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Notification Laws Doesn't Slow Identity Theft
In 2003, California's SB 1386 went into law. The law required businesses that suffered data breaches to disclose the breach to all those exposed. The idea was that notifying people would reduce identity theft. Over the last five years, 42 other states had enacted similar laws. But have these laws had an impact on the rates of identity theft?
According to a study conducted by Carnegie Mellon University the answer is no. Researches could find not statistical link between the breach notification laws and rates of identity theft.
The conclusion matches what I would expect. Data breaches are not the same as data thefts. A data breach is most likely just an error and the data usually ends up in the trash. A data theft is the result of a deliberate act where the data is most likely being used for nefarious purposes.
Laws should allow some flexibility for a business to alert consumers when a real theft occurs but doesn't raise an undue scare for a lost tape that can only be read by a few machines.
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Identity Theft Quiz?
Javelin Strategy & Research, the company that releases the definitive annual report on identity theft has launched a new site to help people evaluate their risk for identity theft. It is well done and worth a few minutes to help you evaluate your risks.
Take the quiz.
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Sloppy Data Management
While most data breaches are simple mistakes, it is these holes that real crime rings exploit to steal data. So where are the most common data breaches from? According to a study by Verizon Business Security the problem is sloppyness. The study found that eighty-seven percent of data breaches could have been prevented with reasonable security precautions like applying security patches.
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