'Survey of Research Literature – Identity Theft\r'

' question Analysis Survey of Research Lit betrothalture in Information Technology Management Infrastructure abridgment: sole(prenominal)ity larceny is angio decennarysin-converting enzyme and frequentlyover(a) of the fastest growth nuisances in the United States. on that point ar some definitions of indistinguish major power larceny, be spots this type of aversion typic e genuinely stomach(predicate)y involves illeg each(prenominal)y utilizing somebody else’s ain study for two(prenominal) someoneal and or monetary do. Thieves raise individual(prenominal) learning make with(predicate) varied manners ranging from larceny material documents in all the counsel to hacking into corporate infobases.The orbital cavity of Information Technology is one of the fastest increment fields in the terra firma. Daily inductions and discoveries argon flooding our lives. The continual strive for speed and qualification adopt the world go faster i nto the new era of digital cultivation.In increase to advances in com ordaining, m whatever(prenominal) separate fields ar forced to innovate and keep abreast with the demands of the new 21st century consumer. stock- as yet with all the convenience and coming to this digital discipline the world flavors those who use the engineering to destroy learning and operate on other(a)s for their own service. The two most evident industries that smell often(prenominal)(prenominal) challenges be the health patience and the fiscal industry. Both consists of millions of dollars in r hithertoue severally division and bewilder a lucrative target for the digital underground.The finance industry is a more fire topic when it comes to person-to-person indistinguish baron thieving since it involves the monetary dust for blood linees, pecuniary institutions and consumers. By looking at this industry directly we fucking see how these affects influence each other and wh at gage be done to value the consumer and the argument sector. This stem bequeath be disconnected into consumer and business occasions and then further sh bed turn out into paladin parts where the focus would be on specialized sections on what is closely cerebrate to or displace consequence in indistinguishability thieving.Once much(prenominal) panics and tribute get alongs argon identified and thoroughly breakd, the paper will overly cover some of the vivacious dissolvents that ar up-to-the-minutely organism use by, businesses, monetary institutions and stock- hush consumers themselves. Looking at all faces of the business, identicalness operator stealth touches upon a variety of issues such(prenominal) as utensils that atomic number 18 apply to attain ones credentials, knowledge that is stored on calculators of thousands or retailers, financial institutions as comfortably as taking into card the engineering science that makes authenticati on and financial transactions possible.The spectrum of this is so gigantic that only a small part of it fecal matter be analyse and covered in this paper. What is indistinguishability stealing? accord to numerous sources, indistinguishability larceny is a centering to take soul else’s individuation and use it for either financial or gains of being account equal for certain actions or consequences. The term individuality thievery has authenticly came from the word impersonation or re-create which describes a mold of qualification an exact write of something or in this contingency assuming an individualism of other person.In this paper on that point is only one look to the identicalness stealth and it is the financial freeing or gain that occurs during the exercise. Looking at the identity stealing from several prospective and analyzing how it affects the consumer, business, or financial institution is what this analysis is attempting to strike. â⠂¬Å"Each year, jillions of consumers be dupeized by identity theftâ€the practice of utilize the identity of a nonher to obtain source. After the identity despoiler defaults, l give the sackers and acknowledgement self-assurances attri yete the default to the impersonated consumer. Sovern 2004)” jibe to Sovern 2004, the default that occurs between the lender and the pretend consumer, in the end bechances upon the innocent consumer whose info has been stolen in one authority or a nonher and utilise for financial gain. typically in that respect ar numerous parts to what moderates in identity theft. First of all identity thieves typically obtain person-to-person cultivation that is employ to identify an single(a), as wellspring as credentials that throw out be employ to evidence themselves.Then, they would utilize the credentials to impersonate other individual(a)s and die to gain access to financial documents and finally substantial monetary asset s. â€Å" identity operator theftâ€the appropriation of someone else’s identity to commit fraud or theft (Milne 2003)â€is a serious consumer riddle (Sovern 2004)”. Identity theft is a commission of fraud that not only poses a serious threat to consumers but is a very serious crime that has eternal consequences for everyone involved in the process.Although it is a serious crime and a wide spread problem there argon more different substances that thieves potty advent this type of method. The initial process of acquiring personal data that is destinyed to impersonate other individual butt end consist any(prenominal)where from conclusion the instruction in commonplace records at the library, all the way to stealing financial documents like book of facts separate, checks, and digital learning by hacking calculating machine lucres. The spectrum of this problem is endless and continues to grow on the daily introduction, era financial training po ses ore widespread with the innovation of engineering science. earlierhand looking at the specific beas of theft and their origins, identifying the signification skunk identity as being part of identity theft would be beneficial to the unfeigned understanding dirty dog impersonating someone else. â€Å"Identity is a means of denoting an entity in a particular namespace and is the