Identity Theft
Department of Veterans Affairs Officials announced Thursday that the laptop containing personal data on over 26 million individuals was returned this week and it appeared the database showed no signs of being either copied or tampered with.
While the head of the VA may breathe a little easier today, identity theft is still an enormous problem for many. Victims not only lose financially, but the time and stress of undoing the damage can drag on for years.
In an effort to combat a growing problem, several states have instituted a policy that would allow consumers to impose a credit freeze on their records. Any time a request to create some form of financial account (bank account, credit card, etc.) is made it is run through one of the three major credit bureaus; Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. A freeze would require the credit bureaus to request a pre-arranged personal id to ensure the applicant is who they claim to be before releasing the information. Without the o.k. of a major credit reporting company, any institution would deny the request.
Currently California, Louisiana, Texas, Vermont or Washington allow residents to apply a voluntary credit freeze and Missouri residents would undoubtedly benefit from similar rules. Yet, as the Kansas City Star reports, federal legislation might weaken such rules. It would supplant state laws allowing consumers to request a credit freeze by only allowing a request after becoming a victim of identity theft.
Identity theft is expensive, time-intensive and ulcer-inducing. Any step in the direction of providing consumers with greater control over who is able to access their credit will help reduce the pain.
You would think that at the very least VA could spend a few dollars on a high quality file encryption software like StompSoft's Digital Vault ( http://www.stompsoft.com/digital-vault.html ) so at the very least, if this were to happen again, they could say the data is encrypted and would be extremely hard for anyone to access. Of course that is probably wishful thinking on the part of this poster. I just wonder when data security will be taken more seriously by all of us.
Posted by Tessa on Wed., Aug 16, 2006 at 9:48 PMThe End of Identity Theft; Can you post this on your Blog?
Motioncodes is a new science that has actually been around for thousands of years. For a moment, think about how you distinguish one person from another. What is recognized and stored in memory? How is this information gathered? What sets us apart to make us unique? Answer – people subconsciously signaling their behavioral codes (state of mind) through body language. Without realizing it, we reveal who we are and our intentions. The progression of motioncodes: from the cave drawings of our distant ancestors to paintings, photography, to film, and finally computers-allows us to quickly and remotely (via any surveillance camera) digitize and store human body movements that are unique to everyone-just like fingerprints. Those movements are converted to a 6 digit ‘rotation number’ which is different for everyone on Earth and cannot be deciphered. Passers-by would be analyzed for matching information to establish and verify identity and pinpoint their whereabouts. Probable crimes, terrorism and identity theft can be monitored 24/7 and as result crime would be impossible to commit. Eventually security and law enforcement would be replaced by robots. However, in the U.S. there are millions of people that make a living from fighting crime: police, lawyers, prison guards, private security and the media. Many of these people would lose their jobs. Obviously, the CRIMINALS and the CRIME FIGHTERS would try to stop the new crime prevention technology. We submitted motioncodes to the government, security agencies, and the media and with no surprise, we have received no response! What to do? We are going directly to the public and forming a membership organization ‘The Preventech Foundation’ to influence these CRIME FIGHTERS to introduce motioncodes crime prevention technology and replace the present archaic methods. The implementation procedure – motioncode chip can be put instantly in any surveillance camera. That is all it takes to be protected by the National Prevention Network. Please contact us and we will send you the details about the preventive devices and systems motioncodes@yahoo.com
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Posted by business applicant tracking on Sun., May 6, 2007 at 1:08 PM
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