IT PAYS TO PROTECT VITAL DATA FROM CYBER CRIMINALS

Do you own and control your identity?

Many people will answer that with the computer and the internet they are not sure any more. There is so much electronic information about people in those machines in banks, supermarkets, schools, government offices, hospitals or some Web site — all containing some detail a merchant of deception could manipulate for personal gain if he or she gets hold of it.

In the old days the storing and sharing of information was an expensive, arduous task. The “grandparents” of our modern-day computers were “analytical machines” — tonnes of metal that took too much room, chewed up electric power and processed little information.

Moreover, an operator of this invention had to wait an hour or two for it to warm up before it was ready for punching in data. But over the years, these machines evolved and became smaller and more efficient.

We even coined an intimate terminology for it – “personal computer, or the PC. Supported by the information superhighway (later the internet), the PC not only made it possible to compress, store and process vast amounts of data, but also allowed it to be transmitted easily and over long distances.

It certainly made life easier. What we are not sure about, however, is if it made it any better.

All over the world, people are getting apprehensive by the apparent lack of privacy in the use of new technology like the internet and mobile phones (the line between the computer and the phone is getting blurred).

And it gets bad when a breach of privacy is a result of what has come to be known as “identity theft”.

Identity theft refers to the use of personal information (name, ID no, birth date, credit card details, phone number, e-mail address, etc) by an impostor to obtain credit or services without the owner’s knowledge.

In Kenya, this criminal activity is causing some concern, although the magnitude and seriousness are yet to match those of the Western world where more business is being conducted over the virtual world rather than the real world.

We have witnessed cases of fraudulent insurance claims and crooks stealing a dead person’s identity to vote on their behalf.

Since the banks allow the online transfer of money, a “bad guy” can use your credit card to empty your bank account, lavish it and even file a bankruptcy case on your behalf.

Identity on the internet is everything. There are no faces and fingerprints here; it is all a pin-and-password affair.

So how does a thief get sensitive personal information?

Sometimes the fellow chatting you up could also be “shoulder surfing” on you as you punch the keyboard with your credit card number.

It could be combing through rubbish for unshredded paper containing bank statements and other records, or it could be hacking, where an expert circumvents the security system to access information illegally.

The situation is not made any better by organisations that collect more personal information than they need and who also fail to store safely or destroy it once they are finished with it.

Personally identifiable information (PII) has become an asset which could even be sold at the market place. Advertisers would not mind sending you an e-mail and an SMS on some new products and supermarkets would be happy to tail your shopping habits with the loyalty cards which they issue you with.

There is nothing wrong about that if they used it only for the intended purpose, which normally is to appropriate their stock levels.

So you buy red wine and pumpkin every Friday? No problem. “Customer Behaviour” records will ensure you are not disappointed.

The fancy ways of doing business in the digital world also call for a new regulation. If unchecked, identity theft incidence could see people stampeded out of the virtual world and thus stifle e-commerce altogether.

But as we wait for someone to come up with policies and laws, it would be helpful to reduce or minimise the risk of becoming a victim by being mean with information and regularly checking your financial statements.

There are more sophisticated tools and techniques that large organisations can deploy to de-identify data. They include encrypting, deleting (NULLing), replacing, substituting or mixing the data.

Since the benefits of using technology outweigh the costs, we should be willing to trade off with some of our privacy. There is no way we will ever go back to some manual systems.



SOURCE: DAILY NATION