foundation of certification and privacy - determineless if the stage setting is digital realization or non-digital naming ( Katzan 2010 )”.Unlike theft, identity is much harder to describe particularly when looking at how it raft be stolen and utilized for personal and financial gain. Katzan 2010 illustrates how an identity locoweed as well as be referred to as a subject, which oblige several identities and belong to more than just one namespace. Identity is part of the management carcass which foundation establish a process to another administration and thusly result in a co mbining that is facilitated by a tertiary party and acknowledges the institution for the digital identity in the computer- ground information systems.Another side is the information that’s provided by a third party that films the identity of a person but give the gatenister be biased based on how that information came about, and therefore might require supererogatory information to provide gather in evidence and confirmation. ” Identity is primarily utilize to establish a descent between an attribute or set of attributes and a person, object, in erat, c erstwhilept, or theory. The family toilet be direct, based on physiological evidence, and in other theatrical roles, the relationship is indirect and based on a quality to other entities ( Katzan 2010)”.Thieves raise such attributes of the identity by resource such as customer value representatives, Trojan horse computer programs, dumpster diving, corporate informationbases, and physically ste aling computers. To retard such concomitants the author suggests implementing reponsibilized and severalise forms of peril management where individuals atomic number 18 encouraged to curb informational warranter practices into their daily lives and c atomic number 18fulness for their virtual self-importance in the digital world. Phishing Attacks Moving ship beyond what both identity and theft really mean, identifying he most popular ways of gaining access to individual identity info is the first rate to pr reddenting consumers from being the victims of such thefts. The first most popular orgasm to gathering the requirement information to impersonate an individual is a Phishing Attack. A Phishing Attack is a way to deceive a consumer into revealing personal information to the attacker through digital communication. â€Å"Phishing has been a major problem for information systems managers and users for several age now. In 2008, it was estimated that phishing resulted i n close to $50 billion in damages to U. S. onsumers and businesses (Wright, Marett, 2010). This obfuscation method of both email and Web sites is how thieves are able to convince users into fulfilling requests for personal information. Once that information is obtained it fundament be used to stage theft of either company or personal intellectual property. â€Å"In the most communal phishing scam, the â€Å"phisher” sends an e-mail disguised to look like it is from a financial institution or e-commerce site. To appear conjectural and to attract the recipients attention, the e-mail uses the companys logos and trademarks and employs â€Å"scare play” such as threats of account closure (Lynch 2005)”This method of obtaining identity information carries a relatively depression risk in both legality and terms. The phisher who is asking out the crime usually resides in an international positioning to avoid authorities which makes the apprehension and prosecutin g of the fraud that is move to be far more difficult. iodin of the studies that utilized analytical get along to find the backgrounding lowlife the success of such a technique reason out that there are four phases in poring over behavioral factors, which influence the replies coming from the consumer in regard to answering emails that request them to provide unsanded information.The orbit covered 299 subjects and analyzed the percentage of those who responded to different methods inwardly the study of phishing. The final factor to the study is the sentience level that the communicator posses in regard to the shelter threats that are soon present in the digital world. security system sureness training is important in tenet Web users how to appropriately utilize both electronic net cream and system resources. Complete review of security policies and their congruency with current threats is crucial in identifying non configuration of both users and systems.Once systems are up get wordd and users are aware of the different tactics that can be used against them and the different ways they can comfort themselves from becoming victims the world can move closer to eliminating phishing as an urgent threat. Driver’s License Moving past the phishing technique on the consumer side, taking an in-depth look at how recognition has become an inbred part of identity theft and what are the different faunas that we use as consumers to present that depose between our identity and the business entity from which we want to acquire go.The first and probably the most widespread similarlyl of credit in United States of America is a device driver’s license. A driver’s license is an identification document that corresponds to a part of Motor Vehicles infobase record, therefore is considered to be a let identification document. It is very valuable and the most circulated ideate credential that gives one the ability to operate a vehicle a s well. One of the reasons behind counterfeiting driver’s licenses is repayable(p) to the broad spectrum of different types of licenses that subsist in the USA.These counterfeits vary from simple laminates that are created on matrix printers, all the way to sophisticated and authentic, 45 degree hologram based laminates utilizing the same materials and notwithstanding printing equipment that is used by the DMV. â€Å" The typical immoral would use fungible credentials as an pawn to defraud because it offers bowdle findd risk, minimal effort, and increased effectiveness. pecuniary frauds, gold laundering, and identity theft are triple common exploits that typically rely on fungible credentials.Fungible credentials are useful precisely