Essay On Identity Theft In Australia

In an Australian society with increasingly complex social and technological advances, the current issue of identity theft and fraud has progressively become more controversial and contentious. The commonly accepted definition of identity theft; the theft and use of an another individual’s identity and information, is applied to facilitate a diverse variety of criminal offences related to theft. Within the federal state of Queensland, the current legislation relating to identity theft or fraud is found in the Queensland Criminal Code and Civil Liability Amendment Act 2007. The purpose of this legislation is to protect victims while acting to prevent and prohibit acts of criminal theft from occurring.

A rapid upsurge in identity theft has significantly risen. It is enabled by technological advancements and an increase in current internet usage throughout Australia. This has encouraged current debates; resulting in implications for law enforcement bodies, businesses and governments. As the Australian laws are recent, there have been no published decisions that have considered the meaning of a new provision. The Criminal Code Act (Cth), Financial Transaction Reports Act 1988 (Cth) and Migration Act 1958 (Cth) are intended to protect society from practices of identity theft; though these legislations have been unsuccessful in adequately protecting and covering the demands of identity theft in Australia.

In all other states and territories, identity theft is not recognised as an offence. Some possible technological solutions for overcoming this issue range from all forms of biometrics (fingerprints and iris recognition technology), encryption of transactions, authentication and public infrastructure, data profiling and firewall security. The only limitation to practicing these innovations is the issue of