Economics of Identity Theft: Avoidance, Causes and Possible Cures

ISBN-13: 9780387345895 / Angielski / Twarda / 2007 / 184 str.

L. Jean Camp

Opis

Anyone who has ever bought a car, rented an apartment, had a job or conversation that they would rather not see in their employee review may find this book of interest. There is a collision occurring in identity management. Identity technologies are problematic, and many see light at the end of the identity theft tunnel. Yet the innovation is driven by individual tendencies to seek convenience and business imperatives to minimize risk with maximized profit. The light is an oncoming identity train wreck of maximum individual exposure, social risk and minimal privacy. The primary debate over identity technologies is happening on the issue of centralization. RealID is effectively a centralized standard with a slightly distributed back-end (e.g., fifty servers). RealID is a national ID card. Many mechanisms for federated identities, such as OpenID or the Liberty Alliance, imagine a network of identifiers shared on an as-needed or ad-hoc process. These systems accept the limits of human information processing, and thus use models that work on paper. Using models that work on paper results in systematic risk of identity theft in this information economy. There are alternatives to erosions of privacy and increasing fraud. There is an ideal where individuals have multiple devices, including computers, smart cards, and cell phones. Smart cards are credit card devices that are cryptographically secure. This may be shared and misused, or secure and privacy enhancing. Yet such a system requires coordinated investment.

Recenzje

From the reviews: "This book is primarily concerned with the interplay between identity management technologies and their associated economic impact. ... Overall, this book provides an interesting oversight of the economics of privacy and an overview of a range of identity management technologies in an economic context. ... It is certainly worthy of perusal, provided that its significant US bias and inconsistency in what is actually meant by 'identity theft' are recognised from the outset." (Stefan Fafinski, Journal of Information, Communication & Ethics in Society, Vol. 7 (4), 2009)

Spis treści

Identity in Economics, and in Context.- Modern Technological and Traditional Social Identities.- Identity Theft.- Who Owns You?.- Defeating the Greatest Masquerade.- Secrecy, Privacy, Identity.- Security and Privacy as Market Failures.- Trusting Code and Trusting Hardware.- Technologies of Identity.- Anonymous Identifiers.- Digital Signatures.- Strengths and Weaknesses of Biometrics.- Reputation.- Scenario I: Your Credentials Please.- Scenario II: Universal National Identifier.- Scenario III: Sets of attributes.- Scenario IV: Ubiquitous Identity Theft.- Closing.

Blurb

Today, identity is more than anything, economic. The technology used to create, utilize and protect identities is increasingly ill-matched to the economics and uses of identities. Identity theft is the misuse of private authenticating information to steal money. Protecting identity requires privacy. Proving identity requires exposing information. Together, these points illustrate that the near-term search for cheap identity management is a formula for long-term fraud resulting in ever-increasing identity theft.

The Economics of Identity Theft: Avoidance, Causes and Possible Cures, a professional book, discusses privacy as multi-dimensional, and then pulls forward the economics of privacy in the first few chapters. This book also includes identity-based signatures, spyware, and the placement of biometric security in an economically broken system, which results in a broken biometric system. The final chapters include systematic problems with practical individual strategies for preventing identity theft for any reader of any economic status. In conclusion, four startling previews of the future are written as scenarios.

The Economics of Identity Theft: Avoidance, Causes and Possible Cures is designed for a professional audience composed of practitioners and researchers. This book is also suitable as a secondary text for advanced-level students in computer science, economics and several other disciplines.