News
To catch an identity thief
News that hackers are selling the financial details of thousands of British citizens has UK authorities scratching for clues and longer-term solutions. Heidi Leslie looks at what is being done about it and suggests New Zealand ups its vigilance.
News this month that bank accounts and codes belonging to thousands of Britons are being sold on the internet has come crashing down on a country still reeling from the fact that UK government CDs containing bank details of 25 million people are still missing.
The rise in identity theft and the difficulty in tracking the hackers and thieves has now prompted a call for the Home Office to fund a central e-crime unit and for the lawmakers to look at whether extra protection powers are needed.
Britain is not alone. Canada introduced an Identity Theft Bill last month which would make identity theft, including selling and even only possessing another person's information, a criminal offence.
South Australia already has similar provisions, albeit limited to situations where there is an intention to commit a criminal offence such as in the case of selling data to someone so they can then assume a false identity and commit crime.
New Zealand's Crimes Act has some provisions to deal with fraud and some cyber crime but nothing specifically covering the theft or possession of another person's information.
Under our Crimes Act it is a crime to use someone else's document for the purpose of obtaining property or a service. Hacking into a computer system is now illegal as is intercepting private communications, including emails and text messages - but this is limited to situations where a message is actually intercepted during transmission - a message sitting on a cellphone or in a computer inbox is not considered as "intercepted".
Although there may be gaps in our current legislation, it is debatable whether stricter laws are the answer. The United States was one of the first countries to introduce identity theft laws but just last month, the US Federal Trade Commission reported that in 2005 identity information was stolen from 8.3 million American adults.
Certainly it may be time for New Zealand to introduce specific identity-theft provisions in the Crimes Act, but the best protection from identity theft will always lie with individuals. The office of the Privacy Commissioner is a good place to start. Its website offers good, practical advice on how to protect your personal information in New Zealand. A five minute investment in www.privacy.org.nz may help save stress, time and money.