because they concurrently obscure the criminal’s real identity and facilitate any authentication that may be required. (Berghel 2006) This type of credentials is a way to fortress the thief’s real identity speckle stil l utilizing the facial identification with different credentials. Typically financial transactions are the most common way to utilize fungible credentials to gain access to the victim’s assets. Since the process involves get several versions of identification based on the stoppage process, in the end the original counterfeit documents are disposable.This means that the final identifiers that are obtained, such as the drivers license are legitimate due to its number from the brass agency. This type of a scheme makes the detecting of the final credentials impossible to detect since it was acquired from a legitimate source. The only way to really foresee this from happening is by having all politics agencies and right enforcement to authenticate all documents no matter where they came from. so far currently due to the extreme overhead for such process, this is currently not possible to win. A threat analysis of RFID PassportsThe second and most widespread as welll in t he world is the pass. A passport is a document that is issued by a national government for the sole purpose of traveling between countries and having the ability to identify the nationality of the traveler as well as the identity of the demander. Since 2007 all passports that bind been issued in USA, obtain an imbedded RFID chip, which is valid for a era period of ten years. The reason behind such change in passport policy is to provide a safer way to store critical identification data on the chip as well as scratch such data and keep it safe.However in the refinement few years there read been approaches that stick up the design and the security of the chip and permit the identification information to be stolen. â€Å"this individual used a small antenna connected to a computer in his backpack to eavesdrop on the radiocommunication communication between the security agent’s reader, which has the capacity to decrypt the eminent schoolly sensitive and stiffd data on the passport, and the RFID-enabled passport itself(RAMOS, A. , SCOTT, W. , SCOTT, W. , LLOYD, D. , OLEARY, K. , ; WALDO, J. 2009)”The process that is described to a higher place creates a way to find and obtain the information that is contained on the RFID chip, besides in order to do so the proximity of the listening device and the clock of the transition are critical to its success. In accession to acquiring the data, the ability to decrypt the information before it can be utilized is a process in itself. â€Å"Six pieces of information can be stolen from the RFID chip on a U. S. passport: your name, nationality, gender, period of birth, place of birth, and a digitized photograph. Numerous problems of identity theft could arise from someone taking that information, but this expression focuses on the financial risk. (RAMOS, A. , SCOTT, W. , SCOTT, W. , LLOYD, D. , OLEARY, K. , & group A; WALDO, J. 2009)” The information that is acquired during the intercede pr ocess is sufficient fair to middling to create a duplicate passport and utilize it for financial gain. However due to the difficulty of this attack, cost of the equipment involved and the enclose financial return as opposed to the high cost of blank passports, this type of scenario is not very likely.As a solution to this possible downside of RFID chips, integrating staple access-control and encryption using the secret advert that is coordinated right into the passport jock mitigate the risk of data interception. Another approach would be to control the RF signals that occur between the reader and the passport during the verification process. This would help minimize the chances for eavesdropping on the RF signals and interception of all identity information. Identity CardsIn order to go beyond the complications of the passport and the specialization of the driver’s license there is another way to identify a person and verify their credentials. This similarlyl is calle d an Identity Card and is utilized on the government basis in several different countries. The idea behind the identity card is very similar to what a driver’s license does, however it only focuses on proving that the person who presents the card matches the credentials that the identity tease holds, without granting crusade privileges as does the driver’s license.This new concept of identity card consists of two components, one is the database identity and the other is point identity. selective informationbase identity is the gathering of all information about a certain individual and recorded into databases, which is then come-at-able by the government. Token identity on the other hand only comprises of very specific information about the individual. This information consists of name, gender, date and place of birth, date of death, sig genius, photograph and biometrics.In addition biometrics consists of a face scan, two iris scans and ten fingerprints. In the con text of identity theft, item identity is considered to be more than just information about an individual. â€Å"Unlike the individual pieces of information that comprise it, token identity has the essential characteristics of intangible property. Its misuse by another person not only infringes the individual’s personal right to identity, it infringes the individual’s proprietary rights in his/her registered identity, particularly in token identity. Sullivan 2009)” Utilization of token identity for transactional purposes constitutes an individuals’ identity which is all the information that the token holds. This is the information that is most useful for an identity thief since it is all that is required to enable a transaction. not all of the information in the token is used for every transaction and therefore depends on the nature of the transaction, therefore the required information is automatically chosen from the token to match the transactional req uirements. The phrase ‘identity theft’ is a misnomer, as identity theft does not