If you have never
experienced someone stealing your identity, then I’m sure you’ll want to know
how messed up your life can be if such a thing were to ever happen to you, and
what you can do to prevent it from happening. Identity theft is basically stealing
someone's identity in which someone pretends to be someone else by assuming
that person's identity. The most common ways that these criminals gain access
to resources or obtain credit and other benefits using YOUR identity is through
your personal information such as your name, identification number, or credit
card number. The victim of identity theft can suffer adverse consequences if
they are held responsible for the perpetrator's actions. The more you consider
the implications of a criminal using your name without your permission to
commit fraud and other crimes, the more you’ll want to know what identity theft protection options are available to you, to help prevent identity theft from happening
to you.
Coined in
1964, the term identity theft, however, alludes that it is not literally
possible to steal an identity. There are less ambiguous terms such as identity
fraud and impersonation. Determining the
link between data breaches and identity theft is challenging, primarily because
identity theft victims are oftentimes clueless as to how their personal details
were obtained. Not to mention, it is not always detectable by the victim. That being
said, identity fraud is not necessarily the consequence of identity theft.
It is not
unheard of for someone to steal or misappropriate personal information without actually
committing identity theft using the information obtained, such as when a major
data breach occurs. A US Government Accountability Office study determined that
"most breaches have not resulted in detected incidents of identity theft.”
The report also warned that "the full extent is unknown". A later
unpublished study by Carnegie Mellon University noted that "Most often,
the causes of identity theft are not known," but reported that someone
else concluded that "the probability of becoming a victim to identity
theft as a result of a data breach is only around 2%". You’re going to be
surprised to hear that in a more recent data breach, accounting for over four
million records, resulted in only about 1,800 instances of identity theft,
according to the company whose systems were breached.
In an
article “Cyber Crime Made Easy" published in October 2010, the level to
which hackers are using malicious software is explained. As one security specialist
named Gunter Ollmann said, “Interested in credit card theft? There’s an app for
that.” Evidently, this statement sums up the ease with which these hackers are
accessing all kinds of information online. The article goes on to mention that the
new program for infecting users’ computers is called Zeus; and that the program
is so hacker friendly even an inexperienced hacker is able to operate it.
Although the hacking program is easy to use, that fact does not diminish the
devastating effects that Zeus (or other software like Zeus) can do to a
computer and the user. The article also states that programs like Zeus can
steal credit card information, important documents, and even documents
necessary for homeland security. Some internet security experts say that if
hackers were to obtain this vital information, it could mean identity theft or
even a possible terrorist attack. I wonder if you’ve realized that, much as it
is mega convenient to surf the net and to conduct transactions online, the
level of vulnerability is quite literally unprecedented. All the more reason
why if you’re the kind of person that wants to prevent identity theft from coming
your way, then it’s probably about time—that’s if you haven’t already—to consider
getting some identity theft protection.
Did you know: 50% of the U.S. Adult Population have been hacked--and most of them don’t even know it! Don't let it happen to you. Learn more Here!
Cornelius Venturo
Cornelius Venturo
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