2018: The Future of ID Theft

It’s the time of year for reflection. As MyIDCare is in the business of protecting your identity, we are reviewing the state of personal privacy and looking to what lies before us in 2018. As we outlined in our last article, 2017 was a banner year for identity thieves. If you made it through without becoming a victim of ID theft, congratulations. Given that the odds of any form of identity theft in any given year are now better than 1 in 20, that means either you’ve done a great job of protecting your privacy, you’ve been lucky so far, or your identity is already being misused and you just don’t know it yet.​

But whatever you’re doing now to protect yourself, you’ll need to up your game in 2018 because the odds against you are growing. Here are five new threats that experts are predicting. ​

• As businesses become better at preventing ransomware attacks on their systems, hackers will increasingly target consumers, holding their computers and files for ransom.
• Consumers will continue to use smartphones as our mobile wallets, and hackers will increasingly target our phones to steal financial information and security credentials.
• The “Internet of Things” will grow and criminals will become more adept at stealing personal information from devices such as home digital assistants, smart cars, smart appliances, or fitness trackers.
• Criminals will harness machine learning (aka, artificial intelligence) to automatically test and quickly improve tactics such as phishing attacks, making fake emails and malware-laden pop-up ads ever more convincing.
• Hackers will use improved crimeware technology to “spoof” wireless networks and cloud-based applications, misleading consumers to connect to the “evil twin” of a favorite website or their local coffee shop Wi-Fi network, where thieves can siphon off their personal information.

If this list has you feeling like data privacy future looks as grim, take heart. The dawn of 2018 also brings some hopeful signs:​

• While hackers are harnessing machine intelligence for crime, businesses are using the same technology to better spot and stop cyber attacks and fraud.
• In addition to offering better security tools such as alerts, more banks, credit card issuers, and other businesses are increasingly offering credit score monitoring, identity theft resources, and enhanced fraud protection as free services to their customers.
• Recognizing the impact of identity theft on their workforce and the value of ID protection, employers are increasingly providing identity theft coverage to employees.

While the future holds its share of challenges, you’re not alone in your fight against identity theft. If you can face the new year resolved to keep the spirit of vigilance, then the future looks bright. ​