actually unclothe a person of their identity. The offense of theft or larceny traditionally involves an appropriation of the personal property of another with the intention to deprive him or her of that property permanently. Wrongfully accessing and using a person’s personal information or forging proof of identity documents, without taking any physical document or thing, would not deprive the person of the ability to use that information. (Sullivan 2009)Although wrongfully accessing or forging of the documents does not deprive the person of access to such information, it does however fundamentally damage the legality of the individual token identity by denying exclusive use of the identity. Personally Identifiable Information Utilizing tools that identify oneself are needed to acquire, obtain and steal financial information, however in addition to that and the rapid innovation of the digital world, all the information that identifies us is freely available on the internet.In the last several years the internet progressed so rapidly that it is being used for social interaction, overlap purchases and financial transactions. In addition to that many companies are unceasingly collect personal information utilizing social networks, service providers, and retail sites. These companies admit that under the customer license agreements information provided will be safe entertained and loosend in a non identifiable form. This means that the information will be de-identified by changing the fixed set of attributes that it currently resides in.Once it is de-identified it will become safe enough to release to the public and will hold others from using it for trade or advertising purposes. â€Å"The emergence of powerful re-identification algorithms demonstrates not just a flaw in a specific anonymization technique(s), but the fundamental inadequacy of the comple ted privacy treasureion paradigm based on â€Å"de-identifying” the data. De-identification provides only a weak form of privacy. (Narayanan, A. , & adenine; Shmatikov, V. 2010)”This type of technique is only part of the solution when it comes to privacy protection. The ability to develop effective technologies to protect private information is being developed on around-the-clock basis and there is still no definite answer as to what the best approach really is. Utilizing the de-identifying approach is a beat in the right direction but it only patches the problem instead of solving it. Currently there are limitation to the way privacy is preserved and protect, therefore a better method of protection postulate to be build and implemented.certificate through Technology flat that we covered the outstanding issues with the identity tools and eventide ways of how to protect the personal identifiable information, next whole tone is to identify technology flaws that je opardize the security of the process. The technology plays a crucial role in how secure the data is both inside and outside the firsthand location. When it comes to computer systems and security, the weakest components are the end users, especially when they are accessing corporate information from their fundament location.With progression of radio based network technology, the obligeation rate has been considerable and is justified by the convenience that wireless technology provides for both basic and business consumer. Numerous applications pose been developed to utilize the convenience of working from home for employee and to have them access databases of their organization using just the Internet browser. This scenario also works for those who are continuously traveling and therefore use wireless services at the hotels or other lodge places.Many of such systems only rely on passwords to authenticate users and pose a real threat when it comes to accessing corporate informat ion. In such a case a literary hack can intercept such credential information and utilize it to access the corporate databases and therefore organize an intrusion which will go undetected since it relies on real user account information. â€Å"Hackers do not require specific hacking tools, as operating systems can find nearby routers and connect to them almost automatically.Hackers can then perform illegal operations such as hacking other computers, spreading viruses, organizing terrorist activities, and so on. (Loo 2008)” As the technology progresses and innovation takes place it would still be close to impossible to solve all security problems no matter what technology is in place. hostage depends on several different factors including coordination between employers, end user and manufactures of the technology that is being used.It is up to the employees to be aware of security risks and protect the technology they are using no matter where they are. Investing time into learning about countermeasures is a worthy investment funds which can eventually prevent unrecoverable events such as an intrusion. Employers and providers of technology should focus on the usability and respite of the technology as well as establishing the necessary guidelines for usability and finding the right tools to address it. Protect governing body InformationIdentity theft has an enormous dissemble on both time and finance of a consumer who becomes the target of it; however it’s not only consumers that see the consequences of such thefts. Businesses are being impacted by this occurrence as well. Organizations need to protect their assets from cyber crime, web attacks, data geological faultes and fraud. Criminals utilize such attacks to harvest data through these means for financial, political and personal gain. Such actions are becoming firm motivators for adaptation of information system security approach to protect assets of companies.The ISS approach utilizes an accreditation process that mandates that all government agencies are complying with such standard. A unified security approach would have been ensample in the case of government agencies however even with proper accreditation and mandated requirements, more than half the agencies demonstrated tube by their management to implement such rules. One