Identity Theft As a White Collar Crime

Identity theft is a white-collar crime. A white collar crime is a crime that is committed by one person in the course of his or her occupation. This simply implies that identity theft is a crime committed by people who perform fraudulent and malicious activities within the vicinity of their jobs like stealing their company’s secrets and using these for his or her own financial gain. While it is not safe to assume that identity theft cases will significantly decrease in the future, it would still be very helpful for any company to continually upgrade their security measures against identity theft. Here are some advices on how various companies can protect themselves and their employees from being victims of identity theft:

1.Your computer server should be in a secured location and only people whom you trust and whose identities you have verified should have access to this computer. Computer servers maintain the integrity of your company’s data and facilitate the transfer and storage of these within the system. It is therefore imperative that you protect it from potential breach to avoid data from being compromised.

2. When an employee resigns from your company, your human resource department, in connection with your information systems department, should immediately process the removal of the said company employee’s network access as soon as possible. This would prevent resigned employees from still gaining access to your company’s system after they resigned. It is also important that employees are provided with exit interviews that will ensure that although they have left the company, they will still maintain its integrity.

3. A strict implementation of a company-wide computer and physical security policy should be put in effect to ensure the security and reliability of each individual employee and the various data that they hold in their hands.

4. Install identity theft protection tools that feature audit functions that regulate and record network activities. These programs should always be utilized to perform regular monitoring activities so that any suspicious endeavor can be immediately detected.

5. Your company should invest in encryption software. This program transforms your data into something that is unreadable to anyone except those that contains the encryption technique that is embedded within the data. This guarantees that your sensitive information and valuable records will be protected even if you send them over the net as they cannot be read even if they are intercepted by any third party with malicious intent.

6. Employees should be trained on basic precautionary measures to prevent themselves and their computers from being targets of identity theft criminals. They should be informed that emails containing links from unknown sources should never be clicked because doing so can invite spywares form getting inside your computer. They should also be informed of the proper disposal of information, both soft and hard copies. They have to be aware that the data printed on any paper containing valuable information about the company’s clients or employees can be used as an entry tool in gaining access to their company’s system and eventually lead to a large scale identity theft issue.

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