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Courion's Enterprise Identity Management |
Identity theft is a crime used to refer to fraud that involves someone pretending to be someone else in order to steal money or get other benefits. The term is relatively new and is actually a misnomer, since it is not inherently possible to steal an identity, only to use it. The person whose identity is used can suffer various consequences when he or she is held responsible for the perpetrator's actions. In many countries specific laws make it a crime to use another person's identity for personal gain.
Identity theft is somewhat different from identity fraud. However, the terms are often used interchangably. Identity fraud is the result of identity theft. Someone can steal or appropriate someones identifying information without actually committing identity fraud. The best example of this is when a data breach occurs. There has been very little evidence to link ID fraud to data breaches. A Government Accountability Office study determined that "most breaches have not resulted in detected incidents of identity theft". A later study by Carnegie Mellon University concluded that "the probability of becoming a victim to identity theft as a result of a data breach is ...around only 2%". More recently, one of the largest data breaches ever accounting for over four million records resulted in only 1800 instances of identity theft. The acquisition of personal identifiers is made possible through serious breaches of privacy. For consumers, this is usually due to personal naiveté about who they provide their information to. In some cases the criminal obtains documents or personal identifiers through physical theft (e.g. vehicle break-ins and home invasions). Guardianship of personal identifiers by consumers is the most common intervention strategy recommended by the US Federal Trade Commission, Canadian Phone Busters and most sites that address identity theft. Personal guardianship issues include recommendations on what consumers may do to prevent their information getting into the wrong hands. The strongest protection against identity theft is not to identify at all - thereby ensuring that information cannot be reused to impersonate an individual elsewhere. As such, identity theft is often a question of too little privacy or too much identification. Many activities and organizations in a modern society require people to provide personal identifiers (Social Security number, national identification number, drivers license number, credit card number, etc), and in some cases the knowledge of personal identifiers is treated as proof of identity. This is sometimes done as a convenience or to enable transactions by telephone or the internet, however it can also make it more difficult for individuals to protect themselves from identity theft. To protect an individuals from online identity theft by phishing, hacking or Zero day attacks online consumers are advised by e-retailers to ensure their computer security and operating systems are fully up-to-date. In some cases an identity thief will attempt to impersonate a deceased individual. Frequently credit checks or other types of verification are not cross referenced with death certificates, so the crime may go unchecked for some time unless the deceased's family detects it and takes steps to prevent further fraud. In recent years, many commercial identity theft protection services have been started by companies in the United States. These services purport to help protect the individual from identity theft or help detect that identity theft has occurred in exchange for a monthly or annual membership fee. The services typically work either by setting fraud alerts on the individual's credit files with the three major credit bureaus or by setting up credit report monitoring with the credit bureaus. While identity theft protection services have been heavily marketed, their value has been called into question. 
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