Identity Theft

Date	Article Title	Publication	Author	Synopsis

7/16/2008	Online games can lead to identity theft	ABC News	LARA NAAMAN, JEN PEREIRA and EMILY YACUS	A Baltimore teen is "embarrassed" by the fact he filled out seven separate loan applications in exchange for extra points in the game he was playing on his Facebook page. The personal information he disclosed on the applications, including his Social Security number, was used by fraudsters to apply for an auto loan.
7/8/2008	Advocate pushes IRS to confront identity theft	Federal Computer Week	Mary Mosquera	U.S. National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson will focus efforts in the next fiscal year on helping the Internal Revenue Service address issues of taxpayer identity theft. Taxpayer identity theft involves the fraudulent use of another person's personal information to obtain employment, file a false tax return, or fraudulently receive a tax refund.
7/8/2008	Identity theft "Red Flag" rules hit in November	Network World	Layer 8	The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday outlined the new Red Flag Rules financial institutions and other financial service providers must follow in order to help identify potential cases of identity theft.
7/2/2008	FTC recruiting identity theft victims	Network World	Layer 8	The Federal Trade Commission is looking for victims of identity theft for a study on the crime. The commission wants input from victims who contacted the FTC between January 1 and May 30, 2008, in order to gauge their experiences while exercising their rights under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACT Act).
6/30/2008	Missouri Governor Blunt takes actions to protect Missourians from Identity Theft	Government Technology		Missouri Governor Matt Blunt signed a bill to help residents better protect themselves if they feel they've been a victim of identity theft. The law allows Missourians to request a security freeze on their credit reports, and makes it a class C felony to possess multiple false means of identification with the intent to distribute to others for the purpose of committing a crime.
6/24/2008	Preying on Patients	Wall Street Journal	Kristen Gerencher	Although far less common than more traditional types of identity theft, medical identity theft is increasingly coming onto the radar of healthcare and governmental officials.
6/23/2008	Agreement Reached to Strengthen State's Identity Theft Laws	EmpireStateNews.net		New York lawmakers are united on a proposed bill to better protect New Yorkers from identity theft.
6/22/2008	Con artists are stealing homeowners' identities, properties	Los Angeles Times	Lew Sichelman	Using a variety of methods, thieves have been successful in changing titles and selling properties out from under the rightful owner, or draining home equity accounts.
6/19/2008	Petroleum Wholesale Cited for improperly dumping records	Pasadena Citizen		A Texas petroleum company has been charged with violating the state's Identity Theft Enforcement and Protection Act.
6/11/2008	The Pros and Cons of LifeLock	Wired	Bruce Schneier	Author and chief security technology officer Bruce Schneier outlines the story behind the media frenzy on Lifelock, an identity-theft protection provider whose CEO is famous for publicizing his Social Security number as an expression of his confidence in his company's product.
6/10/2008	ID theft poses a bigger therat offline	Pittsburgh Post-Gazette	Eve Mitchell	A Javelin Strategy & Research annual survey shows that, while only one in three identity theft victims know how their information was stolen, more than 75 percent of those who do attribute it to a physical method, such as a stolen wallet or burglarized mailbox.
6/8/2008	Beware of online jobs that sound too good to be true	EagleTribune.com	H.J. Cummins	As the number of Internet users increases, so grows the number of scam artists trying to hijack identities. Employment seekers have become prime targets.
6/5/2008	Officials: Identity Theft of UCI students started with insurer's leak	Orange County Register	Marla Jo Fisher	A data breach at UnitedHealthcare has resulted in the stolen identities of at least 155 University of California-Irvine students. The thief or thieves accessed the files of 1,132 students and filed fake tax returns for 155 of them.
6/4/2008	Researchers Say Notification Laws Not Lowering ID Theft	PC World	Robert MacMillan	Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University examined whether the adoption of a breach notification law reduced the number of identity thefts reported in states.
5/23/2008	Nevada Attorney General offers special program to assist identity theft victims	RGJ.com	Catherine Cortez Masto	Nevada's Attorney General and law enforcement officials have teamed up to release the Nevada Identity Theft Passport program, which aims to help victims of identity theft cope with repercussions. The program allows victims to seek a "passport" -- an alternative ID card of sorts, containing the victim's picture, signature and thumb print.
5/22/2008	Utah Targets ID Theft of Children	Desert News	Brice Wallace	One Utah lawmaker wants legislation to allow parents to lock the identity of their child in order to prevent identity theft, says a Deseret News report.
5/21/2008	Governor Paterson Unveils Legislation to Strenghthen New York's ID Theft Laws	Government Technology		New York Governor David Paterson wants to strengthen the state's identity theft laws and has introduced legislation to do so, says a Government Technology report. The proposed bill would restrict employers' use of employees' Social Security numbers, enable New Yorkers to place their names on an "exclusion list," and outlaw the possession of skimmer devices.
