Identity Theft - the Need for Protection and Security - Essay Example

? Identity Theft: The Need for Protection and Security Identity Theft: The Need for Protection and Security IntroductionSociety has long had a certain criminal element that would seek out their own personal gain at the harm and expense of others. With the advent of the technological age, criminals have become even more savvy and responsive to any attempt to thwart their efforts. They have also become more innovative in their devices in recent years. One such example is the concept of stealing the identity of another person for the express purpose of gain, either economic or logistical (Ciechanowicz, 2010). Identity theft involves the use of another individual’s personal information in order to gain access to financial or other information that would serve to benefit the criminal in some way. Identity theft has become an increasing problem globally in recent years, causing millions of people undue emotional, psychological, and physical trauma. In addition to this, the issue has cost society quite a lot of money. The heartache caused has limited access to critical services and denied credit availability to millions of honest and hardworking citizens around the world, and in particular the United States. It is a serious issue that needs to be tackled immediately before spiraling even further out of control. The aim of this study is to discuss the seriousness of the problem and to explore various ways that society can begin to protect itself from the evils of identity theft moving forward. Problem Statement The problem is that identity theft is destroying the financial security and freedom of countless individuals worldwide. As honest people have their identities stole, they are subject to a potential loss of credit access, have difficulty in gaining employment, and they may encounter problems of various sorts with law authorities. Upon becoming a victim, individuals must often hard to prove that their identity was stolen in the first place, often causing a great deal of anguish throughout the process. Governments and other officials across the globe are currently implementing measure to prevent identity theft, but the problem continues to grow exponentially (Adomi & Igun, 2008). The five major types of identity theft in existence today, and that form the basis for this study, are: 1) Criminal identity theft, 2) Financial identity theft, 3) Identity cloning, 4) Medical identity theft, and 5) Child identity theft. This study examines each of these areas in an effort to help the reader understand the warning signs of identity theft and assists them in the avoidance of becoming a victim themselves in the future. Relevance and Significance of Understanding Identity Theft As has been discussed to this point, identity theft is a serious issue that must be tackled across all segments of society. It affects nearly everyone in our culture, either directly or indirectly. Even if a person is not a victim on their own, they often pay the price for the crime in other ways. An individual who has fallen victim to any of the major types of identity theft often find themselves embroiled in years of turmoil and strife trying to set the record straight. Families can be denied mortgages, criminals set free, and hospital services rendered to people who have no right to the benefits. These are just a few of the ills that can be realized as a result of identity theft. When honest members of society go to utilize certain services, which they are rightfully entitled to, they can quickly that they are denied access because someone else is using their name and personal information. It is an unfair burden to be sure, but one which criminal have bought to the forefront of modern reality. For these reasons, it is critical that we understand the issues surrounding how identity theft occurs and how to prevent it moving forward. That reality forms the focus for this study. Criminal Identity Theft Criminal identity theft involves one person committing a criminal act, proceeding to get arrested, and then convincing law enforcement officials that they are actually a different person (Harrison, 2007, p. 84). This most commonly occurs by giving another person’s name and other information in the form of a driver’s license, Social Security number, or date of birth. Such criminals have also been known to hand over counterfeit licenses to the police from another locality that contains another individual’s personal data. There are different reasons why someone may choose to commit criminal identity theft. Research show that perhaps the most common reason is that they know they have an outstanding warrant out for their arrest. As such, they will have fake identity on them in the event they are ever stopped and questioned by law enforcement officials for any reason. If the case is minor, it has been uncovered that such an individual will appear in court, sentenced to a misdemeanor, and be on their way without the actual victim every being any wiser. Since many misdemeanors never show up any background checks, this can go unnoticed for years. In other cases, the crime may be quite serious and immediately become an issue for the victim once and if the criminal is released from prison. Sadly, this is yet another type of identity theft that requires the victim to often go to considerable lengths, at tremendous financial and logistical cost, to clear their name. Financial Identity Theft This is considered to be the