The Effects of Identity Theft on Internet Users, Essay Example

The internet has come to revolutionize global communication by virtue of the fact that it provides reliable, cheap and speedy communication by way of transmission and reception of information between individuals and groups. As laudable as the internet and its gains are, so is the trouble with the creeping siege of miscreants on the internet expressed in the form of identity theft. It is somewhat understandable to conceive identity theft within the context of traditional criminology but sadly enough the canker has been woefully brought unto the internet system with a degree of impact that is very unpalatable to all users of the internet. It is for this reason that this essay will be tentatively arguing that identity theft and all its related appendages are a scourge to personal security of law abiding citizens and consequently constitutes a misdemeanor that has to be dealt with alacrity and rapidity.

Suffice to begin by making a general introduction to serve as an orientation into the tentative subject matter. According to the United States Department of Justice, identity theft and identity fraud are “all types of crime in which someone wrongfully obtains and uses another person’s data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain.”[1] It is also worth noting that, often times identity theft and identity fraud are used interchangeably to refer fundamentally to one and the same thing but security pundits maintain a that there is an inherent form of difference both in definition and proliferation even though often times they both tend to have the same impact on the victims through the gains illicitly accrued by the perpetrator.

In our day and age, the internet has become virtually everything from shopping, healthcare, finance, education, politics and culture, especially in the industrialized world. Meanwhile, the dot com buzz is steadily catching up with the developing world in a manner that experts believe will take the world in a storm. Just as this is the case, unscrupulous entities with an incarnate “genius” are able to illegally acquire the identity of internet users which basically enables them to be able to assume the form of the bearer of the identity to carry out any form of transaction that would have otherwise being the exclusive preserve of the true bearer of the identity. It is further easier by the fact that the internet and most the contemporary transactions that come with it are so impersonal that verifications cannot be immediately established. For instance, if it had to do with fingerprints or other biometric data then impersonation would have been contained to some reasonable extent.

Hackers and other informational technology experts are able to track and acquire personal identity details of people which make it easy for them to illegally access the email accounts of their victims. Once the email account has been entered illegally, the criminal is able to assume the identity of the legitimate bearer of the email address and thus engages in personal communications with contacts of the legitimate bearer of the email account. This brings to the fore very disturbing questions about privacy and the extent to which security breaches threaten legitimate communication. It is very uncomfortable to have people poaching into ones communication system, moreover initiating illegitimate communications that may tend out to profit the intruder. Given the rise in internet identity theft, suspicion is also mounting on the authenticity of some of the emails that circulates between people. We are therefore faced with the consequence of undermining the speed and reliability that email communications are supposed to be offering.

Closely related to the foregoing phenomenon is the question of stealing credit and debit card numbers to engage in illegal online financial transactions. Clearly, a victim of an internet credit card theft can be likened to a man with a leaking pocket. It is an effect that is very demoralizing by every standard. Of course the absurdity with the proliferation however is the glaring state of law enforcement agencies to come out with a comprehensive one-time measure to break down the menace. It is even worrying to know that in some developing countries, there are no legal statutes governing the adjudication and prosecution of cyber related criminal activities[2], which tells all concerned persons that we still have a long way to go in our quest as users of the internet to enjoy unimpeded security of our internet experiences.

[1] See the following website for an extensive discussion of the United States government’s policy on the crime of identity theft. http://www.justice.gov/criminal/fraud/internet/

[2] Government Bodies Must Play Their Part in Securing Against Identity.  Theft  Accessed from http://www.infocycle.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=43&Itemid=43