The holidays have a tendency to bring out the trusting spirit in each of us. That's why I've put together "12 Security & Privacy Threats of the Holiday Season" to remind us to keep our guards up as we're celebrating with family, spending lots of money and traveling to parts unknown.

Here's a sneak peek:

Don't post that you're away: Keep details like how long your house will be empty and where you'll be staying to yourself. You can always post to Instagram, Facebook, etc. when you return.

Beware of USBs: If you find a USB in a public place, on your property or in a strange gift basket, don't insert it in your computer or device. It could be infected with malware.

Watch  out for ATM skimmers: These little devices clamp right onto an ATM machine and are rarely noticed. If you see something that looks suspicious, report it to the operating bank and find another machine. Cash back at the point-of-sale is a safer (and often cheaper) way to get at the cash in your account.

For more tips, download "12 Security & Privacy Threats of the Holiday Season." 

P.S. I discussed these on the Thanksgiving Day episode of the Great Day show, so you will be able to watch that also when the video gets posted.

Checking it twice... 

Poor Home Depot. The U.S. home improvement store's security woes just keep continuing. You'll recall in September the retailer made big-time headlines with a breach that exposed millions of customers' credit card numbers.

Then, another 53 million customer emails were compromised. While this may not sound as dangerous, criminals use emails to commit phishing attacks. Think of your own habits: Are you more likely to open an attachment or click a link from an email you recognize? Sure, we all are.

What's more, email addresses are often the basis of someone's login credentials. In fact, usernames are often verbatim email addresses.

And now, at least one customer has accused Home Depot of using shredded documents, such as checks and bank statements, as packaging! A customer who received a package like this was actually able to piece together several of these to see the valid, confidential information of others!

It's no doubt this one-right-after-the-other set of circumstances has raised eyebrows among Home Depot's business partners and customers (not to mention piquing the interest of hackers). This myriad of security issues within just one company sparked quite a few comments on my Facebook page. Check it out and weigh in with your own thoughts. 

So be good for goodness sake...

Who will be able to access and manage your social accounts and other online properties when you pass away? No doubt a great percentage of consumers have not yet confronted this question. 

Among Schofield's additional tips is this one: Don't add password information to your will. In many countries, they eventually become public record. This is what makes Red Folder such a great tool; you not only document this list, but you can use the service to control who gets access to your sites and associated passwords. You can even state what you want done with your sites in the event of your death. And, it is not public record!   

New HIPAA Risk Awareness Evaluation Tool

Over the years, I've seen a great need for organizations to be able to quickly and economically determine the high-level HIPAA compliance risks that exist throughout their organization. I've also done work for many covered entities (CEs) to determine the risk levels of more than 250 of their business associates (BAs).

I've had a vision for being able to provide this help online since 2010. Therefore, I'm really excited to have finally found a great business partner who has been able to create this first-of-its-kind HIPAA Risk Level Evaluator!  

For the next few weeks or months (I've not established a set time yet) I'm providing a scaled-back version of it free. I'd love for you to take a few minutes to answer the questions, view the report that is generated and give me feedback. I can then make any tweaks and changes based upon your feedback. For those of you who have already sent me feedback, a heartfelt THANK YOU! I'm making changes as you read this based upon some great suggestions. I welcome more feedback from everyone else. 

After this initial free introductory period, I am currently planning to sell a more feature-full and capabilities-rich version of it; probably in the ballpark of $295. Please Click Here to be taken to the evaluation. And again, please send me an email to provide your feedback! Plus, if you're curious about the additional features of the retail version, I can describe those to you also.

I was on Security Culture TV!

I was very happy to be invited to join Kai Roer and Mo Amin on November 26 in their Security Culture Hangout! Each is an information security expert and active proponent of information security and privacy training and awareness raising. We discussed privacy and challenges around how to deal with privacy issues from a security culture perspective.  You can see the episode here.