5/21/2008	Governor Lingle Signs Bill to Protect Hawaii Residents against Identity Theft	Hawaii Reporter	Governors Office	Effective July 1, Hawaiians will become better protected against identity theft, says a Hawaii Reporter story. Governor Linda Lingle earlier this week signed into law a bill that reduces the amount of personal information that the Bureau of Conveyances may collect from citizens.
5/18/2008	Military IDs to list only last four digits of SSNs	Stars and Stripes	Charlie Reed	The full Social Security numbers of members of the military will no longer be printed on military identification cards. The Department of Defense (DOD) announced that instead, only the last four digits of the SSNs will be used. The aim is to reduce the risk of identity theft.
5/11/2008	Identity theft protection near passage	Missourinet	Bob Priddy	The state of Missouri is close to passing a law that would offer Missourian identity theft victims more protection. In legalizing the Credit Security freeze, identity thieves will be prevented from opening any new accounts because the credit file will be locked.
5/7/2008	Identity thieves prey on patients' medical records	USA Today	Julie Appleby	Identity thieves are using ever more sophisticated methods to obtain and exploit patient records, even those that are encrypted.
5/2/2008	ID Security Firm LifeLock Sued for Misleading Marketing	Information Week	Thomas Claburn	Two customers of an online identity theft prevention service have sued the company over deceptive marketing practices.
4/23/2008	US Consumers Worried About ID Theft	eMarketer		A new study by Bankrate reveals that 80 percent of U.S. consumers are concerned about the potential of falling victim to identity theft, and a third said they knew someone who had already been victimized.
4/13/2008	Lawmakers finally pass identity theft bill	Fairbanks Daily News-Miner	Stefan Milkowski	The Last Frontier won't be the last frontier for identity theft legislation following passage of a new identity theft law by the Alaska state legislature. The new law, three years in the making according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, was passed by a 20-0 vote in the State Senate after previously passing the House.
4/7/2008	Class Actions Challenge LifeLock	consumeraffairs.com	Truman Lewis	Consumer identity protection service provider LifeLock is the target of two class action lawsuits that charge the company's claims are empty, according to consumeraffairs.com. One of the lawsuits targeting LifeLock has been filed by consumer credit data firm Experian.
4/4/2008	Intel to release anti-theft technology for laptops	Computer World	Sumner Lemon	Intel will release anti-theft technology for laptops later this year. Details are few, but it is believed the new feature, to be added to Intel's Active Management Technology, will help IT managers protect sensitive data on stolen laptops by making inaccessible the processor and storage.
4/2/2008	U.S. Lacks Gov't Ageency To Stop ID Thefts	thebostonchannel.com	Craig Clough	Whereas other countries offer specific support to their citizens, when U.S. citizens fall victim to crimes related to identity theft, their options for support generally fall upon state attorneys general or nonprofit groups. Unfortunately for those seeking their help, the AG's offices and nonprofit groups are overwhelmed with requests and are often unable to do much apart from provide information.
4/2/2008	Beach nurse charged with stealing dead man's credit card	The Virginian-Pilot	Aaron Applegate	A Virginia Beach nurse was arrested and charged with using a dead man's credit card to purchase a computer at BestBuy.
4/2/2008	Iowa House Oks bills to fight identity theft	WHOTV.com	Associated Press	Two bills aimed at protecting Iowans from identity theft are making their way through the state house. The first, a measure to let consumers inexpensively put a credit freeze on the personal data held by credit rating agencies, was sent to Governor Culver. The second measure was sent back to the Senate for continued debate.
3/30/2008	No Fail-Safe Identity Protection	Wall Street Journal	Andrea Coombs	In the Wall Street Journal's Marketwatch, Andrea Coombes warns readers that there is no foolproof product for preventing identity theft. The article outlines the benefits and drawbacks of a number of methods consumers can employ to help prevent identity theft, such as fraud alerts, credit freezes and data-sweep services.
3/12/2008	Identity Theft Legislation Passes Unanimously	kypost.com	Jessica Noll	Soon, the full Kentucky House of Representatives will consider legislation to help prevent identify theft. House Bill 553 aims to hold Kentucky businesses to the same federal guidelines as financial institutions and healthcare companies.
3/12/2008	Identity Thieves Target Tax Refunds	Wall Street Journal	Tom Herman	Tax preparation season is a popular time for scammers to target individuals for ID theft. Identity thieves who file phony tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service may cause unsuspecting taxpayers to be denied due refunds or bring penalties upon the rightful owner of a Social Security number for income fraudulently earned under a stolen number.
