IT'S what makes you unique among the Earth's 6.65 billion humans
- your identity. Your name, your date of birth, where you live, who
you barrack for, even your pet's name - private details now so
easily made public on social networking sites that attract 500
million users around the world.
To an identity thief, these personal details are all they need
to flesh out a fake ID that can let them clean out your bank
account or set up a false credit card, loan, welfare payments or
even a passport.
With 200,000 Australians now on social networking sites such as
Facebook, MySpace and Bebo every day, security experts and consumer
groups are predicting this year will be a bumper one for ID
fraud.
Security software company Symantec's global internet security
report for the last six months of 2007 shows malicious attacks are
now focused on trusted websites putting the attackers in our
midst.
"We used to tell people not to go down the dark alleys of the
internet, but that doesn't apply today," Symantec Australia chief
Craig Scroggie says. "It's not the back alleys, it's the main roads
like the social networking sites where the attackers are actively
seeking us out."
...
Where it's happening is the most significant twist, with the
latest data showing that trusted sites such as Facebook and Second
Life are being infiltrated to strip individuals of their personal
information.
...
The BBC's Watchdog program recently uncovered that murky truth
with a Facebook experiment using a fictional character called Amba
Friend. Watchdog set up a Facebook account for her and sent out
messages to 100 random Facebook users asking them to be her friend.
Of those, 35 strangers said yes, including 23-year-old Scott Gould.
Watchdog used the personal details on Mr Gould's profile, including
his date of birth, to apply for an online bank account and credit
card in his name. Both were instantly approved.
Software security provider Sophos followed suit, fabricating a
character called Freddi Staur, who lured 82 users into handing over
their personal details, including their phone numbers.
A spokesman for the Australian Consumer Association Choice,
Christopher Zinn, says there is a false sense of security online
that leads people to behave more recklessly than they would in the
real world.
"Would people stick personal details like pictures of themselves
growing up on a lamppost outside their house or on a public
bulletin board in the supermarket?" he asks.
"The exuberance and the excitement that these sites generate
tend to work against the cautions. But once you give those details
out, you've lost control of them forever."
Digital strategist and researcher Julian Cole did his thesis on
the way young people use social networking. He says security just
doesn't concern them.
"This generation is much more forward in the information they're
giving over to sites like Facebook," he says. "There's no
reservation in revealing date of birth, schools, football teams,
even mobile phone numbers. They don't have that worry about
security."
...
The Privacy Commissioner Karen Curtis says "it is likely that
individuals posting information on social networking sites would be
exempt from the coverage of the Privacy Act" as the act doesn't
extend to individuals or organisations based overseas such as
Facebook and MySpace.
In his recent report on identity crime, Federal Home Affairs
Minister Bob Debus pushed for new laws against identity theft,
including victim certificates issued by the courts to help undo
damage done by identity thieves.
Only in South Australia and Queensland is it an offence to
assume or steal another person's identity. By comparison, identity
theft is a federal crime in the US with penalties of up to 15
years' jail and fines of $250,000.
AUSTRALIAN Privacy Foundation chairman Roger Clarke says that
beyond companies and criminals, there's also reckless behaviour
coming from individuals using social networking sites.
"We've always assumed fraud was a threat in big organisations,"
he says. "Now we've reached the stage where individuals are a
threat to one another in handling data like disclosing photos of
someone off their brain, which a boss might see before a job
offer."
But Mr Clarke argues stricter laws aren't the answer.
"When somebody uses a social networking site, it's a
consent-based arrangement," he says. "What we don't want to do is
wreck the balance between freedom and protection."
Ultimately, he believes web users might find their own
solutions. "As we get a bigger pile up of embarrassment and
significant loss, we'll see a lot more use of pseudonyms, like
spelling your first name in an interesting way, so that only your
'group' knows who you are."