most common form of identity theft. It is estimated that 15 million Americans become victims of this type of theft every year, costing the country at least $50 billion. Furthermore, this is the most burdensome type of identity theft for the victim to correct, averaging a minimum of 25 hours just to set the record straight. Some communities report more instances of identity theft on an average day than they do traffic incidents. It has, therefore, become one of the top priorities of many law enforcement agencies nationwide, taking valuable manpower away from other pressing issues facing society. The problem has become so pervasive in society that many businesses and consumers simply consider identity theft of this manner to be a cost of doing business (Dearne, 2012). There must, however, be stronger protections and regulations put into place to reduce or eliminate the burdensome activity. One of the more common forms of theft of this nature results in damaged credit. When an individual gains access to certain personal information that enables them to take out credit in the name of another individual, great harm can be done. Basically, if someone has near perfect credit, a criminal that gains access to necessary information required to open a new credit account can do so, only to default on payments. The victim is often unaware that this has occurred until they go to apply for credit themselves. It is recommended that individuals have some kind of built in notification mechanism that informs them anytime someone tries to access credit using their name. If this became standard practice, and individuals would regular monitor their credit reports, then this type of theft would begin to become more difficult to carry out. As it is, victims of credit theft must go to great lengths just in order to clean up their credit and gain access to needed money once again. Identity Cloning Simply put, identity cloning involves one person taking on (in essence stealing) the identity of another individual for the express purpose of hiding his or her own identity for one reason or another. This is a bit different than other forms of identity theft, as financial information is not typically involved, causing the stolen identity to often go undetected for quite some time (Anderson, Dubrin, & Salinger, 2008, p. 171). This is also a peculiar type of theft because ulterior motives might be involved, some of which are not criminal. The individual might be hiding from someone that they fear, so they fell the best way to do that is to become another person. Naturally, they could also be hiding from the law, at which point they clone the identity of another individual in order to conceal their past. This type of crime is dangerous because a person’s reputation is at stake. Many individuals never recover from the shame of having their identity cloned, if it turns out that their personal identity was used to conceal some horrific crime (Dearne, 2012). Such victims often lost trust in society and become hesitant to ever give out their personal information for any reason, particularly via the computer. It is a deep loss for society and demonstrates the seriousness of identity theft from than just a financial perspective. Medical Identity Theft Medical identity theft involves one person seeking out medical care, not in their name, but in the name of another person. There are many reasons why an individual might perpetrate that type of crime, including a lack of proper insurance on the part of the criminal (Agrawal & Budetti, 2012, p. 459). Other ways that individual criminals can commit medical identity theft is to use fraudulent information to buy prescription drugs, or do submit fake billing to Medicare in your name. Once uncovered, the victim must once again bear the burden of proof and demonstrate that they did not do that which they are accused of. In the end, this type of threat can actually life-threatening if the wrong type of information ends up in the victim’s personal medical records. Efforts have been underway for quite some time to tackle the problem of medical identity theft. This type of theft has a substantial financial impact on the country because it directly relates to one particular industry. Insurance premiums, for example, can rise because of false claims being filed on behalf of thousands of patients nationwide. In addition, expensive surgeries can be completed and not paid for because an individual has falsified their personal information, making it nearly impossible to track the person down and get the bills paid. When this occurs, it is society that loses out as the taxpayer must foot the bill, particularly when insurance is not involved. In this instance, research shows that there is little an individual can do to avoid becoming a victim of medical identity theft. Since hospital and physician records are largely confidential, and they are not a part of a centralized database that can easily be accessed, criminals are able to get away with the crime. Moving forward, a system must be designed that allows the hospital to more effectively ascertain the true identity of the patient standing before and make sure that they truly are who they say are. In addition, insurance companies will need to step up their own internal auditing procedures to determine if claims being submitted are truly valid, and get this information back to the hospital prior to any services being rendered (Hung, Chang, & Yu, 2006). Once this begins to take place on a grand