Im Not Me Anymore

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Im Not Me Anymore!

• Identity Theft What To Do About It
• By Warren Basham
• CSC 540

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What is ID Theft?

• As defined by Federal Trade Commission
• knowingly transfers or uses, without lawful
  authority, a means of identification of another
  person with the intent to commit, or to aid or
  abet, any unlawful activity that constitutes a
  violation of Federal law, or that constitutes a
  felony under any applicable State or local law.

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What is ID Theft? Cont.

• According to Wikipedia
• deliberate assumption of another person's
  identity, usually to gain access to their
  finances or frame them for a crime. Less
  commonly, it is to enable illegal immigration,
  terrorism, espionage, or changing identity
  permanently. It may also be a means of blackmail,
  especially if medical privacy or political
  privacy has been breached, and if revealing the
  activities undertaken by the thief under the name
  of the victim would have serious consequences
  like loss of job or marriage.

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What is ID Theft? Cont.

• Simple Terms?
• Using the ID of someone else as your own.
• While doing this?
• Setting up separate accounts or hacking into
  previous ones and using them as you would your
  own.
• Changing someones permanent ID.
• Using this for your own monetary gain or
  blackmail.
• Is it easy to do?
• Without any foresight of individuals and
  companies, yes it is.

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OK, Simple Definition So What??

• Have you been a victim?
• What about a friend/relative?
• Not hard to track basic info about a person using
  the net
• With basic info, very easy to get the good
  stuff using the net and other resources
• Know of any recent events in the news?
• Want to know what to do?

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Methods of Getting Information

• Ever been swimming in a dumpster before?
• People almost never think to destroy old records.
• Track down those records in trash heaps, and
  information is obtained.
• Perhaps not the most pleasant method but
• Quick and easy.
• Quick shower takes care of stains.
• Will usually find more than originally planned on.

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Methods of Getting Information

• Creating a new ID for yourself
• Usually as a valid business/business person
• Used to gain services from other businesses that
  deal in ID services
• Using that ID to gain services to ID brokers and
  resellers
• This is what happened recently and in the past to
  ChoicePoint.

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Can something be done?Yes, but

• Government is trying to enact new laws for
  protection
• Laws are not very powerful ex New KY law
• Law enforcement is usually very weak when it
  comes to ID theft.
• Crooks can get away with stealing millions of
  dollars in cash or goods before caught, and when
  they are caught it wont matter, they still have
  their millions of dollars

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Can something be done? Cont.

• Businesses need to take actions of their own to
  help protect consumers
• Stronger security on their servers.
• Better scanning and checking.
• Keeping good backups.
• If something does happen, report it IMMEDIATELY
  to consumers and law enforcement.

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Can something be done? Cont.

• A person needs to take actions of their own
• Learn about the techniques out there (such as
  phishing, trash searching, etc.)
• Know the laws and actions you can take in your
  state
• Federal Trade Commission is a good place to start
  looking
• Take precautions with personal records and data
• Wikipedia has a good reference for going about
  this
• Use available resources
• NewsChannel 6s Super Shredder Thursdays is one
  example
• Most important if it feels fishy to you, then
  something probably is fishy and you just need to
  ignore it.
• It can help you from looking like the fellow in
  the background.

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What does this mean for us?

• Using recent incident with ChoicePoint as an
  example
• Only law followed was CA law requiring that
  consumers be notified in case of incident. Rest
  of actions taken were ChoicePoint being a good
  corporate citizen.
• Cost to ChoicePoint (some figures are assumed)
• 0.32/notification letter 145,000 letters
  46,400
• 0.05/minute 30 min/call 145,000 possible
  calls to dedicated 800 number 217,000
• 6.00/hour 40 hours/week 52 weeks 100 new
  employees 1,248,000
• 9.95/month 12 months for credit monitoring
  from Countrywide Credit Guard 145,000
  memberships 17,313,000
• Add 1000 for supplies needed (ink, paper, etc.)
• Est. Total Cost (not including insurance or law
  suits) 18,825,900

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What does this mean for us? Cont.

• As an individual
• Possibility of taking months, even years to clear
  up your name once ID has been stolen.
• Possible loss of most, maybe all of life savings.
• During cleanup period
• Could lose job opportunities
• Refused loans of all kinds
• Denied education
• Property is taken back by government
• All for crimes you never committed.

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Sound depressing?

• It should but
• As long as proper actions are taken, a person can
  expect reasonable safety
• As long as companies take action to implement
  required security, they will be reasonably safe
• As long as government makes attempts to enforce
  the very laws they set up, reasonable safety can
  be assured
• Yes, there are limits to everything and as long
  as there is a mean for hackers to hack, they will
  always try
• Software companies can release products without
  the obvious holes

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Remember

• Learn about what you need to do in case of an
  incident
• Learn the state and federal laws
• Even if its a small case (just a few dollars
  taken for example) report it
• Learn how to protect your records and data and
  keep them from potential thieves
• Secure your computer on the internet
• Be wary if you get an email or phone call asking
  you to give them secure information about
  yourself chances are its fake
• Protect items such as PDAs, laptops and other
  portable computing devices that could have
  personal information on them
• Keep up to date with new developments and
  activities

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Bibliography

• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_theft
• http//www.consumer.gov/idtheft/
• http//www.choicepoint.com/privacyatchoicepoint/co
  nsumers.html
• http//www.donotenter.com/cool/signs/feb_2002/dump
  _1.jpg
• http//www.consumer.gov/idtheft/federallaws.html
• http//www.identity-theft-protection.com/states/ke
  ntucky.htm
• http//www.identity-theft-protection.com/states
• http//abcnews.go.com/Business/FinancialSecurity/w
  ireStory?id543953CMPOTC-RSSFeeds0312
• http//sbi.utah.gov/finanical_crimes/idtheft.html
• http//www.internet-erasers.net/images/person_2.jp
  g
• http//www.eblocs.com/images/phishingscam.jpg
• http//www.wpsdtv.com/emm-bin/homepage.cgi
• https//www.countrywidecreditguard.com/Order1.aspx
  ?sc635800bcdggkeywordpkgidX2THZ
• http//dianedew.com/images/eeyore6.jpg
• http//www.sunysccc.edu/academic/conted/StoneSoup4
  /images/gregjail.jpg
• http//www.wpsdtv.com/emm-bin/homepage.cgi