The March against ID Theft
It’s called Identity Theft, and it has no trouble establishing an identity of its own; in fact, it’s the hottest new crime in town. Here in Washington state, Attorney General Rob McKenna has allocated unprecedented resources and new attorney positions to fight this fastest-growing form of theft. His site reports here on the problem and what he’s doing about it.
Why is this crime getting so much attention today? The arrival of Identity Theft marks an entirely new segment of criminal activity, one which threatens to infiltrate all the classic criminal harbors, including organized crime and rackteering. After all, why bother with the clumsy risks associated with guns, drug runners, and bank tellers when all you really need in order to score big is some computer experience and a little effort?
The United States Senate took action Thursday to raise the stakes on this high-tech crime, voting a tough new bill out of Judiciary Committee that promises to up the penalties, expand the definitions, increase protections for consumers, and generally elevate the stature of ID Theft as a Federal crime. Read Senator Feinstein’s report on the bill here.
You can bet that as technology gets more highly leveraged in the commission of crime, law enforcement will fight back with their own volley of sophisticated high-tech prosecutions (and of course, the defense bar will meet the challenge on its end as well). And just as video games and other forms of electronic entertainment accelerated technological innovation in the PC industry, the new game of one-upsmanship between criminals and law enforcement is likely to spawn whole new technologies and industries. You can already buy Identity Theft insurance, and most banks are now offering ID Theft protection services to their customers. The biometric industry is going to go through the roof, just watch. Even my new tablet PC has a biometric fingerprint reader built-in. What’s next, voiceprint-savvy cellphones?
RP