Several people have asked me recently about Identity theft and the Internet’s financial underside because most of what they’ve heard about is how stolen Identities are used to access bank accounts or run up credit charges.  

Stealing from bank accounts and credit card fraud are two key moneymakers for online criminals leveraging your identity, but they are far from the only opportunities criminals are cashing in on. Internet enabled financial crimes are a fast paced and dynamic land of opportunity for illegal entrepreneurs.  

Probably the clearest example I’ve seen that explains the range of financial opportunities criminals are targeting with your information is this pricing table created by Symantec in September 2007 that outlines the traffic seen on underground economy servers. (These are the primary method for criminals and organized crime rings to sell stolen identity information).  This table reflects the most frequently advertised for sale items on underground economy servers. For example, credit cards made up 22 % of the stolen information advertised for sale on the underground, and the purchase price for someone’s credit card information ranged between fifty cents and five dollars.

Internet attacks are financially motivated and primarily target individuals

Today’s attacks are most often highly professional, profit driven, and run by criminals as full blown business ventures that custom design exploits to leverage regional opportunities,  and are more likely to lure consumers through trust rather than by using a more direct assault if the consumer has solid security protections in place. This last point is actually good news because being savvy can save you a tremendous amount of grief.  

Simple Steps to Increase Your Safety

1. Protect your computers and other internet connected devices – see my article A Dozen Things You Can Do Today to Get Safer Online, or for a fuller understanding see the Technology Toolkit section in Look Both Ways help protect your family on the Internet. Be sure you are receiving automatically every security update available to you.
2. Practice defensive computing. Use strong passwords. Be cautious about where you provide your information. If you don’t know the Web site and can’t find reliable information about its integrity, don’t use it.  If you don’t know the individual don’t respond to them. Don’t download content from unknown sites OR from friends if they don’t have up-to-date protections - if they haven’t protected their devices they increase your risks.
3. Learn how to spot fraud – read how on this website, learn more in Look Both Ways help protect your family on the Internet, and leverage sites like the Federal Trade Commission’s site for spotting fraudulent sites.

Identity theft can be anything from an extreme annoyance to a near disaster for individuals and once the information has been stolen it is likely to continue to circulate forever.  

Linda