The History of Identity Theft - Booming Technology, Booming Crime
The early history of identity theft is closely allied with the history of the credit card. First appearing in American literature in the mid 1990s, identity theft's first targets were said to be consumers. Credit cards, by their sheer number and indispensable role in consumerism, could be said to have spawned a history of identity theft in America.
In the mid 1990s, 65% of American adults owned, at least, one credit card. That number has since exploded by, at least, an additional 3 million new credit cardholders each year.
After a decade, the history of identity theft was marked by a rapid growth in criminal activities that seemed to be spurred by each new growth in the credit card industry.
By 2005, 67% of all reported identity theft victims complained to the Federal Trade Commission that the thieves misused their credit card accounts. That translates into a staggering 6.5 million identity-theft victims in a single year alone.
History of Identity Theft - Playing Catch-Up
It is a phenomenon that has displayed itself not only in the history of identity theft and credit cards but in any industry that grows at such a fast rate: it becomes more susceptible to fraud designed by those taking advantage of rapidly emerging opportunities for crime.
Since industry growth happens at lightning speed, businesses cannot adapt fast enough so criminal elements can take advantage of outdated security and laws. This is most apparent in the history of identity theft over the Internet.
New Antivirus software cannot keep up with the rate at which new malware (whose sole reason for existence is to harvest personal information from your PC!) is written. And even the government has found it hard to keep up.
History of Identity Theft - Dangers of e-Government
In July 2005, a resident of Hamilton, Ohio fell pray to identity thieves after they got her personal info from the Hamilton country website. The thief went shopping on her card, spending $20,000. The woman has been very careful with her personal data, but her state's e-government program made her vulnerable.
The Hamilton county clerk's office eventually removed personal data from the county website. But since it involved 20 million pages it took one month.
The same incident has happened in other parts of America. As late as the spring of 2006, Florida had the personal info of its citizens (from 1978!) published on the Internet.
It was unbelievable that, despite wide knowledge about the history of identity theft and the damage it had left in its wake, the Florida state government had published online driver's license, social security, and even bank account numbers!
