Ripped Off: Identity Theft – A View from the Financial Services Industry

Originally published in the Technology Assurance & Advisory – April 2006

Identity fraud is increasing dramatically. And that is just the reported cases. APACS, the UK payments organisation, reports that the cost of online banking fraud more than doubled in the first six months of 2005 compared to the same period in 2004¹. Similarly, ‘card not present’ fraud via the internet, phone or mail order swelled by 29% in the same period. In fact, internet fraud is said to account for a quarter of all losses.

Security of customer information increasingly makes the headlines. There has been a raft of recent examples. These include revelations that Britain’s top-selling tabloid was able to buy confidential customer data from a bank’s call centre staff in India, reports of an attempted theft of £220m using keystroke loggers from Sumitomo bank, plus several stories of major financial institutions losing backup tapes containing the personal details of a large number