Identity Theft: Not So Scary Anymore?

This article originally appeared on F5.com on 10.20.15.

With Halloween in our rearview mirror and the holiday shopping season upon us, a couple surveys are out examining our fears and in particular, our concerns about identity theft. Apparently, ID theft is not so scary anymore - like entering a haunted house for the hair-raising screams but walking out with nervous giggles.

Over at Bankrate.com, only 54% of surveyed tricksters says they are somewhat or very frightened of ID theft. That's down 80% from those who expressed the same level of concern back in 2008. Almost half, 43%, claim they have little or no fear, trouncing the 19% who were brave in 2008. This is all while the overall victim count remains at similar levels - 12.5 million in 2008 verses 12.7 million in 2014 according to Javelin Strategy & Research. As far as knowing someone who has been hit, 46% say they or a friend has been a victim compared to 34% in 2008.

They chalk it up to people being desensitized to breaches due to the almost weekly confessions of data intrusions. The general feeling is that if large retailers, health care providers and credit agencies can't keep my data safe, how can I. More of those same folks however are also following some good advice of shredding sensitive documents (72%), checking their credit report regularly (56%), avoiding insecure WiFi (54%) and almost 20% have frozen their credit files. These are all good ways to help you worry less.

And Chapman University published their Survey of American Fears, Wave 2 (2015) examining the fears of average Americans. The domains of fear include areas like crime, natural and man made disasters, personal anxieties, environment, technology and others. Along with the corruption, terrorism and warfare, identity theft comes in at 39.6% and credit card fraud sits at 36.9%. Both in the Top 10.



So, while ID theft is still one of our top fears, by the time you get to Nightmare on Identity Street 4, Freddy isn't so freighting and you have some tools to deal with him.

Besides, your insecure connected kettles could be exposing your WiFi passwords without your knowledge. Now that's scary!

ps

Related

• Survey: More Americans say 'boo' to the ID theft boogeyman
• America’s Top Fears 2015
• Connected kettles boil over, spill Wi-Fi passwords over London
• The Breach of Things
• The Reach of a Breach
• 5 Stages of a Data Breach

Technorati Tags: identity theft,breach,privacy,crime,fears,silva,fraud

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Ride The Crime Coaster

Now that would be a fun amusement park ride - the Crime Coaster - with the hills and valleys designed based on crime statistic charts.  You can even get a digital photo of yourself as you fly thru the Tunnel of Turmoil.  Muuhahahahahahahahahah! 

With all the dire warnings of how cybercrime is the nation's top priority, I was wondering how other crimes have been faring.  And NO, this is not a for/against 'gun control' rant but for instance, is burglary loosing its luster to smashing a server's window?  Since cyber crime is a billion dollar business will the door-to-door thief change tactics?  Probably not for now but as physical, non-cyber crimes drop, does digital crime go up?  Or, since 'stealing something' is the ultimate goal, as more available methods (like cyber) to accomplish the goal become available, does all crime go up?  I should also note that crime stats should be taken with a grain of salt since law enforcement can only comment on the crimes that have been reported to them.  Crimes like car theft are often reported due to insurance claims while other crimes, like domestic disputes, are under reported due to embarrassment or other hindering factors.  Add to that, different jurisdictions have various scales of classification, penalties and measurement. Plus, the recent report that says few companies report that cybercrime results in big losses only adds to the confusion.

According to the FBI, violent crimes in the US are down for the 5th year in a row.  Granted, for now, cybercrime is probably more property related than violent but that could change.  Cities like Los Angeles, are reporting that crime - violent and property- is down significantly even though, overall, LA is much higher than the rest of California and violent crime in LA occurs at a rate higher than in most communities of all population sizes in America, according to neighborhoodscout.com.  Most criminologists agree that several factors are contributing to the decline.  We have one of the highest incarceration rates in the world; there has been an increased police presence; there are security cameras everywhere; the aging population; and programs to help both the youngsters and those in need can all be attributed to the decline.

So while our physical bodies and personal property in the material world are safer, our identity, privacy, passwords, infrastructure, and other digital collateral are more at risk than ever.  On a daily basis, companies are getting probed and breached yet might not know or simply might not report it.  I bet, however, if someone threw a rock smashing their lobby window, a couple Five-O's will be on the scene taking statements.  The company, local employees and the police will have a BOLO issued and everyone will be on heightened alert.  There might also be additional security measures taken, tempered glass, CCTV, key card entry and other physical protection mechanisms.

We readily deploy layered security for our physical property with locks, alarms, dogs, cameras, window bars, weapons, panic rooms, etc all within the context of what we are trying to protect.  We should do the same for our digital assets.  Imagine if we took the same safeguards (or paranoia in this case), albeit with different technologies, to protect our bits and bytes.  Yes, there will still be breaches but maybe things like D/DoS, SQLi and other well known vulnerabilities can be greatly reduced since we do have the technology to protect against such attacks.  It just has to be deployed. 

We thwart criminals and protect our personal physical property with a vast array of mechanisms and we feel/are secure...maybe we should take that same focus, fear and fever in protecting our digital self.  Then, as you peel off the pixilated mask you'll hear, '...and I would've gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for those meddling firewalls!'

ps

Related:

• Why Cyber Crime Is Now the Top Threat Facing U.S.
• FBI Uniform Crime Report
• Violent crimes in U.S. down fifth year in a row, says FBI
• Cyberattacks Abound Yet Companies Tell SEC Losses Are Few
• Crime in Los Angeles is down so far in 2013, report says
• Hackers Are Multiplying and Targeting the U.S.
• Crime Rates Are Down -- But Why?
• The 5 biggest online privacy threats of 2013

Technorati Tags: crime,cyber security,risk,safety,ddos,breach,attacks,digital,physical,personal,police,law enforcement,afm,silva,security

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