Identity Theft: Problems and Solutions - Essay Example

Identity Theft: Problems and Solutions Introduction: The improvement of technology has been immense over the past few decades. The graph of the improvement has been sloping upwards and is continuing to be so. Technology has become a very important part of everyone’s life and now a switch of a button can do almost anything. Technological developments have however caused a number of problems for the society as well. With the increase of technological benefits, there has also been a lot of misuse of the technology. One of the biggest misuses is the fraudulent act of Identity Theft. This report aims at focussing on the problems faced by people due to identity theft and the solutions that have been designed to reduce this act. The main focus is on the theft of identity using computer. The next section aims at explaining what Identity theft means furthering which the problems are touched upon. Identity Theft: The loss and misuse of personal identification information is called Identity theft. Personal identification information like a social security number, name, place of birth, mother’s maiden name, phone number, etc. act as the only information that identify an individual. This information is used for different purposes like opening a bank account, stealing money, pension payouts or to gain any other benefits. The loss of any of the information can help the id thieves to use this and create a new id for themselves. The thieves become the accused and the person whose id is stolen becomes the victim. A victim can face major consequences with the loss of identity. The misuse of identity of an individual can lead the individual to suffer from bad credits, incorrect criminal acquisitions (Consumer Report, 2008). Identity Theft: Problems: With the constant improvements in technology, there has also been an increase in the mis-utilisation of the available technology to steal people’s identities or other types of frauds. One of the biggest issues has been that of the influence of Internet over the increase of the frauds. With the increased usage of the Internet, it has been noted that there have been an increase fraudulent activities over the Internet as well. There is a lot of information that flows around the Internet at any given point in time, with the increased usage of the Internet for different facilities like payments of bills, online bookings, e- shopping, etc (Chad, 2004). All these activities involve a lot of personal information floating all over the Internet. The Internet identity theft differs from the normal form of identity theft in a number of ways. In this form of theft the victim will not be aware of the theft for a long time and sometimes by the time a victim can realise the theft, it is too late. Every transaction we make over the Internet leaves behind a trail with one or another of our personal information. This is one of the easiest paths used by thieves to get our personal information. When payments are made online, the merchants contact our credit card company for authorisation; here again information can be easily leaked out. Marketing companies that create data basis with all our information can also have leaks, like a malicious employee who has easy access to the database could be bribed to get out personal information. Also a computer infection called spy ware can be created on the victims systems by individuals, and this can collect all our personal information, spending habits, internet usage, passwords, etc, and send it to the individual for his own benefit or for selling to other for a price (Spam Laws, 2008). Other sources of collecting personal information are through unsecured sites. Also the personal information of individuals can easily be got through phishing mails. Also with the growing importance of computers in our lives the number of ways to steal information has grown even more. The next sections aims at finding the right solution to the various problems that are faced due to the increased use of computers in our daily lives and the increased theft of identity. Solution to Identity Theft: With the increasing cyber crime, and cyber criminals being able to steal within a matter of seconds, there is only one solution to prevent theft. The solution has been backed by the major companies like Goldman Sachc, Byers, Kleiner Perkins etc. LifeLock is one of the best and most relied on solution to prevention of identity theft. LifeLock is a company that was started to help customers prevent identity theft. The company is head by some very professional, best, and most experienced people. George Reyes, CFO Google, has recently become agreed to be a part of LifeLock Board of Directors. LifeLock is a service which is provided at very lo costs to help prevent fraud and ensure that no personal information of the customer is secure (LifeLock, 2008). There are a number of steps that individuals can take to ensure and keep themselves safe from the identity frauds. Simple steps like monitoring the bank account regularly, opening even junk mails from banks will help individuals do their bit to ensure no one has stolen the identity and opened new accounts with the individual’s identity (Coates, 2007). Conclusion: The computer crimes do not only involve the Internet, but may also be caused due to breach in data security or computer security. Thus to conclude the essay, looking at the different and many risks that an individual faces in regards to their personal information it is essential that steps be taken to ensure the safety of their data. The government has come up with a lot of help for victims of identity theft and is trying to ensure that this is eradicated completely. It is essential that customer do their bit against identity theft to ensure their own safety (Doyle & Bagaric, 2005). The risks involved are numerous and it is in the hands of individuals to ensure their data is well protected. Despite the technological growth and advancement banks and other institutions are trying their best to ensure complete safety against identity theft. It is important that each one of us understands the seriousness of this crime and ensures our safety. Together with them and the government and a little diligence from the customers end, it would be quite possible to completely remove this crime from society. We need to ensure that technological developments are used in productive ways rather destructive. References Chad, 2004, ‘Tip #1309 – Phishing Spams’, World Start Inc., 2004, Accessed on 29 October 2008, Retrieved from http://www.worldstart.com/tips/tips-pr.php/1309 Consumer Reports, 2008, ‘ID leaks’, September 2008, Consumers Union of United States Coates, N., ‘Misguided Fears’, The news Media and The law, 2007 Doyle, C., & Bagaric, M., 2005, ‘The rights to privacy: Appealing but flawed’, School of law, Australia LifeLock, 2008, ‘How LifeLock works’, 2008, Accessed on 28 October 2008, Retrieved from http://www.lifelock.com/lifelock-for-people Spam Laws, 2008, ‘All About Identity Theft’, 2008, Accessed on 27 October 2008, Retrieved from http://www.spamlaws.com/identity-theft.html Read More