Identity theft

About: Identity theft is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2284 publications have been published within this topic receiving 31700 citations.

The efficacy of Iraq law to deal wqith identity theft and proposals for a more legally effective solution, with comparative references to US and UK laws

Abstract: This thesis deals with a specific type of crime, which is, today called a millennium crime. This crime is identity theft. It is not a new crime, but technological development makes it a difficult crime to combat, as nowadays it can be committed by both traditional, so-called non-sophisticated methods, and by more sophisticated, technological means, since the advent of the internet. Identity theft is a crime committed against a person’s means of identification or their financial information. The criminal, legally or illegally obtains another person’s means of identification for the purpose of either himself (or others) using it to commit other illegal activities. Iraq, currently, has no dedicated law to deal with identity theft. Therefore, the Iraq courts will find it difficult when they seek to apply existing legal texts, to deal with it effectively. Through an examination of Iraqi criminal laws, this thesis will assess whether existing Iraq criminal law is adequate to combat identity theft, and it will assess whether Iraq courts can effectively judge an accused who obtains another person’s means of identification, and then uses to commit other crimes. It seems that, first sight that identity theft shares common elements with theft offence in Iraq law, and thus, the Iraqi courts may use the current theft offence laws to fight identity theft, but this study will show that this has limitations and drawbacks. Comparative analysis with the relevant UK and US laws used to combat identity theft will form part of this analysis, in an effort to assess the effectiveness of this approach, and illustrate its weaknesses. While this thesis preparation was being undertaken, the Iraqi Government proposed a project called the Information Crimes Project 2011. This project inter alia proposed to govern identity theft with new model laws. This thesis demonstrates that this project will not succeed in realising this objective, and the thesis shows, in conclusion, existing laws, as well as proposed laws, are inadequate to govern identity theft in Iraq, and their inadequacy requires either a judicial or legislative solution. The thesis demonstrates the limitations of judicial solution because the application of the principle of legality, and concludes that the most effectively way for Iraq to combat identity theft would be to enact a new, dedicated law to fight identity theft. To assist the Iraqi legislature to enact an appropriate piece of legislation, this thesis analyses relevant UK and US laws, and assesses elements of those laws, and their utility for the Iraqi legislature, should it seek to borrow or adopt provisions from them for a new Iraqi identity theft law. One of the key findings of this thesis is that the actual identity theft must be criminalised, and this is something that is not a feature in laws of other jurisdictions, although there are several elements of other jurisdictions’ laws which, if suitable adapted, could be useful incorporated into an Iraqi identity theft law. This thesis concludes by proposing recommendation that will be guide the Iraqi legislature if it intends to enact a dedicated identity theft law at some point in the near future.

Mnemonic Passwords Practices in Corporate Sites in Nigerian

Abstract: Current technological drive towards paperless mode of operations, which provides faster delivery of corporate and banking services to a wider range of customers, has resulted in the problem of identity theft which is becoming a growing problem in Nigeria. There is the risk of unauthorized access, fraud and inappropriate disclosure of sensitive data. Human resources and malicious applications steal user identity, potentially resulting in a direct loss of highly sensitive information and hard currency to affected victims. To protect sensitive information, commercial and corporate sites extensively employ the use of textual passwords, which when used over an encrypted connection is vulnerable to attacks. To counter some of these attacks, many corporate sites instruct users to make use of mnemonic passwords without carefully considering the implications. This paper describes an empirical investigation performed to determine the factors influencing users mnemonic passwords practices, to analyze the strength of regular passwords and to evaluate the effectiveness of mnemonic passwords. Findings revealed that users’ context, which allows the deployment of mnemonic strategies for password memorization, is prosaic in nature and susceptible to human attackers and automated tools. Commercial and corporate sites will need these findings in order to adopt effective authentication strategies for logging customers into their sites.

Cybercrime Investigation Training and Specialist Education for the European Union

Abstract: The first major piece of malicious software, the Morris worm, hit the Internet in November 1988. Since then the Internet has experienced an explosion of malware and virus attacks affecting individuals and organizations alike. More recently the world has seen concerted efforts by organized criminals to commit IT crimes on a global scale. In order to effectively deal with criminal activities such as identity theft leading to online fraud, law enforcement officers and criminal investigators of today require an entirely new skills set. As cybercrime comes of age the investigators find themselves working in territories without regard to geopolitical and socio-economic boundaries requiring cooperation and collaboration on a scale that has not existed before. The Falcone Programme and AGISprojects have recognized a strong need for collaboration within the European Union member states and have recommended the joint development and certification of training and education for cybercrime investigators and law enforcement officers. This paper reports on the state of these projects and looks at some of the innovative academic partnerships that have been developed to address the issue of Cybercrime Forensic Investigation Training and Specialist Education in the UK, and illustrate the impact that they have on European requirements as outlined by the Bologna Agreement and Europol initiatives.

Accounting for Identity Theft: The Roles of Lifestyle and Enactment

Abstract: White-collar offenders are thought to be particularly adept at excusing and justifying their crimes. Whether this is due to their personal backgrounds or the characteristics of their crimes is, as of yet, unknown. To shed light on this issue we explore the various justifications and excuses given by identity thieves. Using data from semistructured interviews with 49 federally convicted identity thieves we show that they all provided numerous accounts for their crimes, with denial of injury being the most common. We also find that the use of accounts varies by the lifestyles these offenders live. That is, those seeking to live as conventional citizens call forth different accounts than those who have a criminal lifestyle.