Identity theft

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

System and method for storing, creating, and organizing financial information electronically

Abstract: A system and/or method which offers customer-driven aggregation of data, with the ability to dynamically modify the filing hierarchy and to store, create and organize digital financial information. The system enables customers to establish a hierarchy of file folders, file any payment whether paper or electronic in a folder for future reference, provide secure storage for an indefinite period for any payment, including credit card payments, debit card transactions, imaged checks, electronic bill payments or account statements. As such, customers can create and change at will their file folder hierarchy and file documents with notes. Customers can set a preference for automatic filing based on pre-established criteria such as folders based standard merchant categories or by month. Customers can also ‘file’ payments when they are created or viewed in the transaction history. The systems of the exemplary embodiments provide a search function, enabling retrieval of documents based on a document storage time stamp, date last accessed, date posted, dollar amount, or by file folder, group, or category. Customers can view document access history. Further, the systems offer customers convenience, privacy, security and prevention of document loss from disaster, and protection from document or identity theft.

General Data Protection Regulation Complied Blockchain Architecture for Personally Identifiable Information Management

Abstract: Surveillance and secrecy breaching incidents of users' privacy questioned the current third-parties data collection procedure. Massive amounts of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) are being exploited due to malpractice, identity theft, spamming, phishing and cyber-espionage. A large amount of data flow from users to enterprises for data-driven market analysis and prediction. Consequently, it is tough to track the flow and genuineness of PII. Blockchain technology, an ‘immutable’ distributed ledger which can efficaciously track PII exchange, store, and distribution. In contrast, ongoing EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) demands ‘right to forget’ and ‘should be erasable’ rights. However, this paper proposes an off-chain Blockchain architecture which uses both local database and distributed ledgers to preserve a trustable PII life cycle. Considering the key factors of GDPR, prevailing Blockchain architecture were modified and a prototype was created to validate our proposed architecture using multichain 2.0. Proposed architecture stores PII and Non-PII physically separated location. Finally, with proposed architecture user will realm privacy and rigidity of Blockchain along with the privacy regulation of GDPR. Validation is done by comparing proposed system with existing methodology from technical aspects, future research scopes is also well advocated.

PCI DSS: Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards in Context

Abstract: In recent years, the payment card industry has dealt with the matter of consumer liability for unauthorized charges. However, risks to consumers from identity theft and related use of personal data present new challenges for cardholders and those who profit from their usage, including merchants, banks, and payment card companies. This article examines the varying and sometimes complementary roles that legal obligations and private ordering play in incentivizing security measures to protect consumers. It shows that, in the legal environment within the United States, which lacks comprehensive legal protections for consumer privacy and security, private ordering rooted in economic incentives within the payment card industry can also bring about enhanced security for consumers. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards ("PCI DSS") have emerged from private ordering, although threats of legal liability have also influenced their development and implementation. The article evaluates the basic framework of PCI DSS and raises issues for further development as the government, the legal system, and the industry copes with security threats in this environment.

Risks of Identity Theft: Can the Market Protect the Payment System?

Abstract: Imagine sitting at a computer and with a few keystrokes having the personal information of person after person appear on the monitor: names, addresses, Social Security numbers, debit card account numbers and PINs, bank account numbers and passwords, mother's maiden name, and more. This happens every day, and the information is for sale in electronic markets. Buyers can use the information to commit fraud on existing financial accounts or on accounts opened with the information. This is the face of identity theft.Identity theft has been a feature of financial markets for as long as alternatives have existed to cash transactions. Until recently, it occurred on a small scale, involving, for example, the theft of personal checks and the forging of the account holder's signature to cash them. That type of identity theft posed a risk to the individual consumer, and the risk was relatively small: Access to the consumer's personal checks did not offer access to all of the consumer's financial accounts.Such individualized acts of identity theft still occur, but more often identity theft occurs on a larger scale. Data breaches typically involve the apparent loss or acknowledged theft of the personal identifying information of thousands-or millions-of people. This poses a risk to the individual but also to the integrity and efficiency of the payment system-the policies, procedures, and technology that transfer information for authenticating and settling payments among participants. Identity theft can cause a loss of confidence in the security of certain payment methods and an unwillingness to use them. Markets can cease operating or switch to less efficient payment methods. Either represents a loss of efficiency for the economy.This article looks at the nature of identity theft today and the factors driving its growth and explores whether markets are able to limit its risk to the payment system. section I explains what identity theft is. Section II discusses the magnitude of the problem. Section III describes the factors behind the recent growth in identity theft. Section IV considers the risks identity theft poses to the payment system because markets provide too little protection for personal identifying information.I. WHAT IS IDENTITY THEFT?There is disagreement about how to define "identity theft." Commonly used definitions differ in the range of acts that constitute the crime. Some definitions are more inclusive; some, less so. The definition matters because it affects how identity theft is measured and how it can be combated."Identity" refers to the distinguishing character or personality of an individual. A person's true or inner identity-his or her thoughts, feelings, and preferences-is not directly observable. The outer identity is that by which others recognize the person. Imagine a list of all of a person's characteristics: birth date, eye color, address, parents' names, favorite color, bank account number, frequency of shopping at the local grocery store, etc. The list includes unchanging features (birth date, parents' names), behavioral patterns (frequency of shopping at the local grocery store), and identifiers assigned by others to recognize the individual (bank account number, Social Security number, driver's license number). Each item in the list is a piece of personal identifying information (PII), and the complete list is a representation of the person's identity. Others recognize the person by matching him or her against the parts of the list of which they have knowledge.1 Friends, relatives, and co-workers tend to rely on physical features-the way the person looks and the sound of his or her voice, for example-to identify the person. Parties with whom the person transacts rely on identifiers that work well remotely, such as name, address, phone number, and Social Security number. The subsets of PII that are used in transacting can be thought of as transactional identities.Identity theft involves the theft of elements of a persons identifying characteristics (items in the list such as name, address, credit card number). …

Assessing Individual Differences in a Phishing Detection Task

Abstract: Some authors suggest that regardless of how good security technology is, it is the “people problem” that must be overcome for successful cybersecurity (West, Mayhorn, Hardee, & Mendel, 2009). While security threats to the average computer user might take a variety of forms such as viruses or worms delivered via nefarious websites or USB drives, identity theft tactics such as phishing are becoming increasingly problematic and common. Phishing is a technology-based, social engineering tactic where attackers attempt to appear as authorized sources to target individuals and obtain personal and/or sensitive information. The current research aims to explore how individuals differ in phishing susceptibility within the context of a real world email-related decision making task.