Online Identity Theft

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Online Identity Theft What is identity? The word itself can have so many connotations, definitions, and subjects tied to it. However, the most basic definition of our identity would be the qualities, beliefs, and baggage that make up each person. An identity is something that each of us have a claim to from the moment we are born to even past our death. Through the recent technology surges however, our most basic claim is now threatened. We have all heard about crime on the streets but with the creation of social networking websites, online shopping, and just interaction websites we are making ourselves vulnerable to a new type of crime: online identity theft. Identity theft is the term for the criminal act of stealing your personal information to clone your identity with the intent to use it without your knowledge or permission to commit fraud or other crimes. This is when thieves typically obtain and exploit personally identifiable information about individuals or various credentials they use to authenticate themselves, in order to impersonate them. In today’s world this is a very serious issue due to all the repercussions it may have such as, the ruination of credit scores, bankruptcy, and many other consequences. Online identity theft is a very serious problem which we are facing in the 21st century and we should begin taking steps to protect our identities such as placing personal information on the internet should be censored and limited. How does online identity theft occur? Identity theft is a growing concern because of the ease of the attack and how it is very accessible to the thief. It can be done from anywhere and to anyone. Due to how technology has developed, there are many different methods on how online identit... ... middle of paper ... ...rough the use of censorship, the government is now controlling websites which can be built. thus no fake identities or phishing sites. Just reliable sites that you can trust. Throughout the years, as the looming threat of identity theft grew, many people have tried finding different ways of avoiding it while still maintaining the freedom of the internet. However, as each of these methods are continuous beaten by online thieves, we have come to a point where censorship is our only option. When many people here the words censorship, they fear that it is a barrier placed to stop their expression of right or freedom. However, in this instance it is the wall that protects us from a world of hidden robbers who in a few strokes of the keyboard can hold our entire world in the screen of their computer. While it is not a favorable option, it is the only option we have left.

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