it really reasonable living farming. once that is opened up. >> for more information on the recent visit to oakland in the many other destinations on a cities to her, go to c-span.org/cities to wear. >> we want to introduce it to an author named adam levin. the book is called "swiped: how to protect yourself in a world full of scammers, phisher, and identity thieves." first of all, mr. levin, you are noted as founder and chairman of credit.com. what is credit.com? >> credit.com is an online educator, advocate, also a site where you can get services appropriate to where you are in your credit life and also provide free scores him for

information how to get you from wherever you are to wherever you want to get to you. so you pay less money for access to money then you pay when you started. we have been around, one of the longest surviving dot-coms. we started in 1994. we actually swapped a hard drive to get the domain. that is how long we have been around. we've had a wonderful opportunity to communicate with consumers can help consumers. we've helped millions of people over the years and they hope to continue to do so. >> you are also the founder of the website called identity theft 9-1-1. >> that is the new name because we were scaring people with the old name, an organization that works with companies for the benefit of customers, employees, clients. we have everything from identity theft education, identity management, response, preparedness, identity resolution for those who become the dems.

where the first company ever founded on helping get people through as victims of identity theft. >> so your book is called "swiped." if somebody goes to credit.com, how much do you and your company learned about them? >> we learned a great deal, but they give us their information willingly because we have free products and services for them and it is designed to really help them better their positions in the credit world. so it is sort of a collaborative effort between credit.com and consumers. we are extremely security conscious. we don't share information. it's all about education, information. we have one of the largest content libraries, thousands of articles that are there because our goal is to answer questions and to anticipate the kinds of questions that will be asked.

>> from your book, you've written since 2005, more than a billion sensitive records with personally identifiable information has been leaked. >> yes. that is the new problem. we are in a paradigm right now. tax has become the third certainty of life between data syntax. because way over a billion files have been accessed personally identifiable information from its peer is one of the debility in reality. each of us will become a victim of identity theft in our lifetime and unfortunately possibly multiple times will become the terms of identity theft. the question is how do you adjust yourself to this new world that this matches would like to say it can be prevented, unfortunately i can't. you can do everything right but if you're on the wrong database at the wrong moment in the wrong person gains access, you are a bit of this information includes

your social security number, they have an option and it's no longer if but when they are going to exercise. >> is a social security number the golden key? >> the fact is we need to get off the addiction to social security numbers and we are starting to. it's taken government a very long time. i got the magic card in my mail in your medicare number is your social security number plus a letter. over time they are going to change that. seniors are horribly exposed because of the fact if somebody gets in your wallet, even if you've taken everything out to identify you but we still carry licenses, you are walking around with your social security number. take a picture of the card number redacted out most of the

numbers. if someone asks for it in a medical situation, say here it is but i'll give you that number. i say to people if you go to a doctor and ask for your social security number, you give them your insurance information in most cases you can't get out of the office unless you give them a credit card. some people say we do it because that's the way we've always done it. that is why the billion files have been exposed. we've done things a certain way. you have to say to them is there any other reason because if you die when major social security number. my response, call my lawyer. you don't need to have it. there's so many instances where people ask you for your social security number. in financial transactions unfortunately the social security number has become a part of that and hopefully we will start moving off of that. when you sign up your kids for little league or a variety of programs or loyalty program and

they say by the way, we need your social security number as part of this. no, they don't. don't give it to them. >> from "swiped," a child's social security number is first and. >> totally. i'll give you a great story. one of the people i know who is the chief privacy officer from one of the biggest organizations in the world, her daughter became a big them a child identity after nine years before she was born because someone invented a number can use to further social security admin is or should not knowing that assignment numbering she became a big them. the reason why they are so important is they are pristine. they are not used for anything. no one should be used in a security number for credit or anything like that until they are age 18. people steal information from the user and know you can go as much as 15 more years because children don't check their social security numbers. most parents are going to check their children's social security

numbers and the only time to think about it as if they get a college phone, car, their first credit card. parents use social security numbers on their tax returns but unfortunately there's been a section and it's a real problem to identity theft. >> who are the scammers, fisheries and identity thieves. >> the hackers have been a problem. they are hacking for intelligence regions. those that want to because they want to make the money. does the half because they can do it and prove they can do it because they are proving the point. ashley madison was a cause hack with 37 million people had their

information exposed. the sony hype is a conversation of someone doing it. they were representing north korea and they were angry for putting out a movie they felt made fun of the premier of north korea. you have people who want to make money so people who work in organizations that are angry at the organization and they want to make a point. you have people who are subject to be in a bribery that them who are being extorted from my give up information. the office of personnel management which is the human resource was hacked presumably by china. after the chinese authorities have done what they want to do, they can sell at and people are exposed.

the 5 million fingerprints works best. the most intimate details of investigative reports for background checks for security clearances were exposed as a result of that hack and those intimate details who agreed the person at the information to blackmail intelligence operatives, to bribe and these are the different ways you can be exposed because of identities. people get on social network and they have to tell everybody everything. they don't realize some of the people they think are their friends are not their friends. catfish and we talk about in the book you people are approached by someone in a romantic way but suddenly they ask too much, they want to get too close to fast and before you know if they start asking for money, they start asked for personal information and you could expose yourself that way as well.

