A Quick Look at Corporate Identity Theft

Many people are by now aware of the growing incidents of identity theft, which have brought financial woes to unsuspecting victims. Identity theft, however, is not just confined to individuals; businesses of any size can also fall victim to corporate identity theft. Just as in personal identity theft cases, corporate identity thieves can assume a company's identity and use it to transact business, such as making purchases using the company's finances and/or credit lines. There are also corporate identity thieves whose intentions are to sabotage a company by maligning its reputation or destroying its data.

Authorities who have investigated cases of corporate identity theft said that most of these thefts were facilitated by the growing use of the Internet in businesses. One can easily find identifying information about a company through the Internet, including logos, patents, trademarks, and web domains. Phishing is a technique where fraudsters send a virus to a company's employee through emails. When the virus is activated, the phishers are allowed a “back entry” into the company's system.

Other more sophisticated hacking techniques have recently been developed by fraudsters, which gives them entry into a company's data systems without resorting to phishing. One of these techniques is keylogging, which allows hackers to track the keys struck by a user, including their email and company network passwords.

Countering Cyber Hacking with Password Management

Cyber criminals (particularly hackers) have become more cunning and cutting edge when it comes to penetrating personal and corporate accounts and systems. Over the years, these online offenders have become bolder, and their attacks have become grander in scale. Some have attempted to hack into the websites and networks of various governments and multinational corporations. Fortunately, there are safeguards that can keep cyber hackers at bay. In fact, securing an account, network, or device can be accomplished with something as simple as password management.

Passwords used on and offline should be as long as possible, and must contain alphanumeric characters. Throwing in symbols, and using both upper and lower case letters in passwords, is also recommended. The longer and more complicated the code is, the more difficult it will be for hackers to crack.

Unfortunately, even the most complicated passwords can be cracked. For this reason, one must be one step ahead of cyber criminals, and change passwords every three to six months. Do not use variations of the old code. As much as possible, create an entirely new one that does not have any connection with the last password that was created.

Finally, invest in a device that has the capacity to encrypt sensitive information such as passwords. This is important for businesses and organizations, since they operate more complex technologies than private users. Password management software usually centralizes password authentication, and effectively eliminate security breaches.