 |
How Do You Protect Against Identity Theft?Nobody wants to become a vicitm and in theory, everyone wants to protect against identity theft. However, doing this does take time, effort, knowledge and possibly a little money too. This is actually a key factor in the armoury of an identity thief: the apathy of the general public. If most people took a majority of the steps that are required to protect against identity theft, there would be very few victims and minimal losses. But these days we all live such busy lives that the average person simply does not have the time to spend trying to destroy documents, guard against online attacks and reading about the latest fraud techniques. Instead, we are stuck in traffic jams trying to get to or from work, slaving extra hours for our ungrateful bosses or waiting patiently in line in the local supermarket. Of course, an additional problem is the modern world's requirement for our private and personal information. There are so many potential sources of information about us that it is simply mindblowing. Our information is held by banks, insurance companies, credit card firms, supermarkets, employers, state agencies, electoral bodies, driver registration agencies and on and on and on. If any one of these organisations had a lapse in their security procedures or were unknowingly employing a 'bad apple' who was accessing and using personal information, it would be very difficult to identify the source. The vicitm, however, would have been identified! For a number of years, discussions have been taking place in the UK and USA by government over proposed identity card schemes. These discussions do not appear to have proved conclusively that we all need an identity card. They have been challenged from many angles that are concerned about the increased potential for identity theft and fraud. This is because of the large amount of information planned to be stored, increased numbers of individuals and agencies with access and the centralised organisation of the data. In short, such cards do not appear likely to help individuals to protect against identity theft. This all means that we as individuals need to take responsibility for as much of our personal data as we are able to. We need to take steps to protect ourselves as big business and government do not appear to be helping. Other areas of this site discuss the tasks that an individual needs to do reguarily in more depth. However, it ought to be added that a paper shredder, strong firewall and anti virus software and secure passwords need to be at the core of everyones attempts to protect against identity theft. Return to
combat identity theft
|
