911 Editorial: Looking Toward a New Era of Consumer Efficacy and Awareness

Special Edition - National Consumer Protection Week

February 2007

Reflecting on the last year:

National Consumer Protection Week (NCPW) 2007 arrives in the midst of high drama.  We have just survived one of the most harrowing years in identity theft – ever.  Thieves have grown increasingly innovative, bolder and even more callous.  The crime has expanded to previously “untouchable” areas including hospitals, schools and nursing homes.  Database breaches have reached an all-time high.  The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse announced on December 13, 2006, that over 100 million identities –one third of our population - have been exposed to the potential of identity theft since February 2005.

In just the last two weeks, the parent company to T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, TJX Cos., revealed that hackers had broken into its computer systems and accessed an undisclosed amount of personal information and potentially millions of sales transactions.  While no one has yet determined the magnitude of the breach, a number of banking associations throughout the land are reporting unauthorized credit and debit transactions, and financial institutions have begun to cancel cards in earnest.  Though TJX has been somewhat circumspect about the number, some sources estimate the potential toll at 40 million people exposed. 

When we reflect on what has happened in the arena of identity theft since NCPW 2006, the fallout is clear: as a nation, we have suffered massive personal and economic carnage.  As a result, we have begun to openly question the commitment and capacity of our public and private institutions to adequately protect our personal information.

Identity theft is financial terrorism.  It has plagued us for years.  It will be with us for years to come.  And it continues to evolve.  Sadly, we have only recently begun to take it seriously.  Indeed, in the past year we have come out from under the ether, become sensitive to certain derivations of the crime such as medical identity theft, which can be life threatening, and we are only just beginning to properly address it.

What’s the solution?

A paradigm shift in our thinking - a national commitment to enact tougher and smarter legislation, allocate sufficient public and private resources, implement stricter protocols, better train employees and better educate consumers.  A compact among consumers, businesses, government and the media to collaborate, cooperate and communicate in the escalating fight against identity theft.

The consumer has the lion’s share of power in this complex equation, which leads us to the whole point of National Consumer Protection Week – raising consumer awareness and efficacy.
 
There is an old adage: “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.”  This wisdom could not be more appropriate than here.  Consumers must take that to heart and demand that businesses accord their customers’ personal identifying information the same respect they do their trade secrets and intellectual property, and that governments are as zealous in protecting our personal information as they are covetous of our tax dollars.

New legislation—part of the equation:

Part of the solution lies in legislation that protects us where we cannot protect ourselves.  Who can know where his/her personal identifying information is at any given moment?  We continue to suffer at the hands of careless practices by the institutions that collect and store our data for a variety of purposes. 

NCPW this year comes on the heels of a massive power shift in Congress that has reinvigorated hopes of tougher legislation.  Consumers have spoken; the political leadership is starting to respond.  Constituents have demanded a new level of accountability from the institutions that collect and store their personal data.  Political leaders are making the first serious steps toward addressing our demands through legislative proposals in Congress and new laws at the state level.  While we still have a long way to go, even with the proposed bills in Congress, some of the new legislation on deck is aggressive, smart and pro-consumer, aiming to provide some kind of security net for victims.

Consumers still hold the power:

While it’s crucial to have an organized government effort to combat identity theft and security breaches, the government can only do so much to protect consumers.  Businesses respond to their customers exponentially faster than legislation can be passed and/or enforced.  This means we must continue to drive the effort.

This is a significant part of the paradigm shift that has started and must continue.  No longer can individuals remain passive observers in the fight against identity theft.  Instead, we must become proactive about securing our own identities.  We must focus attention on our bank and credit accounts, monitor credit reports, and keep a watchful eye on incompetent practices and/or scams that might put us at risk.  We must continue to demand a greater level of care.  And in the event we receive one those letters that starts with “we regret to inform you” and ends with “there is no proof that the data has been misappropriated” from an institution that has lost our information, we should demand real action: free credit and fraud monitoring immediately, and identity theft resolution if our data is used fraudulently.

There’s a sea change occurring at the consumer level.  People at all levels of the commercial financial infrastructure are starting to realize the enormous damage caused by old and careless ways of dealing with data.  By lobbying with their feet (or wallets), consumers can send the same message to business that they sent to Washington in November 2006.

The institutions that handle our data need to realize that each person affected by a security breach is someone whose life could have greatly benefited from solid data security, training and new protocols—not to mention a good dose of common sense on the part of a careless employee who was not properly trained by his or her employer in basic security practices such as not leaving a laptop full of unencrypted data in the backseat of a car or printing Social Security numbers on the outside of envelopes; or any other number of actions that defy the imagination.  Government and the media must continue to hear our voices loud and clear. And we consumers must continue to remind all the players in the financial system that we are unhappy with business as usual.  Only then will we start to truly close the gaps in security through which identity thieves access our information repeatedly.