Identity Theft

charlesvar · 2005/03/28

Two aspects to ID theft:

Consumers Spooked By Identity-Theft

Millions of consumers are switching banks and avoiding online shopping out of fear of having their personal data stolen by crooks and used in fraudulent activities, a research firm said Thursday.
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=74&e=3&u=/cmp/20050325/tc_cmp/159905649

The next story:

March 2005 might make history as the apex of identity theft disclosures. Privacy invasion outfit ChoicePoint, payroll handler PayMaxx, Bank of America, Lexis Nexis, several universities, and a large shoe retailer called DSW all lost control of sensitive data concerning millions of people.
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Further into article:

While this is nothing new, there is an important observation here that's worth emphasizing: none of these cases involved online transactions.

Many people innocently believe that they're safe from credit card fraud and identity theft in the brick and mortar world. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The vast majority of incidents can be traced to skimming, dumpster diving, and just plain stupidity among those who "own" our personal data.
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http://www.theregister.com/2005/03/23/id_theft_cannot_be_escaped/

Regards - Charles

alboy · 2005/03/28

Also chip and pin cards

The possiblity of fraud even with Chip and Pin cards is also a growing problem

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1516072,00.html

charlesvar · 2005/03/29

Claire Sellick approached a woman in London's tony theater district with a clipboard and a chance to win tickets to an upcoming show. All the woman had to do was answer a three-minute survey on locals' theater-going habits. Or so she thought.

The first question was easy. "What's your name?" Next came questions about her attitude towards the theater, with more personal inquiries interjected now and then. For instance, the survey company needed the woman's date of birth (to prove she was legally able to win the seats) and her mother's maiden name (for later verification) and her address, of course, to mail the tickets if she won the drawing. What about a phone number? Her pet's name? The name of the first school she attended?

At some point, the woman began connecting the dots. "I work for a bank and this information could be used to open a bank account."

"Yes," Sellick responded.

The event director for the Infosecurity Europe trade show recalled with incredulity what happened next. "She then proceeded to give me all her details!"
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http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid14_gci1071265,00.html

Regards - Charles

charlesvar · 2005/04/15

Another ID Theft article from CNET:

Mitigating identity theft

A criminal collects enough personal data on someone to impersonate a victim to banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions. Then he racks up debt in the person's name, collects the cash and disappears. The victim is left holding the bag. While some of the losses are absorbed by financial institutions--credit card companies in particular--the credit-rating damage is borne by the victim. It can take years for the victim to clear his name.

Unfortunately, the solutions being proposed in Congress won't help.

To see why, we need to start with the basics. The very term "identity theft" is an oxymoron. Identity is not a possession that can be acquired or lost; it's not a thing at all. Someone's identity is the one thing about a person that cannot be stolen.

The real crime here is fraud; more specifically, impersonation leading to fraud. Impersonation is an ancient crime, but the rise of information-based credentials gives it a modern spin.

A criminal impersonates a victim online and steals money from his account. He impersonates a victim in order to deceive financial institutions into granting credit to the criminal in the victim's name. He impersonates a victim to the Post Office and gets the victim's address changed. He impersonates a victim in order to fool the police into arresting the wrong man. No one's identity is stolen; identity information is being misused to commit fraud.

But data piracy is more than just fraud. Whether it is the books we take out of the library, the Web sites we visit, or the contents of our text messages, most of us have personal data on third-party computers that we don't want made public. The posting of Paris Hilton's phone book on the Internet is a celebrity example of this.
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http://news.com.com/Mitigating+iden...3-5669408.html?part=rss&tag=5669408&subj=news

Regards - Charles

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Identity Theft

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