"My mother said to me, ‘If you become a soldier, you'll be a general; if you become a monk, you'll end up as the Pope.' Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso."

-- Pablo Picasso, Spanish Painter, Draughtsman, and Sculptor

Monday, March 15, 2010
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Identity Management PDF Print E-mail
Ask about the fastest growing crime in the United States today and most experts will mention some form of identity theft.  From online account hijacking to new account setups using stolen Social Security numbers and other personal information, both consumers and companies suffer equally from identity theft.  Although typically thought to affect affluent consumers, ID theft can affect anyone - from the well-established consumer to 18-24 year-olds just starting out.

Just as ID fraud affects consumers across all demographic boundaries, fraud also poses a major problem across multiple industries.  According to recent statistics, the cross-industry fraud loss numbers are staggering:
  • $27.6 billion per year for insurance
  • $12.3 billion for the automobile industry
  • $4 billion, or 10% of gross revenues, for the telecommunication industry
  • Business, commercial and homeowner fraud losses estimated at $1.8 billion
  • Life and disability fraud at $1.5 billion
Fraud issues for companies often translate to increased costs for consumers as well.  For example, insurance fraud costs the American public approximately $96.2 billion per year in increased premiums.  Companies trying to address the myriad of regulatory issues, phishing, pharming and other fraud factors often heap more and more processes on their customers.  These processes push consumers to do business at branches or directly with call center customer service representatives - away from the less expensive online and call center Integrated Voice Recognition system (IVR) channels - and add considerable costs for companies.  At the same time, consumers have grown tired of jumping through time-consuming hoops and constantly divulging personal information to earn the right to do business with financial institutions, brokerage houses, Telco/wireless carriers, insurance companies and healthcare providers.

The three most common approaches in dealing with ID theft:
  • Prevention - Establish a heightened level of security to block the possibility of offering product or credit to the wrong person. In most every case, increased security protocol results in decreased convenience for the consumer. Unfortunately, this is a never-ending approach as ID thieves will always seek out the Achilles Heel. In the meantime, the ID thieves will follow the path of least resistance. Unless your firm provides a relatively strong level of security, they will flock to you. In addition to passwords, PINs, tokens and shared secrets, some companies are beginning to employ biometrics. Fingerprints, voiceprints, facial recognition, arterial recognition and retina scans are a few of the technologies being considered. Additionally, document destruction firms are becoming more prolific, addressing the fears of the corporate and general public.
  • Recovery - Many organizations have accepted that they are unable to eliminate ID theft and therefore their attention is focused on recovery. ID theft insurance is acquired, on behalf of their company, their customers, or both. Services are secured that will assist their customers with recovering their identity after the fact. This is much like washing your hands after catching a cold, but if nothing else it provides a feeling of security.
  • Access Management - Every business has areas of their facilities that must be protected from the public, their customers and even their own personnel.  Many businesses are highly exposed and yet unaware.  Some have a false sense of security resulting from their current outdated strategy.

Bottom Line...

Mainstream Technologies has a solid understanding of ID theft and the many strategies to address it multiple forms.  Other than locking down someone's credit at all three bureaus, or locking everyone out of your business, there are no sure answers.  But we are here to assist you in determining what approach best meets the needs of your company and your customers.  Our focus will be to simplify the customer experience while eliminating costly processes that yield little value to your bottom line.
 
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