Identity theft

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

SafeCode: safeguarding security and privacy of user data on stolen iOS devices

Abstract: Stolen phones, until the descent of smartphones, simply meant minutes' overages or huge bills from long-distance calls. Now the cost could be anything ranging from your privacy, security, finance or simply "YOU". A Smartphoneos knowledge of its user, if not protected, is a potential risk to the very user's security and privacy. When a smartphone is stolen, it isn't just the device you need to worry about but the treasure of private and sensitive data it holds, which can compromise your very safety and privacy if in the wrong hands. A determined adversary can potentially uncover a lot of things from a stolen iOS device -- credit card numbers, passwords of various other accounts, bank account numbers, etc. On top of that, if it's a work phone, the adversary can also gain entry into your company's restricted network, which is otherwise highly secure and private. In this paper we propose a simple yet powerful method of protecting the loss of private and sensitive data resident on a stolen iOS devices, focusing mainly on iPhones. SafeCode security mechanism leverages on existing passcode protection mechanism on iOS devices to prevent the device from being "switched off" or "silenced" by the adversary when the device is stolen. SafeCode, in the best case scenario, extends the "window of opportunity" of recovering the stolen device. In the worst case scenario, SafeCode augments the probability of remotely wiping the device with the same extended "window of opportunity".

Privacy by Design and the Promise of SmartData

Abstract: Recent years have seen technology grow at a rate never before encountered. The expansion of new technologies into daily life has offered unprecedented opportunities. However, as we benefit from the many advantages presented to us, we must also grapple with never before known concerns. Many of these pertain to the protection of our personal information. In this paper, it is my goal to address how personal data may be safeguarded by using information technology—to our advantage, not the opposite. My practical Privacy by Design (PbD) framework advances the concept that privacy should be built into technology and business practice right from the outset—well before the security of an individual’s personal data could ever be put at risk. An extension of PbD—PbD 2.0—is the concept of SmartData. SmartData empowers an individual’s personal data to “protect itself” by using virtual cognitive agents, in a manner that is both contextual and responsive to each individual’s needs. As technological innovations continue to impact the security of our personal information, I believe it is critical that privacy-enhancing technologies, such as SmartData, be employed to neutralize the threats that jeopardize our vital right to privacy, and in turn, our freedom.

Investigating the effect of feature selection and dimensionality reduction on phishing website classification problem

Abstract: Phishing is a term given to the method of gaining unauthorized access to a person's private information like passwords, account or credit card details. It is a deception technique that utilizes social engineering & technology to convince a victim to provide personal information, usually for monetary benefits. Phishing attacks have become frequent and involve the risk of identity theft and financial losses. Detection of phishing website has become very important for online banking and e-commerce users. We proposed an effective model that is based on preprocessing (Feature selection and dimensionality reduction) and classification DataMining algorithms. These algorithms were used to characterize and identify all the factors to classify the phishing website. We implemented five different classification algorithm and four preprocessing techniques to classify a websites legitimate or phishy. We also compared their respective performances in terms of accuracy and AUC.

The Impact of Identity Theft on Perceived Security and Trusting E-Commerce

Abstract: The research into consumer choices and acceptance of new products and services is normally discussed within the framework of diffusion of innovations and has traditionally relied on identifying consumer characteristics while focusing on the characteristics of innovations. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of Identity theft on the perceived level of security mad trusting E-Commerce.