3/11/2008	Why identity-theft rates are so high	Network World	M.E. Kabay	After being asked by an Austrian journalist why identity theft rates in the United States are higher than in other countries, Network World's M.E. Kabay looked into the issue and found a number of possible contributing factors, including the use of a universal identification number (Social Security number) as the key to financial transactions, and practices within the credit card and banking industries that penalize consumers (via exorbitant interest rates) rather than the companies for lax security measures.
3/7/2008	Cops bust major ID theft ring in New York	SC Magazine	Dan Kaplan	Police in New York City have broken up an identity theft ring with ties to China. SC Magazine reports that 38 people have been charged with using stolen personally-identifiable information to open fraudulent credit card accounts and purchase high-value items such as computers, televisions and jewelry, that were later sold over the Internet.
2/27/2008	Banks, phone companies identity theft targets	San Francisco Chronicle	Deborah Gage	A new study issued by the UC Berkeley Center for Law and Technology says that banking and phone service customers report the highest rates of ID theft.
2/11/2008	ID Theft Cost U.S. Citizens $45.3 Billion In 2007	Reuters	Jonathan Stempel	Reuters is reporting that crimes associated with identity fraud cost U.S. citizens $45.3 billion dollars during 2007, down from $51 billion in 2006, according to a new report by Javelin Strategy & Research. Javelin credits the drop to an increase in awareness on the part of consumers and an increase in the use and effectiveness of security measures implemented by organizations handling consumer data.
2/7/2008	Medicaid Presents SSN Dilemma	US News	Kimberly Palmer	In her Alpha Consumer blog at U.S. News & World Report, Kimberly Palmer writes of a common dilemma that many senior citizens face in trying to keep their Social Security numbers out of the wrong hands. Those with Medicaid cards often carry the cards with them in case of unexpected medical need, but Medicaid uses an individual's SSN as identification.
2/6/2008	ID Theft Victim Turns Advocate	San Diego Union Tribune	Bruce Bigelow	The story of Linda Foley who, after falling victim to identity theft more than 11 years ago when a former boss used her credit card information to amass thousands of dollars in purchases, launched the Identity Theft Resource Center.
2/6/2008	Adding Up The Costs Of ID Theft, Part II	E Commerce Times	Andrew Burger	Part 2 of a 2 part article looking at the costs of identity theft.
2/5/2008	Adding Up the Costs of ID Theft, Part 1	E Commerce Times	Andrew Burger	Part 1 of a 2 part article looking at the costs of identity theft.
1/25/2008	Washington State Considering ID Theft Bill	insurancejournal.com	Office of the Attorney General	Legislators in the State of Washington are considering a new bill, HB 2637, that would make it easier to prosecute perpetrators of identity theft. Proposed by Attorney General Rob McKenna, the legislation would remove some of the obstacles that currently make it more difficult to pursue suspects, such as requiring victims to be present to testify that certain records are authentic.
1/24/2008	Living Or Dead, No One Immune To ID Theft	Kansas City Infozine	InfoZine Staff	According to Boise State economist Marilyn Bischoff, more than 50 million people have been victims of some form of identity theft over the last five years. Individuals whose identification has been co-opted to open credit accounts, obtain loans, or otherwise commit fraud don't even have to be among the living.
1/16/2008	Fears Over Online Privacy Soar	Associated Press	Anick Jesdanun	A new study by the University of Southern California's Center for the Digital Future that reveals growing fears over online privacy and identity theft.
1/12/2008	TSA Site Put Travelers At Risk Of ID Theft	The Washington Post	Brian Krebs	A Web site established by the Transportation Security Administration to help travelers lodge complaints agency may have exposed individuals to ID theft.
1/7/2008	Privacy Concerns, Quality Concerns Hampering BT	Tech News World	Jack Jia	With identity theft stoking fear of being tracked by online marketing applications, and a general lack of quality with the ability to deliver relevant ads to consumers via the Internet, behavioral targeting is falling short of expectations.
1/4/2008	Virginia Governor Introduces Breach Notification Legislation	The Washington Post	Bill Brubaker	Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine has introduced legislation that would require businesses to notify consumers in the event of a breach involving personally identifiable information.
1/3/2008	Calif. Gov. Opens New Office To Fight High-Tech ID Theft	The Mercury News		Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed legislation that merges the former Office of Privacy Protection in the Department of Consumer Affairs with the state Information Security Office. The merged departments now comprise the California Office of Information Security and Privacy Protection.
Jan-08	NC Governor Proclaims "Data Privacy Day"	State of North Carolina		Michael F. Easley, governor of the State of North Carolina, by issue of an official proclamation, has declared January 28 to be "Data Privacy Day" in the Tarheel State.
12/18/2007	Poll: Nearly 75 Percent Of Canadians Concerned About Becoming Victims Of ID Theft	Digital Home	Hugh Thompson	An Ipsos Reid poll has found that Canadians increasingly are worried that they could become victims of ID theft -- especially online.