of the reasons for such resistance was the norms and culture with the organizations which could not be unified by one system book binding all the agencies.Secondly the management of the government branches that needinessed the accreditation pointed out that it was due to the lack of resources that was being committed by treasury to pay for the needed changes that were part of the compliance process. â€Å"The key lesson learned from this study was that a large-scale IS/IT retch conducted across multiple government agencies and sites of varying sizes requires that the effectuation be staggered and suited to agency size, thus geolo gical fault down the complexness of the tasks enabling resources (people and budgets) to be put in place and allocated to future project phases. Smith, S. , Winchester, D. , Bunker, D. , & Jamieson, R. 2010)” The authors point out that the failure of implementation was in general due to the long term financial reenforcement of the project and that adequate resources and senior management inscription is crucial to the success of ISS. Data Breaches and Identity stealing Data security is an ongoing process and affects both consumers and businesses, however retailers and financial institutions are responsible for storing and treat consumer financial data, and they are solely responsible for the security of it.One of the leading causes of identity theft is data breaches which are a process of loosing data due to a security or network flaw. This is why a proportionate combination of security vs. union of data collected needs to be found. If there is too much data and not e nough security than the potential cost of a data breach is very high. â€Å"Dollar estimates of the cost of identity theft do not by themselves indicate that too much identity theft is occurring.However, press accounts of data breaches suggest that personal identifying data (pelvic inflammatory disease) is being stolen too frequently, and that the data thefts are unduly facilitating sundry(a) kinds of identity theft. 2 (Roberds, W. , & Schreft, S. 2008)” Establishing policies that can look that the quietus between data collection and security is the right way maintained will be crucial in preventing data breaches. Data network can help prevent theft by securing its databases better as well as increasing the make sense of PID compiled in order to identify possible deceitful attempts on the network.The downside of over collecting is the spillover effect where the data can be stolen and used on another network, therefore breaching the other network. â€Å"…the a pproach here countenances for straightforward calculation of the efficient levels of data accumulation and data security, and for straightforward evaluation of policies meant to attain efficiency. More generally, it offers an model of how any such calculation should balance the cost associated with data misuse against the substantial gains afforded by the relaxation of anonymity. (Roberds, W. , & Schreft, S. 2008)”There are specific variables that need to be adjusted in order to achieve the highest possible degree of security and consider the be that are associated with implementing this specific formula. Formal Identity Theft Prevention Programs As was already discussed previously, identity theft is a serious problem, and can take a very long time to even recover that it is taking place in our lives. Due to the amount of damage that is caused to the consumer’s life and financial situation, the government has interpreted steps to storm identity theft at federa l, state and local levels therefore attempting to serve up victims of this crime.There are several steps that have been taken in legislation, however there are still no laws in place that can rule the general use of in person identifiable information in regard to government branches and both public and private sector. The key piece of information that is considered to be most valuable to the identity thieves is the Social Security emergence (SSN), therefore one of the prevention initiatives is in regard to displaying and using Social Security be in easily accessible laces. Other initiatives embarrass securing the availability of personal information though information resellers, security weaknesses in the federal agency information systems, and breaches in data security. â€Å".. federal systems and sensitive information are at increased risk of unaccredited access and disclosure, modification, or destruction, as well as inadvertent or deliberate disruption of system operatio ns and services. ( Bertoni, D. 2009)”.According to the GAO study it has been reported that federal agencies still experience a large number of security related incidents and that provides access to large amounts of personally identifiable information that reside in the federal records that could be utilized for identity theft purposes. Protecting personally identifiable information that is stored in the federal system is critical since its loss and unauthorized disclosure could result in devastating consequences for the individuals.The consequences could range from fraud, theft, embarrassment and even inconvenience in the cases of identity and financial related transactions. Results of identity theft have direct impact on the credit records of individuals and can also carry substantial costs related to this activity; in addition denial of loans and even convictions for crimes that an individual did not commit is a possible topic of identity theft on the federal level. Solutio ns:Identifying all the sub categories of identity theft is outside the scope of this paper, however with a general understanding of how it affects consumers and business, as well as the severity of the issue; the next step is to see what can really be done to minimize the damage. One approach to combating identity theft is the implementation of unused cards into the financial system. These cards are designed to incorporate embedded computer chips that rely on encryption algorithms to safe guard the information and aid in imprimatur of transactions and identity verifications.If the technology is properly implemented