Tuesday, May 24, 2005

PR disaster in progress, slow drip edition

Identity Theft, James Kasprzak of the National Defense University at the NCC AIIM Educational Seminar

Kasprzak characterized the current debate over identity theft as the “perfect storm” of technological change, citizen perception and criminal activity. Throughout his presentation Kasprzak stressed the connection between privacy and identity security.

He talked about his own experience of ID theft. He noticed that for eighteen months a mysterious 37¢ had been added to his VISA bill. It turned out that someone in Eastern Europe had a scam where he was charging 37¢ on millions of VISA cards. VISA knew but took no action. Kasprzak’s response was to change to MasterCard. (This is an excellent example of how poor security and poor customer service can combine to create a public relations disaster. The Identity Theft expert at the National Defense University is telling every audience he talks to that VISA does not take security seriously.)


Consumers can report ID theft to the Federal Trade Commission.

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