Where
Does Identity Theft Come From?
It
is usually a human issue and not about information
problems such as crashing firewalls or hacking.
While
identity theft has occurred throughout history, its
explosive growth began with the methamphetamine epidemic.
Today it is also fueled by organized crime, Nigeria,
North Korea, the former Soviet Union and thousands
of individual criminals.
Employer Liability in Identity Theft
According
to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the workplace
is the most common source of personal data loss affecting
businesses, employees and customers, and is the fastest-growing
crime in America.
The
Federal Trade Commission is the agency charged with
over-seeing how businesses handle personal information.
The FTC has established a national standard for how
all businesses must handle personal information, regardless
of size or industry type.
- The
FTC standard is one of “Reasonable Steps”
established by case law ( BJ’s Wholesale),
federal law including HIPAA and Gramm-Leach Bliley,
and state laws requiring reporting of data loss
to all potentially effected individuals.
- Potential
employer liability include multi-million
dollar fines, jail time and… most importantly…
class action lawsuits without statutory
limitation… which can be the death
of a business.
Effects on Employees, Other Individuals and Families
There
are five types of identity theft and the only one
that shows up in credit reports is financial. For
that reason, credit monitoring alone is not adequate
for protection.
The
Five Types…
-
Driver’s License
- Social
Security
- Medical
- Character
- Financial
Beware…
Most information in identity theft cases doesn’t
appear in credit reports. Instead, that data is hidden
in databases belonging to law enforcement, Social
Security Administration and national health agencies
and bureaus.
Conclusion…
An effective identity theft protection service for
individuals and families should include credit reports,
continuous credit monitoring, fraud and credit resolution
and access to top-quality attorneys.
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