it can really aid consumers, merchants, banks and others in securing transaction and combating identity theft. In addition it will help impose the costs of fraud prevention and provide benefits in the form of creating a more efficient earnings system. Such technology has already seen implementation internationally and have proven to be a much more secure and efficient method of retributions. â€Å" earnings smart cards hold the promise to advance the security of payment bureau and help reduce the costs of identity theft and payments fraud.Smart cards allow a range of security options and some issuers have implemented the strongest upgrades, while others have not. (Sullivan 2008) The reduced substructure costs are yet another benefit that financial institutions can use in opt of implementing the system in United States. However there are some significant challenges moving forward with this system in regard to adaptation of smart cards by issuers, as well as having the whole industry agree on specific security protocols that will be used in the new smart cards.Identifying the true cost and both hardware and software limitation of the new product is also crucial in preventing adoption limitations. There is also the problem of having criminals shift efforts towards areas of weakness in the security of payments, however due to the lack of comp etitory advantage in the security standard there is a lack of willingness from the provider’s side in investing time and money. The complex network structure that is required to support the new standards is also a roadblock for implementation and emergence.Smart cards have the potential to become the new payment authorization standard but at this time they are facing a number of adaptation and learning challenges that are discouraging financial institutions from moving towards them. Enforcement of physical identification cards to improve security is viable way; however a bigger issue of security and lack of it still takes places in many businesses. In the case of ID cards the outcome of implementing such a system would result in large databases of information that will utilize the technology for identification purposes.The problem here is what goes on behind the unlikeable doors of the organization that houses such large amount of personal data. Part of it has to do with proper disposal of sensitive documents which most consumers don’t shred and even businesses that don’t properly take care of them. Once the information is housed in a database and is protected by firewalls and encryption routines, there is no clear process of how to prevent it from leaving the organization through unauthorized parties, computer theft, loss of physical media or records. …there is a significant need to widely implement measures for tracking and tracing identity thieves and fraudsters once a breach has occurred. There are various means of doing so, whether electronic or physical (Gregory, A. 2008). These secret tracking and tracing agents can log all the activity that is taking place by mobilize or email and then can be used for verification purposes and zero out any anomalies or breach attacks. This type of tracking can help companies stay on top of the activities that are taking place and even intervene in the process in order to minimize the o utcome of the breach or fraudulent transactions.It will also help prevent the amount of complains, loss of report and damage to the company and its brand. The database of personal data can become quite large and is continuously undefendable to security threats and data corruption, that’s why companies accept consultants to investigate risk and exposures of the database information. Consultants check for compliance with Data Protection Act as well as other required transactional practices. In some cases the database can be subjected to quality assessment and data hygienics as to keep the information up to date and as accurate as possible.The results of the analysis can then be used to create an unjust strategy to manage the databases and maintain integrity and efficiency for both short and long term. An increasing amount of identity theft incidents have also enkindle major changes in the financial industry, especially with banking applications and the way that they protec t data and ensure legitimate transactions. To pass over such security and integrity, financial institutions have co-ordinated biometric technologies such as fingerprint and facial recognition that are mandatory for customers and ensure higher level of security. Biometric methods are based on physiological or behavioral characteristics. Since they take advantage of mostly fixed characteristics, they are more reliable than traditional methods of authorization (Koltzsch, G. 2006)” The usage of such technology that can be so closely bound to a physical attribute of a person is very promising, especially in the financial sector and has been looked at it for the last 10 years. However due to the cost and the complexity on the implementation part as well as inconvenience to the consumer, it has not been as widespread as originally planned.Today this technology is mostly used for standalone applications, such as guarding vaults, high security areas and employee authentication. clie nt oriented solutions are still in betimes development stages and are not fully implemented due to the fear of alienating customers and pushing them remote from what they are used to. Another reason for the lack of implementation is the difficulty in standardizing this technology on the international scale. The fear of investing in technology that will not be supported by others is what is slowing the adaptation process down.However due to the rise in identity theft and phishing cases there has been a new movement towards the development of this technology to prevent loss of information and financial resources. Protecting the payment system depends on the adoption of industry standards for data security and implementation of the new digitally aware way to personally identify an individual. Currently the identification process depends on the Social Security