12/11/2007	Unisys Security Survey: ID Theft Still Chief Among Concerns In Asia	Business Week	Victoria Ho	Eighty-three percent of respondents in the fourth edition of the Unisys Security Index said they remain worried about identity theft.
12/11/2007	House Lawmakers Expected To Take Up New Privacy Bill Before Senate Measure	SC Magazine	Jack Rogers	A committee counsel has told SCMagazineUS.com that it is unlikely that House lawmakers will consider a Senate ID theft bill until it takes up a measure introduced by House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. Conyers' bill, The Privacy and Cybercrime Enforcement Act of 2007, would require companies to provide notice to the U.S. Secret Service or the FBI when security breaches impact the personal information of 10,000 or more consumers.
12/11/2007	DOJ Awards ID Theft Grants	Associated Content	Jules Popp	The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced $1.7 million in grants aimed at helping victims of ID theft and fraud.
12/9/2007	Maryland Credit Freeze Law Takes Effect Next Month	Baltimore Sun	Eileen Ambrose	Despite the decision by the three major credit bureaus to extend credit freezes to all consumers, Maryland's new credit freeze law will still help consumers.
12/6/2007	Opinion: Time For A 'Rational Discourse On Identity Theft'	Cnet News.com	Thomas Oscherwitz	A perspective piece based on the results of the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) most recent survey on the incidence of identity theft.
11/28/2007	Survey: Price Tag For Every Data Record Lost Is $197	San Francisco Chronicle	Tom Abate	The Ponemon Institute yesterday released a new study that estimates that security breaches now cost businesses about $197 for every lost record. The cost estimate came after the Ponemon Institute closely examined 35 of the nearly 310 security breaches that U.S. companies and government agencies have reported to data so far this year.
11/27/2007	Computer Security Experts Dispute FTC Report Stats About Drop In ID Theft	USA Today	Jon Swartz	The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday released its first ID theft report in more than three years, which immediately drew criticism for its conclusion that ID theft was down since the last report in 2003. The report indicates that 8.3 million adults were victims of ID theft in 2005 compared to 10 million in 2003.
11/15/2007	ID Theft Creates A Market For Prevention Tools	The New York Times	Brad Stone	This CNETnews.com article explores the companies that are offering consumer solutions for ID theft prevention. In particular, the story details the story of Gideon Yu, the former Chief Financial Officer of YouTube and the current Chief Financial Officer at Facebook, who was the victim of ID theft.
11/15/2007	ID Theft Creates A Market For Prevention Tools	The New York Times	Brad Stone	This CNETnews.com article explores the companies that are offering consumer solutions for ID theft prevention. In particular, the story details the story of Gideon Yu, the former Chief Financial Officer of YouTube and the current Chief Financial Officer at Facebook, who was the victim of ID theft.
11/7/2007	Committee Approves ID Theft Bill	The Jerusalem Post	Matthew Krieger	The Knesset Economics Committee has proposed a new law that would require the printing of only the first or last four digits on a credit card receipt.
11/7/2007	File Sharing Software And The Risk Of Identity Theft	Wall Street Journal	Joseph De Avila	ID theft experts are warning in this Wall Street Journal article that users of file-sharing services are at risk of ID theft -- a problem that is continuing to grow.
11/3/2007	Ohio ID Theft Bill Heads To The House	Cincinnati.com		Senate lawmakers have approved a bill that will allow Ohio consumers to freeze their credit, among other changes. The bill also would require government agencies to remove Social Security numbers from documents posted online.
10/31/2007	Experts Discuss Ways To Combat Escalating Threats To Personal Data	Government Computer News	William Jackson	U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said there is a "rising debate in Congress on how to best combat the growing cyberthreat."
10/23/2007	ID Thieves have a 50/50 Chance of Going to Jail	PC World	Robert MacMillan	A new study of 500 closed U.S. Secret Service case files shows that ID thieves go to jail about half of the time after their convictions, according to data released by Utica College's Center For Identity Management and Information Protection.
10/19/2007	New study to comb Secret Service ID-theft case files	Computer World	Robert MacMillan	Utica College's Center for Identity Management and Information Protection is releasing a report today based on a first-time analysis of U.S. Secret Service Information on ID theft
10/17/2007	Arizona Leads Nation in Identity Theft	KOLD News		The most recent figures from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) indicate that Arizona continues to lead the nation with the highest number of ID theft complaints.
9/20/2007	TransUnion To Allow All Consumers To Obtain Credit Freeze	USA Today	Jon Swartz & Byron Acohido	TransUnion, one of the three credit bureaus, has announced that beginning Oct. 15, it will allow consumers in all 50 states to obtain credit freezes. Advocates say the change is a victory for consumers seeking to take proactive steps to prevent identity theft.

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