How the Increase of Technology Influences Identity Theft

According to spendonlifecom in 2010 there were ten million people who fell victim to identity theft. Many experts believe this number will increase as time goes on. Why do they think that identity theft will continue to grow in numbers? They believe this to be so because of the increase of technology, The technology of today is so readily available to those who know where to look. Even if you can’t get the brand name product most people can make a knock off out of household appliances This is allowing any slightly above average person to steal the identity of any unsuspecting unprotected victim.

Identity theft has always been an issue since the beginning of organized living. Thieves are always looking for a new way to steal the identity of a person to and technology has opened a broad door for that. Many hackers use the internet to host fake internet auctions. tracing money transactions.

The ability to impersonate the lottery and sweepstakes contests, and many other imaginative ideas.

Many criminals host fake auctions online. They host small auctions for big time items such as computers, cars, and other rather expensive items. When the bidding is over the winner feels like he had made an amazing deal. In the excitement the winner offers the website all of his personal information in order to receive the item won in the auction. The bidder offers credit card numbers, social security numbers, birthdates, and any other information the website chooses to get. The site then promises the item to be delivered to the house in less than two or three weeks.

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A month or two then goes by and the buyer finally tries to contact the site to find out where his or her prize is.

When the buyer gets on he realizes the site is gone and also he or she has a bunch of unexpected bills and expenses, Often people assume this is the biggest way in which a person uses technology to steal an identity. This is not true though. The most common way identity is stolen is though a virus which attaches to any transaction used with a pay pal. credit card. or any other type of electrical payment. This virus is spread through many ways but the most popular is phishing. Phishing is a tactic where the virus is sent along with an e-mail and when the e—mail is opened the computer is automatically attacked by the viruses. Then this virus gathers information that is sent back to the origin of the virus. This can happen through means other than the computer. At the beginning of the 2001 year, a group called anonymous hacked the PlayStation network.

The group did this by using encryption and algebra to decode their way into the system from there they were able to reach credit card information from millions of users. Many people started witnessing identity theft immediately after the hack and there was no way to say who exactly stole the credit card information Many people believe that identity theft is done by geniuses who went through many years of school, This can be true in some cases, but in most cases these hacks and identity thefts are done by people who have a slightly above average IQ and a slightly above average computer. Technology is put out onto the internet for many to use and these hackers use it for evil purpose. How are we supposed to stop

a criminal who has his tools so readily available to him? The answer is simple; we must take away the tools he has, How do we take away his tools that he can so easily get? That question is quite hard to answer since we have already made so much technology readily available it is quite difficult to take all the technology used for these crimes Since we are unable to take it all away we should start to control it. We should control who gets the technology and should control how they use it. First we should start by making it more difficult to make a knock off of the item. The maker of the piece of technology should cause the item to shut down when it is opened or tampered with. This would stop users from examining it and making their own “modified” copies, This would stop people from being able to take a simple computer and changing it to hack other computers.

Another solution is to monitor those technologies out there and the people who use them. Many say this is an invasion of one’s privacy, but this can help catch those who use their technology for crimes After it becomes known you will be caught this will scare many off thus reducing the amount of identity theft taking place. This could be done simply by doing exactly what the hacker themselves would do. To most this solution seems unmoral and unethical. yet to others this strategy seems worth it to stop households and companies from losing millions a year. With all this said it should be clear that you cannot stop identity theft unless you first stop those who use and distribute the technology. We need to determine how technology is being used and by who. Even though it may be an invasion of privacy I‘m sure many in the technology community would agree that monitoring them is the best solution If we monitor them we know what they are doing and can stop some from doing the crime they do.