Why & How Does Identity Theft Happen? When people think of identity theft, they picture their wallet getting stolen and someone using their driver’s license and credit cards. However, with the Internet becoming increasingly important in our everyday lives, identify theft has moved online and into our computers and smart phones.
Today viruses, phishing and identity theft are big businesses, often run by organized crime rings. Identity theft is about information and money. It is the action of big business and not just random things that happen to people. Identity Theft, Hacking, Scams, Phishing, Viruses and Malware are all parts in an industry that makes a tremendous amount of money. These criminals gather information through trickery, theft and mining the information that you thoughtlessly place on the internet. The information is then held for ransom or sold to other criminals that use it to perform additional illegal activities.
Does Identity Theft Impact Housing Authorities? As a Housing Authority you have been entrusted with Personally Identifiable Information (PII) from many people. You are responsible not only for your own information, but also the information of your co-workers, residents, and vendors. This is a serious responsibility. You must take great care not to accidentally allow other people access to that data. Your actions might not seem significant at the time, but could turn into a big problem. If your computer gets infected with viruses or you fall prey to one of the many online phishing scams. By potentially opening up your user account or computer, you could create a huge problem for you and your housing authority.
