Blog Feature
Tony D'Amelio

By: Tony D'Amelio on January 8th, 2015

Print/Save as PDF

It’s Not Too Late: A New Year’s Resolution Worth Adding to Your List

My new year started with an email from my bank asking about suspicious activity on my credit card.  When I went online and checked, sure enough – I had not made the purchases they were asking about. Happy New Year!  A great way to start 2015 with my primary credit card deactivated.

This brush with digital vulnerability reminded me why I’d spent so much time over the holiday break upgrading my passwords and IDs in my digital wallet.  Too many of my friends were victims of identity theft – and when I asked them where they kept their sensitive log-on info, it’s was on a piece of paper – or in a document on their computer’s desktop or somewhere else they knew wasn’t safe but they did so anyway.

I used to do the same thing until about 2 years ago.  That’s when I signed up with a digital wallet service that keeps all your PWs and IDs secure.  There are several excellent ones out there and I feel I made the best choice for my needs.  The best part – I can come up with totally random combinations of letters, numbers and symbols – total and absolute gibberish – because I don’t ever need to manually enter the log on information.  Until two weeks ago I hadn’t converted all of my passwords over to safer indistinguishable versions – there were still too many that were using one of three or four of my favorite passwords.  Not anymore.  That was all resolved over the holiday break.

The best news is there are computer and mobile versions so I’m covered all the time – wherever I am – with the over 150 websites I access periodically.  And if I add or change log-on info on one device – it syncs to all my devices.  The best part about all this is that it happens seamlessly.  The digital wallet operates in the background – while I’m going about my normal business.   Every time I log into a new website it doesn’t have in inventory, it will ask if I’d like to save the password and ID for future use.  It makes life simpler in other ways too – when making purchases online or completing forms requiring personal information like contact details, etc.

Given the amount of sensitive information we all access over the Internet, protecting our identity online has become a vital priority.  If you’ve yet to do so by using some kind of digital wallet – it’s something that is worth adding to your list of New Year’s Resolutions.   If you’re still keeping that information on paper or worse – in a file on your computer – the stakes are just too big these days to play that game.  It’s time to make a change that will help keep you from a bigger heartache.  There’s no better time than right now to make the effort to secure your precious information.  Yes, it takes time to accomplish this – and it’s something new and different – but the peace of mind that comes with finishing the job is really priceless.  Granted, there are lots of ways for identity theft to occur, but anything that can reduce one’s vulnerability is a good thing, right?

Wishing you a safe and uneventful 2015 online.

About Tony D'Amelio

Tony has spent his career putting talented people and audiences together, first in the music business and later representing the world's leading speakers. After concluding 27 years as Executive Vice President of the Washington Speakers Bureau, Tony launched D'Amelio Network, a boutique firm that manages the speaking activities of a select group of experts on business, management, politics and current events. Clients include: Mike Abrashoff, Vernice "FlyGirl" Armour, Mariana Atencio, Chris Barton, Geoff Colvin, Daryl Davis, Suneel Gupta, Ron Insana, Katty Kay, Polly LaBarre, Nicole Malachowski, Ken Schmidt, Bill Walton, and Bob Woodward.

  • Connect with Tony D'Amelio