Identity Theft: Crime In The 21st Century

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Identity theft Identity theft is a crime that has existed for centuries. However, modern technologies such as the Internet have duplicated and simplified the different ways to commit this crime. Not so long ago, birth certificates or other identification documents were rare; it was thus not too difficult to pass yourself off as another person. While people have more identification documents and other personal data nowadays, identity theft and/or identity fraud are becoming more and more common crimes. Most of these data are stored online, hacking a storage device could provide therefore numerous of identities to use. Furthermore, many services are arranged online, as explained earlier. When a criminal obtains personal data, he can easily use …show more content…

This committee was advised to create a legal instrument in order to combat cybercrime. As a result, the Council of Europe (COE) has opened the Convention on Cybercrimes for signature on 23 November 2001. The convention entered into force on 1 July 2004 and has three main objectives.

The first objective is “to harmonize the domestic criminal substantive law elements of offences and connected provisions in the area of cyber-crime.” The laws concerning cybercrimes differ from country to country. Criminals can take advantage from this difference, by executing their crimes from countries that have lenient or no laws in this area. In order to prevent this from happening, the Convention on Cybercrime aims to harmonize the existing national laws.

Secondly, the convention aims at “providing for domestic criminal procedural law powers necessary for the investigation and prosecution of such offences as well as other offences committed by means of a computer system or evidence in relation to which is in electronic form”. As said before, criminals make use of complex techniques and are often hardly detectable. Improving investigative techniques will be very helpful when tracking felons. While the first objective was to harmonize laws, this objective is to improve these law powers. In combination with the improved investigations, this should simplify the prosecution of felons of …show more content…

The GCA aims at “enhancing confidence and security in the information society”. Furthermore, the GCA is one of the key elements in the international cooperation in this area.

International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (IMPACT) Founded in 2008, IMPACT is the youngest of the organizations regarding cybercrimes. However, with 152 member states, it is definitely not of the least importance. Similar to the GCA, IMPACT aims at ensuring and enhancing the safety of ICTs. This organization is “the first comprehensive public-private partnership against cyber threats”. Governments, the public industry and academia support their work. In 2011, IMPACT became a key partner of the ITU.

United States of America (USA)
The United States of America are the country that is being attacked the most, but is also the top source for cyber attacks. Furthermore, the USA is one of the few non-COE member states that have signed and ratified the Convention on Cybercrimes. However, they have not signed the additional protocol, since it conflicted with their constitutional

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