year.

Tom Davis, Chief Security Officer at Indiana University, said, "We have found the Identity Finder Student Initiative to be very beneficial in educating our students to the risks of identity theft and the importance of protecting their personal information. This initiative aligns nicely with Indiana University's overarching strategy for protecting sensitive personal and institutional information."

Mary Dickerson, Chief Information Security Officer at University of Houston, said, "With the increased national attention to identity theft and privacy issues, it has been great to be able to offer our students the opportunity to utilize software to protect their personal information through the Identity Finder Student Initiative. Not only have our students been very interested in taking advantage of this opportunity, it has been a nice complement to our campus security awareness initiatives."

Students must have their school's IT department register to participate. Schools can sign-up and learn more about the Identity Finder Student Initiative at http://www.identityfinder.com/freestudent.

About Identity Finder

The company's technology provides users the ability to prevent identity theft and data leakage by finding and protecting sensitive data. They have quickly grown to become a leader in identity protection and DLP by helping millions of consumers, small businesses, and enterprises across the world.

This press release was issued through eReleases(R).  For more information, visit eReleases Press Release Distribution at http://www.ereleases.com.

SOURCE Identity Finder, LLC