by Osvaldo Callegari The term cloning is very complex, with unnatural connotations, anyway for this type of reality it fits perfectly. The information that is stolen is a faithful copy of the backups that exist in companies, that's why we define it as cloned data.
Identity theft is a criminal and current modality that has multiple implications. The theft of personal data affects society in general, regardless of whether or not the individual who suffers from it is related to technology.
Large corporations handle millions of pieces of data on their networks, sometimes without the relevant collections. This time we present a case study that occurred in New York, United States.
To discuss the issue, we spoke with Michael Krigsman CEO of Asuret Inc, a consultancy that uses collective intelligence to reduce failures in IT projects.
Data Loss in a New York Bank
Unfortunately a New York bank had a data loss situation in which 4.5 million people were put at risk. This is not unusual: Financial institutions and other types of companies routinely send unencrypted backup tapes across common providers and in some cases by mail. Unfortunately, data security officers do not take their responsibility seriously enough. For this reason these types of losses happen all the time; According to the privacy rights organization, more than 216 million private records were stolen in the United States alone in the period 2005-2007. IT security events of the ordinary type, which can affect employees of a certain organization are totally opposite in their magnitude to the exposed data of consumers, which can impact and affect millions of individuals throughout the world.
For example, last November, the UK Customs and Revenue agency lost two computer disks containing the names of every family in England with a child under the age of 16. That meant 25 million names! As in the case of the Bank of New York, the disks were not encrypted and were sent to a storage deposit by a common mail service, the latter was responsible for the loss of the respective disks.
Michael believes that the government should regulate these situations to stop data loss. Identity theft is a real threat that causes suffering and concern to its victims. When those responsible for storing our personal data are forced to record and control the data with real penalties, including prison time, the loss of data will be dramatically reduced. {mospagebreak}
Stolen personal credentials
Among the countless cases of identity theft we can cite that of Mr. Paul E. Jones whose drama went beyond a simple state case. He told us that: "I have never felt a comment about how government agencies can play a role in causing harm. In my particular case, someone got my Social Security number, created a fake employment document, and then obtained the identity and driving documents. The state of Indiana did not contemplate that there were three issuances of documents to three different people. With these documents the criminals were able to obtain credit cards, etc. Of course, I was not responsible for any of these cards and the creditors immediately removed my name and fake social number from their accounts."
In that same sense, Jones added that "dealing with the Bureau of Motor Vehicles in the state of Indiana proved to be a long and painful process. Frankly, I don't think they pay attention to the people who were harmed. This body did not suspend the license of the criminal jurisdiction, when I was able to draw their attention to this problem they refused to fix it. Perhaps what many don't understand is that when you have a license suspended in one state, it is advertised to the entire country through the national driver's registry. Which means that if I were stopped by a police officer it would be justified to be taken to the police station to investigate the reason why they have a valid license and a suspended license at the same time in two states. I was finally able to get a court order to revalidate my driver's license through the Court. The problem continued, of course, given that the driver's license in question is not mine. So, today in Indiana there is a driver's license on file with my name and my social number valid for anyone else, it has another side of the story. Not only is this in the middle of the road to fixing the problem, but they sent a court order to me and for the only ID in the first place. Honestly, I'm amazed at how bureaucratic and unsupportive a government can be, the worst thing is that I'm in North Carolina, totally powerless without being able to do anything about what another state wants with my name and identity." P.E. Jones. He leaves us the page with the history and adventures that he had to make to obtain some legal collection http://www.arid.us/silverman/ .
It does not cease to surprise the scope or final impact that identity theft has on people, it creates irreparable moral damages in addition to considering living with distrust, given that it is not possible to know when one will be indicted for a crime that another committed in his name.
Nor is the extent of these clones known, since they may be oriented towards the execution of common crimes as serious, the saddest thing about this situation is that the citizen whose data was stolen does not know at what moment the nightmare is going to be triggered.
The measures aimed at solving this type of scourge are very varied: the computerization of states with clear rules of identity protection, personal data must be unequivocal within a country at least and avoid commercialization.
In the United States there is a body that defends the consumer from identity theft. This is the Federal Trade Commission. It promotes people to teach on this topic.
The rules they propose are:
•Detect: suspicious activity by monitoring your bank accounts periodically
•Stop: identity thieves protecting themselves and protecting us
•Defend yourself: against identity theft as soon as you suspect it
FTC Protection Guide
1. Search in Garbage Dumps: the unscrupulous search the garbage for invoices or other papers that contain personal information.
2. Skimming: is a way to steal the keys of debit or credit cards through a special data storage device when processing the card.
3. Phishing: is a form of theft in which criminals pretend to be financial institutions and send unsolicited emails or pop-up ads for the recipient to reveal their personal information.
4.Change of your address: they divert your correspondence by completing a "change of address" form.
5. "Traditional" theft: they steal wallets, purses and correspondence, including bank and credit statements, pre-approved credit offers, checks or tax information. They steal staff records from their employers or bribe employees who have access to those records.
Identity Theft Protection Guide
•Shred documents containing personal information before throwing them away.
•Protect your Social Security number. Do not carry your Social Security card in your wallet or write your number on a check. Reverse it only when absolutely necessary or ask to use another ID.
•Do not disclose personal information over the phone, mail, or the Internet unless you know who you are dealing with.
•Never click on links in unsolicited emails: better, write a web address that you know. Use firewall, anti-spyware , and antivirus software to protect your computer and keep them up to date. Visit AlertaenLinea.gov for more information.
•Do not use an obvious password, such as your date of birth, your mother's maiden name, or the last four digits of your Social Security number.
•Keep your personal information in a safe place in your home, especially if you live with others or employ outside help.
Advice to the user for the theft of credit card
Within the possibilities of insecurity that we have, credit cards will continue to be stolen. That is why it is necessary to monitor them periodically through the consultation sites themselves, where in detailed information we can see some unauthorized purchase to make the corresponding complaint.
An interesting fact of these sites is that if we have a large number of purchases it becomes difficult to follow one by one, for this it is useful an option to group the debits, in this way we can visualize more comfortably the individual purchases made.
Conclusions
As in these cases that we have presented, we see in the end that not only the intelligence services, judicial agencies, internal security agencies have access to our data but now also exploit it by hackers for their own benefit charging values from 20 dollars for certain information of a client. It is worth saying that we are at the mercy of the waves and completely helpless. Now, this diversity of intrusion of our privacy hinders the work of those who have already been doing it, in the case of wiretapping or mail theft, since now they have much cheaper and more affordable competitors by the common people.
This situation raises a question: will we have to return to barter where trade or sale was carried out person by person without another ingredient?
The trademarks mentioned in this article are registered trademarks of their respective companies. Case Studies: Michael Krigsman is CEO Of. Asuret, Inc. Theft of a New York Bank and Mr. Paul E. Jones. Acknowledgements to FTC of the United States. Identity theft is a serious crime. It happens when your personal information is stolen and used without your knowledge to commit fraud or other crimes. Identity theft can cost you time and money, destroy your credit, and ruin your good name.
* If you wish you can write to the author at [email protected]