scale, it will become more plausible that this type of theft will become obsolete, as it will be more difficult to get away with. Until that time, however, the system will likely continue to be bilked out of millions of dollars a year, and unsuspecting victims will continue to have to prove that they did not receive treatment from a physician, even when being presented with a bill that states otherwise. Child Identity Theft Child identity theft involves just what its name implies. The criminal here commonly steals the social security number of a child, and then opens up lines of credit, in addition to committing other unlawful behavior using the stolen identity. This crime is particularly difficult to detect because children typically do not realize that their identity has been stolen until well into adulthood (Dwan, 2004, p. 16). This type of theft often requires the parent to protect the child. Research has show that, while it is a crime that is often difficult to detect until years down the road, there are some things that adults can do to protect children. First of all, it is important to keep important papers that contain a child’s personal information locked up in a safe place that nobody, including other family members, has access to. This includes birth certificates, social security cards, and passports. In short, anything that has identifying information about the child on it should be lock away. Without access to this type of information, it is more difficult for a criminal to steal a child’s identity. In addition, it is often not necessary to give out a child’s social security number, so when requested the parent should verify the reason that the number is being requested in the first place. In the end, some places do still require a social security number to identify the child, such as hospitals and doctors offices, so when a parent hands over the number, they should make a note of who they gave the number to. That way, if their child’s identification is stolen, that list will be a good place for law enforcement officials to start their search for the culprit. It is also helpful to confirm that various organizations who have access to a child’s personal information does so confidentially, and that they store the information in a secure manner. Sports teams, for example often require a copy of the birth certificate. This is to verify the child’s age, which is a requirement to be able to play in certain leagues. This is fine, but it is important that they secure such information in a secure location. In addition, when it is no longer needed, there is nothing wrong with asking the organization to shed any documents related to the child (Dwan, 2004). Again, this is considered looking out for the best interest of the child, who often has no concept that their identity could be stolen in the first place. Since this type of theft would not likely be noticed until the child becomes an adult, a little foresight on the part of adults now could save children considerable grief years down the road. Conclusion Before computers, it was highly unlikely that anyone could steal another’s identity for very long and get away with it. While it was accomplished in certain instances, it was certainly a situation that was thought to be quite rare. This has recently changed, however, with the rapid advancing of technology. This type of cyber crime is perhaps the most damaging to society because it involves individual people, their finances, and their trust (Lee, 2012). In some cases, it involves the stealing of identity for medical reasons, putting yet another financial burden on an already troubled industry that is financially floundering as it is. When people have their identities stolen, they can unfairly become subject to a whole host of difficulties. These include difficulty in finding employment due to failing background checks, a decline in credit score resulting in great difficulty securing loans, and even the possibility of encountering trouble with various law enforcement agencies (Orlov, 2012, p. 3). When such a cyber crime occurs, victims must set out to prove that their identity was stolen. This often causes a great deal of anguish, wasted time, money, and heartache. It is a problem related to cybercrime, and one the must be better tackled in the future. References Adomi, E., and Igun, S. (2008). Combating cyber crime in Nigeria. The Electronic Library, 26(5), 716-725. Agrawal, S., and Budetti, P. (2012). Physician medical identity theft. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 307(5), 459. Anderson, K., Durbin, E., and Salinger, M. (2008). Identity theft. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 22(2), 171-192. Ciechanowicz, C. (2010). Identity theft and reconstruction. Information Security Technical Report, 15(2), 41. Dearne, K. (2012). Cyber crime boom. Information Management and Computer Security, 10(5), 262. Dwan, B. (2004). Identity theft. Computer Fraud and Security, 2004(4), 14-17. Harrison, J. (2007). Identity theft. Sewanee Theological Review, 51(1), 84. Hung, S., Chang, C., and Yu, T. (2006). Determinants of use acceptance of the e-Government services: The case of online tax filing and payment systems. Government Information Quarterly, 23(3), 97-122. Lee, M. (2012). Cyber crimes: Preparing to fight insider threats. Computer Fraud and Security, 2012(6), 14. Orlov, V. (2012). Cyber crime: A threat to information security. Security Index: A Russian Journal on International Security, 18(1), 1-4. Read More