>> don't give your social security number even though many places ask for it and require it. besides the social media aspect, what are we missing? >> i call it the three abs. minimize risk of exposure. don't care a social security card and those of your children. don't carry your entire inventory of credit and debit cards. don't give information to people you don't know and be careful about giving information to people you think you know. if someone calls you and says they are from the irs, hang out. if they say they are from your bank or rescue anything more than we noticed some suspicious activity in your account, just confirm transactions. if they ask you to authenticate yourself, hang out. protect the devices that you use. your smartphone every bag of is sure you put the right software on the right perceptions on there. same with your laptop.

same with your ipad. you should also be using long and strong passwords and to share your passwords across your entire universe of website because all you need is one fact on one website and if you use the same password and i.d. information, they will be into every one of your sites. good annual credit report.com. get a copy of your free credit report. look at it. come to places like credit.com and get a free overview and three scores up to do monthly. check your bank and credit card accounts on a daily basis. if that is too much of a pain, sign up over small transactions with your bank and credit card companies that notify you every time there is a committee in your account because the bank may miss it as being sufficient. you may catch it because you know where you are and where you haven't then. you can also get more

sophisticated forms including monitoring that has the illiterate which is someone is attempting to open an account in your name right now. is that you, yes or no. consider a credit freeze where no one including you can get into your credit account without a password or pin number. the last is manage the damage. a lot of people say do it yourself. you could but then you have no place. many institutions out there have programs available to protect you free essay perfect relationship with the institution. insurance company, credit unions, smaller banks. the h.r. department where you work. colin asked, do you have a program? am i in it? is it free? what will it cost? make the determination to be in it. because identity theft is so sophisticated that takes people so long to find out they are

victims, by the time they find out there is so much they really need a professional to help them through it. >> there's a lot of talk recently about a so-called backdoor into our smartphones. does that increase security? does that decrease security? >> i think the backdoor is encrypted. you are weakening that system. let's just make sure the government has the backdoor. look at the track record of the government protecting the data that we given them from the white house, state department, postal service. the department of defense and the department of education, office of personnel management state-by-state per se but the bridges time and time again, encryption should be absolute. the reason we are in the mess we are in today is because we didn't encrypt and the only shot

we have a protecting ourselves as we have to encrypt. we have to protect the encryption. the government has different ways they can get the information it wants. during many systems systems out there that i'm encrypted they can use it they have to if it goes about it the right way, which is put a warrant and go about it through the judicial system. though we can't look for ways to weaken that which we are trying to strengthen. we have to assume based on the creativity and subsistence of hackers, whatever you create the think is totally secure, they may well find a way around it anyway. they are going to do what they are going to do. we just have to get better at detecting the bad guys and doing something about it. >> a while back there is a commercial on the air of the gentleman dangerousness social security number. go ahead. come and get me.

>> he was first a lot of times. he was trying to say of the wonderful company behind me and they can help me find the problem. but you don't want to do is precipitate the problem. the real issue in the world we live in, you can do everything right. secure yourself the best possible way you can. you can do everything everybody soldiers to do. if you're on the wrong database and your information is on that committee a problem. the truth is yes, there are companies out there that can help you in a wonderful place to learn more information. consumer federation of america has developed a site called i.d. theft info dartboard and they have a number of providers signed up. they've taken the best practices pledge. it was for questions and answers. they tell you what you need to be thinking about if you choose the company to help you. and yes, you should minimize coming you should monitor.

you should have a program amenity monitoring programs out there have different damage control programs attached to them, read up on them, study them, understand them, make the right decision. >> what do you think about letting scanned fingerprint scanning your phone. >> i think it is all good. again, mastercard came up with a new thing they are developing right now which is an online transaction. you take a stealthy and you are supposed to wake because it shows proof of life. sure someone could cut out one of the eyes and wink. so we have to continue to move towards diametric is a very important part. the way you actually press the key on your smartphone, your heart beat, blood flow, that will be part of the biometric

security systems in place. but you not only need that biometrics are unique to authenticate yourself to the site. you need the site to be authenticating health to you and it needs to communicate with you and make sure they have the right person on the right device and as time goes on we'll have more of that. >> here is the book. "swiped." adam levin is the author. you are watching booktv on c-span2, live from miami. >> welcome to oakland, california on book tv, located

six miles across the bay from san francisco the trade center for the area with the port of oakland, the fifth busiest in the u.s. but the population of 400,000, oakland is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the country and has a history of political activism being the birthplace of the black panther movement. but the help of our comcast cable partners, for the next hour we will learn about the city's literary scene from local authors. >> if you are writer coming need to be good and the bay area has a number of them. but i like about the california writers club is its rich history, connection to oakland, the fact it's been around over a hundred years. it is sustainable. >> when i came to california, poetry was very popular. most of the polls were somewhere else. she read this and saw the poetry to be written by someone in