KELLNER: New Year's resolution: Back up, run off phishers

Backing up with Time Machine is fine for when you accidentally erase or modify your documents in a bad way, but doesn't help you at all if there's a system crash. Time Machine is more revision control than actual backup. Always backup to a second hard drive, USB drive, DVD etc. Second, I know you didn't know this and I don't hold it against you, but you should never talk about ID theft without mentioning credit report freezes (IE credit report locks). They are now available in every state and are very cheap or free in many cases. By locking your report, you have effectively eliminated ID theft (The vast majority of which is credit based). Lifelock services can almost entirely be done by yourself for free and easily. If they really cared about "safeguarding your identity", they would include credit freezes as part of their service, but they don't. Use them if it makes you feel better, but you could be saving a lot of money AND have better protection with credit freezes.