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Synthetic ID Fraud a Growing Threat to Banks, Say Security Experts
By Brian Orsak
printSecurity professionals are warning banks of an emerging type of identity fraud called synthetic ID theft that victimizes financial institutions directly rather than preying on their individual customers. Synthetic ID theft--whereby criminals create an ID using a mixture of stolen data and fictional information--is considered more difficult to identify than the theft of real identities. That's because the individuals whose information is stolen never become aware of the theft, according to Chris Jay Hoofnagle, a law professor with the University of California at Berkeley. Because few victims step forward to claim fraud, banks often write off the stolen dollars as...
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Instances of cybercrime and identity theft in New York City rose 50 percent over the past five years, while some municipal precincts are citing the violations more than any other crimes.
The number of suspicious activity reports filed on potential identity theft increased over 120 percent between 2004 and 2009, the head of the U.S. Treasury Department's financial intelligence unit said Monday.
Reports of check fraud tied to identity theft rose in 2009 even as instances of related loan and credit fraud fell, according to a study released Friday by the Identity Theft Resource Center.
As many as 85 percent of banks have implemented adequate compliance systems aimed at rooting out identity thieves and limiting the number of data breaches, according to analysts.
The Federal Trade Commission Wednesday again pushed back the enforcement deadline of a controversial rule requiring financial institutions and "creditors" to take steps to prevent identity theft-related data breaches.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has given financial institutions an additional six months to develop programs to prevent identity theft due to confusion in the industry over the scope of the agency's rules.
Congress is considering a request that would allow the Federal Trade Commission to levy fines against companies with poor controls over sensitive customer data, according to a report released Tuesday.
Financial regulatory examiners will be checking that banks are not overly relying on their existing monitoring systems to comply with new federal rules meant to curb identity theft, say consultants.
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