Security Online

Identity theft has become a huge, devastating problem in the past several years, and it often starts with information that is gained online, or with malicious spyware. Protecting your identity is an important step in protecting your computer system, but it is also important in terms of protecting your assets, your credit, and basically your life.

According to a study done in 2003, over seven million people became victims of identity theft in a twelve month period. A newer study has shown that once a person is a victim of identity theft, they will spend an average of 600 hours recovering from the crime, and those hours will be spread out over several years. The victims continue to struggle for years after the thief has stopped using their identity. Furthermore, within seven minutes of being online without any type of protection, a system has probably been compromised.

Don’t think for one minute that identity theft cannot affect you. You may think that just because you don’t have credit cards, you can’t be affected by identity theft. This isn’t true at all. Even the poorest people, with the worst credit history can be negatively affected by identity theft. You might have to pay higher insurance premiums, higher credit card fees, and higher interest rates. Depending on what has been done with your identity, you may have to constantly battle collection agencies, the IRS, and you may even have trouble finding a job. The police may even be looking for you with a warrant for your arrest! This could continue for ten or more years after the crime against you has been committed.

Identity theft is a very quiet crime. It isn’t like walking into your home, and finding that you’ve been robbed. It isn’t like being physically attacked. You won’t even know the crime has been committed against you until you are denied credit or employment, or you start getting strange notices from law enforcement and collection agencies. The crime could go on for several years before you even realize it is happening.

Unfortunately, identity theft is an easy crime to get away with. According to law enforcement agencies, out of all the identity theft crimes that are reported, an arrest is made in less than 5% of the cases. What this means to you is that if your identity is stolen, the chances are very slim that the person who did it will be caught. When it comes to dealing with the areas where you have been most adversely affected, such as credit card companies, utility companies, and the IRS, it is up to you to prove your innocence, while the real criminal is happily pretending to be you, or has already moved on to being someone else.

The easiest way to avoid these headaches is to know how to protect your identity when you are online, although you have to know how to protect yourself offline as well. Protecting your identity starts by protecting your computer system, using all of the information above, but then, there are other things you must do as well.