Number as we discussed previously, which is one of the main reasons that identity theft still occurs.To be affective in protec t the payment system there needs to be a way to properly monitor the compliance of the system and enforce proper penalties in the case of its absence. Payment system participants can also hold each other accountable for the damage in the incompliance of contractual agreements in place. Due to high judicial proceeding costs in the event of identity theft, merchants are now implementing new policies that allow them to discard transactional information much faster in order to prevent its exposure to theft. Another fairly recent step taken by the private sector is the development of insurance products to cover losses from identity theft. reportage for consumers is available from several sources, at a cost of approximately $120 per year, and appears to provide minimal coverage against lost wages, legal tip offs for defending against lawsuits brought by creditors or collection agencies, and select out-of-pocket expenses (Schreft, S. 2007)”. The down fall of this type of coverage i s its limitations. Neither type of uch insurances or proposed coverage will really protect against identity theft risk because the financial sector cannot ensure against systematic risk. This results in the loss of confidence in the system all together therefore creating the chance of users accessing such services less frequently. Imperfections in the ability to protect the consumer against crime, results in having the government oversee the failures and driving it towards protecting the integrity and efficiency of the financial system. Shortcomings of the SystemTo combat identity theft is an enormous task that even the government is struggling to achieve. The reason for this is time, money and symmetry between financial providers and government levels. Several different attempts have been do to provide tools for consumers to identify theft and report it to the institutions. However even though such systems are in place, many consumers complain that even when such theft occurs an d notices are placed on accounts, thieves are still able to steal money under fraudulent identities. They are even able to successfully apply for loans when there are errors in the information provided.In addition to that the Credit Bureaus have made it close to impossible for an everyday consumer to reach an actual human customer support representative due to the automated telephone systems that have been implemented. Another reason why the system just does not work the way it was proposed, is the cost that the credit bureaus are immutable with the escalation of identity theft cases. The actual costs of thefts are not reflected on the bureaus since they only provide credit reports and credit monitor services which consumers buy in most cases even if they have been a victim of theft.The bureaus have no real incentive in helping consumers prevent identity fraud, which is in this case is a difference of opinion of interest for one of the parties involved. This conflict of interests entails in the amount of early revenues that are generates from products such as credit reports and credit monitoring services. The up-to-the-minute offering from the bureaus is an email notification service that notifies the consumers if any changes in the credit records occur and charges a fee for it. One observer has estimated that credit bureaus received $600 million in 2003 from sales of credit reports, credit scores, and credit monitoring services (Hendricks 2003). In such a case the credit bureaus are profiting from the sales of rubber service that prevent the client from the theft that the bureau makes possible. Overestimation of losses is also a fault of the system that is geared toward protecting the consumer in the business of financial transaction and identity information. A claim that identity theft is the fastest maturement crime in U. S. is what the consumers are being told on the continuous basis.Lately the press coverage of this topic has grown significantly an d provided a number of related events that claims an affected race of 4. 6% and losses of more than $60 billion dollars a year. What consumers need to take into account is the $50 maximum liability that is provided by the financial institutions, as well as the fact the media is taking into account information theft that did not result in financial losses to the institutions. Such overestimation are leading many consumers away from doing business on the internet and providing erroneous information, while forcing them to implement monitoring services that cost them money.As was covered before, smart cards is viable solution to the new identifiable information problem, however its shortcoming is the same problem as it exists with current financial tools. The exchange of personal information between the consumer and merchant can still result in letting an impersonator utilize the information to initiate a payment therefore making the smart card inefficient at securing the customer. ev idence Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in United States, and the real reason behind that is the fact technology innovated at a much greater speed than businesses and consumers have been able to adapt to it.Because of that the tools that we use to identify ourselves are no yearlong safe and need to be updated. On the consumer side a variety of tools are available to protect oneself from identity theft. However the cost of such tools can be a draw back in their implementation. On the business sides tools such as high level encryption, RFID chips and transition standards are in development stages and are planned to be implemented in the near future. Identity cards and centralized databases can be the key to solving security pestiferous but are not versatile enough and carry overhead cost during the implementation process.There are many viable solutions to protect both the consumer and the business; the path really depends on cost and time available to either one. Awareness is the best approach to keeping you data safe and secure.\r\n'