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Too Many Cooks: Congressional Efforts to Enact Personal Data Security Legislation

By Scott S. Christie
July 13, 2006

The security of personal data in the custody of third parties is increasingly at risk. Electronic files of personally identifiable information that can be used to open unauthorized lines of credit; loot existing bank, credit union, and brokerage accounts; and assume the identities of the affected individuals continue to be a highly sought after commodity by cyber thieves. This problem shows no sign of abatement.

The 2006 Identity Fraud Survey Report released by Javelin Strategy and Research in coordination with the Better Business Bureau paints a stark picture. While the number of adult victims of identity fraud has decreased slightly from 10.1 million in 2003 and 9.3 million in 2005 to 8.9 million in 2006, the total fraud loss has progressively increased from $53.2 billion in 2003 and $54.4 billion in 2005 to $56.6 billion in 2006. Correspondingly, the mean fraud amount per fraud victim evidenced a rise from $5249 in 2003 and $5885 in 2005 to $6383 in 2006.

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