Identity Theft on Internet - Essay Example

? Identify Theft on Internet (Add (Add (Add Identity Theft on Internet Identity theft has emerged as the biggest issue which is annoying the internet users worldwide. It is a fast spreading crime across the world. The Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit organization divides identity theft into four categories, namely, financial identity theft, criminal identity theft, governmental identity theft and medical identity theft. The ITRC portal defines identity theft broadly as follows:-“It is a crime in which an impostor obtains key pieces of personal identifying information such as social security numbers and bank account information and uses them for their own personal gain. It can start with lost or stolen wallets, stolen mail, a data breach, computer virus, ‘phishing’ scams etc” (ITRC, 2012). In the current scenario, internet is the extensively used medium for such crimes. Hackers globally are carrying out copious activities to steal the identity of persons for their personal goals or for the interests of some other stakeholders who pay them. Identity theft is also carried out by persons due to their personal rivalries and also by some countries against their rival countries. Many countries are engaged in stealing the personal information of the high level officials of other countries in order to maintain their check on the rivals. When it comes to internet and cyber technologies, tactics like computer viruses, hacking computer networks, obtaining the personal information about the victims from social networking sites and using them to figure out their secret codes, observing the victims typing their personal passwords on public systems, abducting their personal information from web browser logs using spywares, installing malwares on the victim’s computer, credit card cloning etc. are used for identity theft. The prime reason for why internet identity theft is widely practised by criminals is that they can carry out crimes on some others’ identity or rifle someone’s accounts in a safer way such that it will be not very easy to figure out the real culprits or the person whose identity they have used for conducting the crime. Internet has grown in such a way that people carry out many of their activities like banking, shopping, bill payments etc. through internet. Social networking sites like facebook, twitter, Google plus etc. have become widely societal that they have emanated as a part of the daily lives of the proletariat. Email has outraged the habit of sending written mails from people. Email is today a vital mode of sending messages among persons to organizations to governments. All these have set up a platform for the cyber criminals for their easy patrolling on the net and it has become an easy task for hackers to steal the personal information of others. The Internet Crime Complaint Centre of FBI has listed out the current and ongoing internet trends and schemes in carrying out cyber crimes. They are:-auction fraud, auction fraud-Romania, counterfeit cashier’s check, credit card fraud, debt elimination, parcel courier email scheme, employment or business opportunities, escrow services fraud, internet extortion, investment fraud, lotteries, Nigerian letter or ‘419’, phishing or spoofing, ponzi or pyramid, reshipping, spam, third party receiver of funds (Internet Crime Complaint Center, n. d). Kevin J. Connolly (2004, p. 348-49) in his book ‘Internet Security and Privacy’ describes the privacy rights of internet users and the ways to safeguard their private information. He says the primary worry of a person when he browses the internet is lack of privacy. Lack of privacy protection can help a stranger to collect information about the consumer’s activities. The user should be aware about the information provided to a website. User should also be aware of the privacy policies of the websites or online services concerned. Connolly (2004, p. 348-49) points out that users often do not care to go through the privacy notices and terms of use of the websites they visit. Once you have understood that your online or bank information has been stolen, the matter must be informed to the cyber investigation department in the country or state concerned. You have to try your own ways to regain access to your account. Various email and online service providers have set up various mechanisms for recovering lost accounts. These methods include secondary email address, password reset via text messages etc. If you are still not able to access your account, you have to try contacting the authorities of the corresponding service and request them to suspend you account before any further damage by providing the required information to prove that you are the owner of the account claimed. If you are able to regain the access, then you must take care to correct the secondary mail address and other means of password recovery associated with the account if the hacker had modified them. In case of a credit card theft, the matter should be reported as soon as possible to the card issuer. When one reports the matter to the issuer, information like one’s account number, the date one noticed the card was missing and the date and time of one’s last purchase should be procured. The Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA) protects one when any fraud is taking place with one’s lost or stolen credit card. There will not be any liability for the user for any fraudulent charges made after the user has reported the matter to the concerned authorities. The intension of hacking an online bank account is except in some rare cases, to steal your money. If you have understood that fraudulent transactions are taking place through your bank account, the matter should be informed to the bank and bank’s procedures regarding securing the account should be carried out without delay. Bank’s advice should be taken on whether to freeze the account or not. The matter should be informed to Police too. If there is a need, you can request the bank to freeze the account. The best way to fight identity theft is to prevent identity theft. The proverb ‘prevention is better than cure’ is relevant in this regard. It is the responsibility of the individual himself/herself to ensure the security of his/her identity. We must be very careful when we provide information regarding our identity on websites or to other institutions. It’s our duty to check whether the service(s) can keep the information safely. We must check whether their privacy policies can cope with our criterions. Immense care must be taken when we disclose our identity information on social networking sites. Privacy options on those sites should be properly utilized. The computer should be installed with a good anti-virus software and a good firewall in order to prevent malwares and spywares and unauthorized internet access. This software’s should be regularly updated. Care must be taken while browsing on wifi networks. All the devices which are used to access internet and for communicating should be password protected if there is a need. Security PIN must be activated for the SIM cards. Credit cards and other important documents should be kept under safe custody and it must be ensured that no third party can acquire them. When you use your cards in ATMs, make sure that no one is able to watch you doing your transactions with it. Never seek anyone’s assistance when you use credit cards. If your card gets stuck inside the machine, the matter should be informed to the bank without delay. Social networks are the most widely used means of stealing identity information. Therefore, it is not ideal to share much information about your identity on such sites. The information we provide on such sites must be limited; there must be enough information only for others to recognize you. Today, many countries are engaged in stealing confidential information of their rival countries. They often target the emails and phone communications of the high level officials and bureaucrats of the rival countries. Chinese hackers are notorious for such international identity theft operations. It is said that if a World War III occurs, it will be a cyber war. All the day to day matters of every country occurs through computers today, thereby computer networks are vital for every country. This is why countries target the computer networks of other countries. By hacking a country’s computer networks, information on their armoury, defence capacity, confidential documents, development projects etc. can be acquired. This can provide them a picture about the rival’s plans on lodging any kinds of attacks or military actions and also to figure out whether the rival will be able to defend if an attack is lodged upon them. Therefore, identity theft is not a matter that annoys just persons, but also organizations and governments itself. Various researches are going on around the world to evolve effective methods on safeguarding identity information in this virtual world. Every country is taking initiatives with regard to network security. Companies around the world have personnel exclusively for protecting their confidential information and networks. Still, there is a need for revising the law against such crimes too. The present law has many irregularities in it which open up many loopholes for the culprits to escape. The law must be strengthened and severe punishment should be given to culprits who are engaged in such crimes. Checking identity theft is the need of the hour and proper methodologies should be evolved pretty soon to prevent this. References Connolly, K. J. (2004). Law of Internet Security and Privacy. USA: Aspen Publishers. ITRC. (2012). Identity Theft Resource Center, nonprofit organization. Working to Resolve Identity Theft. Retrieved from http://www.idtheftcenter.org/ Internet Crime Complaint Center. (n.d). Internet crime schemes. Retrieved from http://www.ic3.gov/crimeschemes.aspx Read More