The Rise in Personal Data Theft in Digital Age

Identity theft occurs when someone unlawfully obtains another’s personal information and uses it to commit theft or fraud. Identity thieves have become increasingly savvy at gaining access to people's personal information. There is a lucrative black market for stolen identities, leading to elaborate schemes to steal your personal information.

As more company information is saved electronically there is an increase in the theft of this data. Data theft is a huge problem for every company regardless of size or location. Corporations lose billions of dollars per year as a result of data theft. Companies must be diligent in guarding against this threat. For most of us, giving out personal information like our home telephone number or driver's license number is an everyday occurrence. Something we do with every check we write or online order we place. But do we really know what happens to that information once it leaves our hands? This paper provides a discussion on the expansion of a crime that feeds on the inability of consumers to control who has access to sensitive information and how it is safeguarded: identity theft.

Identity theft is when someone takes your personal information—like your name, address, any document number, etc. and uses it to establish unauthorized credit and charge items in your name. And finding someone’s personal information has never been easier.

The average Internet users’ primary asset is their personal information, and this asset should be closely guarded. Whenever you are surfing the web, installing shareware or gossiping on IRC, always be skeptical. By creating online profiles and storing your personal information on your computer you eliminate one of the original security features of the Internet, anonymity.

While it may not be possible to completely protect ourself from identity theft, there are a few basic things we can do to minimize the risk.

Before you reveal any personally identifying information, find out how it will be used and whether it will be shared with others. Ask if you have a choice about the use of your information: can you choose to have it kept confidential? ·

Pay attention to your billing cycles. Follow up with creditors if your bills don't arrive on time. A missing credit card bill could mean an identity thief has taken over your credit card account and changed your billing address to cover his tracks.

Guard your mail from theft

Deposit outgoing mail in post office collection boxes or at your local post office. Promptly remove mail from your mailbox after it has been delivered.

Put passwords on your credit card, bank and phone accounts. Avoid using easily available information like your mother's maiden name, your birth date, the last four digits of your phone number, or a series of consecutive numbers. · Minimize the identification information and the number of cards you carry to what you'll actually need.

Protect Yourself

Now that identity theft is becoming so common; it grows more important that consumers protect themselves by staying informed about the latest breaches and maintaining a close watch on their bank accounts. Being cautious and on the lookout for suspicious activity is the only way to stay safe, and the potential fallout from identity theft on someone's financial resources is too dangerous to ignore. Keeping thieves from obtaining your personal information is more important than ever with more and more incidences of identity theft reported every year. Always use caution when discarding documents or sharing sensitive information with a person, business or even doctor's office.

Guard your information online

These days, many of us do most of our shopping and banking on the web. With all those account numbers and passwords floating around, it’s easy for someone to nab your information and go on a spree.

Clear your logins and passwords. This is especially important if you’ve been working on a public computer. Change logins and passwords on a monthly basis. Pay for online purchases with your credit card, which has better guarantees under federal law than your online payment services or your debit card. Be alert for phishing, a trick in which spam or pop-ups mimic legitimate banks or businesses to obtain your personal information, which they use to access your accounts. Always verify that you’re on a familiar Web site with security controls before entering personal data.

Authored by: Ozair Yasin

MD, SoftAge Information Technology Limited