If you’re ever feeling down and worthless, take comfort: Somebody out there loves you. Or at least your money. I’m worth $695!

I recently interviewed Enrique Salem, CEO of Symantec, which makes Norton anti-Virus Suite (now updated to its newest edition, Norton Internet Security). I was in a big hurry when I wrote the story that appeared in the Jpost, so there was one really important link I forgot to put in – the Symantec Online Risk Assessor, which will tell you just how highly valued you are – to hackers who trade in identity theft!

We’re all aware of the risks in online shopping and banking, but I think most of us wouldn’t worry too much about supplying a site like Amazon with our credit card information. Similarly, many of us check our bank accounts online, and pay bills at web sites. We all believe (hope) those sites are secure, and that the people running those businesses are taking all the precautions possible to protect our data.

But are we? According to Salem, more people than ever are falling for targeted hacker e-mail, where you respond to a link in a message and are taken to a site where something like a keylogger is installed remotely on your computer. The keylogger sends data back to the hackers, who then analyze your keystrokes looking for the “golden ticket” – your credit card number, Social Security number, or any other bit of information that can help them eventually trick you into revealing that information.

Sooner or later, Salem said, they get what they want, by coming up with a message that is so precise, so suited to your situation, that you really believe it came from your boss, sister in law, or anyone you believe the hackers couldn’t possibly know about. Of course they couldn’t – unless they were able to peer into your e-mail, instant messages, and so on.

And if you think it’s just not worth their time to pursue your info – why, you’re underestimating your true value. It’s certainly worth a couple of hours of work to get enough information on you; after all, even in these days of the dogged dollar, $695 is nothing to sneeze at! Ask Nikolai (you see this video after the risk assessor finishers analyzing you, so you can get an idea of just who would be interested in buying your identity in an online auction!).

The price of gas may have gone down, but more people are out of work – so incidences of gas theft are probably as common now as they were a year ago, when gas was $4 a gallon in the US (and $7+ in Israel!). According to insurance industry officials, about 4% of the diesel fuel on tanker trucks is stolen every year. I’m sure it’s at least as bad elsewhere.

To prevent such theft, Israel’s Ituran (they have an American site as well), which makes vehicle theft tracking systems, among other things, has come out with a gas-tracking system! According to the company, the device, developed at a cost of about $100,000, was “designed to provide an electronic solution to prevent thieves from stealing fuel, warning them off while they are in the act, without causing any potential risk” of fire or explosion in the gas tank (apparently it was an issue from an engineering point of view, to place an electronic detector next to or in the gas tank).

One side of the device is active only when the vehicle is turned off, and its sensors read the amount of fuel in the tank; the other side is connected to the vehicle’s theft alert system. If the fuel level begins to go down while the vehicle is parked, the warning system tracks down the owner – just like it would if the vehicle were being stolen. The device can also be programmed to check fuel levels while the vehicle is turned on ensuring that the fuel depletion rate is correct (in the case of trucks, the company says, that’s about 1 liter of diesel fuel every two or three kilometers). Why? Because apparently lots of drivers are in on this fuel theft scam – instead of “gassing up” at a service station, they “gas out” at secret, hidden gas tanks at the side of roads, and sell the fuel later!

According to Ituran’s figures, a company with a fleet with 15 trucks, each of which loses 20-30 liters of fuel a week to “shrinkage,” can save up to 3 million shekels a year ($750,000!). Even assuming the cost of fuel in Israel is double, it’s still a great investment for U.S. fleets as well.