New Warnings on
Cyber Thieves
February 26, 2009
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Additional Insight
Identity theft means more that just financial heartache
As financially damaging as identity theft can be, it's not the worse that can happen. Medical identity theft is on the rise and in Tiversa's daily work, we've seen examples of this occuring at an alarming rate. Payers and providers both see financial losses from fraudulent billing, and patients are also harmed when they are billed for services they did not receive, or when erroneous information appears on their medical record. These can be life-threatening amendments. Any consequential inaccuracies in simple entries, such as allergy diagnoses and blood-typing results, can jeopardize patient lives.
It's not just limited to Limewire
While the featured clip clearly illustrates the issue at hand, it's important to note that hundreds of file-sharing applications exist.
Malware defeats all counter measures taken to prevent sharing
Malware designed to index and share your entire hard drive is heavily trafficked on P2P file-sharing networks and can unsuspectingly be installed on your pc. Most disclosures of this nature occur inadvertently.
Not all identity theft can be prevented with a fraud alert
While fraud alerts are a great safeguard against identity theft, they do not offer complete protection. In fact, had the family in this clip been signed up for fraud alerts, the tax return scam would not have been caught.
File spread is imminent
File proliferation is very rapid on file-sharing networks and malicious individuals swarm to harvest massive amounts of files such as tax returns, credit reports, credit card numbers, family photos, banking information, etc. It's important to act swiftly once you've been exposed to minimize the impact of criminal activity and possible identity theft.
File-sharing risk awareness is new, but the problem is not
“As the pioneers in this space, we’ve been seeing this trend continue on an upward path for the last few years,” says Robert Boback, Tiversa’s chief executive. “At this time, more than ever before, consumers need to remain vigilant of their sensitive information.”
(excerpt taken from recent study)
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