Identity theft

AS and A Level Business Studies

Identity theft

On the internet

Computers have completely revolutionised the

way we live and work. They have evolved just

as people have. They are great, for data

processing and for word processing.

The possibilities of the things we can achieve

with computers are endless. But just when

things couldn’t have got any better, the

Internet came along. This is a superhighway of information, stored in millions of different servers around the globe, which can be accessed at the touch of a button.

Their have been huge developments such as e-mail which can be accessed from anywhere in the world. You can even go to the super market from the safety of your home!

But it’s not all good news. As the internet and computers have developed and become more complex, so have the criminals that use them. For criminals or (Cyber thieves) the internet is a goldmine. Millions of pounds are stolen by innocent victims every year, due to lack of protection against these thieves. The cyber criminals plant software on to the victim’s computer. This malicious software, generally under the category of “mallware”, is called “spy ware” and/or “ad ware” and is installed on to the user’s computer without him/her even knowing. This series of programmes gathers up information: websites visited, credentials, (like bank statements), first and last names, credit card numbers, phone numbers, addresses, and in some cases even signatures. All this information is compiled and sent directly to a remote server in another part of the world. They then pass off this information as their own, and use money from the victims bank accounts to purchase expensive consumer products such as mobile phones, high definition TV’s, computers, Hi-Fi’s, and other pricey electrical equipment for their own purposes. In some scenarios cars are even bought. The thieves have also been known to sell the information that they obtain to other people. A fifty-seven year old woman, named Sandi Cullers, who lives in New York City, had $250,000 stolen from her, after thieves obtained her social security number and date of birth. They used this money to buy clothing, electronics, and other expensive merchandise, in 2002.

A police Lt. Mark Johnson said;

This is a preview of the whole essay

A police Lt. Mark Johnson said;

“Identity theft, that claims 50,000 new victims each year, occurs when someone gains control of personal information to commit fraud, for economic gain. The crime has grown quickly in recent years because of the internet, thieves have devised elaborate schemes to persuade people to give them personal information “.The ways in which we can prevent this from happening are by enforcing encryption on top of unsecured websites where private credentials are submitted, and implementing a more secure connection to the internet by installing a firewall on everyone’s computer. This prevents access by a remote cyber thieves by blocking off all accessible entries obtainable over the internet. Finally, it is important that an anti-spy ware programmes are in place on every user’s computer. This should eliminate all threats posed by spy ware so a cyber thief will not be able to obtain any private information.

The government, the police and the FBI, are trying to counter this cyber terrorism by enforcing a new system which allows the public to have access to a substitute credit card number. This can be generated to by a specific piece of software supplied by their credit card company which will generate a new number each time a transaction is made, so the only people who will know the original number are the individual and the credit card company.

Finally I would like to conclude by saying that I strongly believe that computer development companies such as Microsoft who create the operating systems which we use every single day, in all different working environments, for all different purposes, should integrate a security defence system, which will target any malicious and suspicious hacker or software, trying to access the person’s computer. In this software, the person or company responsible for planting this ‘spying software’ would be traced from anywhere in the world and then their I.P (internet protocol which is assigned specifically to each individual computer or server in the world) would be sent to a special security server, and then they could be traced and prosecuted, which would finally put an end to identity theft, on the internet.

By David Burns