July 13,2009

• How Safe is Electronic Identity?, Pt.2
    More Is Too Much.

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  As organizations have grown more and more dependent on the use of biographical identity information in the verification process, credit card and identity thieves have realized the value of seeking it out. At one time, thieves had to go through great lengths in researching the deaths of babies and children who would have been their approximate age in order to steal their identities. Electronic sources have made it much easier for them to access all the information needed to impersonate a credit card consumer. What was once the cutting edge in credit card and identity information security, has become a valuable tool and toy for hackers. Let's not forget about the surge of personal sites during the past years as websites such as My Space, Facebook, and UTube that have grown to heightened proportions. Users revealing large amounts of personal information on these sites make them vulnerable to the criminal activities of these thieves.

  It's also important to consider that statistics indicate that the prevalence of insiders obtaining credit card customer's personal information has grown with great proportion. In some cases, the insider will use the information for their own purposes; however, most secure their position in the company for a long time and sell the information to other individuals. These buyers in turn use the stolen identity information to apply for credit cards and are responsible for racking up millions of dollars in fraudulent charges a year. When they have maxed out the card's credit limit, they destroy it and walk away without a trail.

  With the prevalence of the massive amounts of personal information being held in millions of databases around the world and the ease of accessibility, it comes down to more is too much and less is most likely better. If the personal information of a credit card consumer was limited to a very small amount and only accessible by a very few individuals, might it not be more secure? Unfortunately, at this stage of the game, it would be virtually impossible to recall all the information circulating out on the worldwide web. The resulting option...design a new data collection system that would enforce these limits.

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