A lot of focus is given to how Internet identity theft can affect an individual’s financial and personal life, but there is a very real threat to careers as well. This is especially true for entrepreneurs and the self-employed, since their businesses are tied in so closely with their identities. In extreme cases, Internet identity theft could potentially cause major losses for a business or cost a job seeker a position that he’d otherwise be perfect for.
The reason that Internet identity theft can have such a huge impact in the business world is that so many things in this day and age are based on your credit score. Entrepreneurs and small business owners often have difficulty getting loans and funding based on their business alone so they use personal loans to make up the difference. Employers check credit scores and criminal records of potential employees to make sure that the employee isn’t likely to steal from them. If you’re in either of these situations and someone stole your financial identity online then you could very easily be denied the loan or job that you need without even knowing why until it’s too late.
Even larger companies have problems with Internet identity theft. While they don’t usually rely on personal loans to provide funding for the business, they are much more likely to be the target of identity thieves looking for customer information. A study by Juniper Networks that was released earlier this year showed that as many as 90% of businesses have been hacked in some manner since 2010. Of the companies surveyed, 41% reported suffering financial damages over $500,000 as a result of the attacks; this figure includes the cost of analysis, contacting those affected by the data breach, improving network security and repairing or replacing compromised software or other data. Even after recovery, the company’s reputation may have a black mark that casts it in a negative light for months or years to come.
What it basically comes down to is that the damage done by identity thieves is not limited to your bank balance. Having your identity stolen can damage your employment prospects, your business goals and can damage the reputation and finances of the company your identifying information was stolen from. The longer it takes for you to find out that your identity has been stolen, the worse the damage becomes. An earlier study by ID Analytics, a well-known California research risk management company, found that out of 290 million Social Security numbers, a staggering 40 million numbers would have more than one name attached to them. This is just one of many recent reports that indicate the threat of financial fraud continues to climb. If you have not taken the time to assess your risk of Internet identity theft lately, you should.
With Internet identity theft, some victims don’t even know that their identity has been stolen until they learn they fell for one of today’s online scams and their accounts have been accessed. Likewise, some businesses don’t know that their security has been breached until data from their servers or confidential documents are leaked online. Identity thieves are living at the cutting edge of technology and continue to make use of it –honing their skills and developing new and creative ways to access and use our stolen data. Taking an active interest in protecting yourself and your business from identity thieves before a crime occurs, will go a lot farther for you than assuming that a data breach or Internet identity theft won’t happen to you or that the criminals of today are using the same tactics as last month or last year.
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