Federal Ministery of The Interior Warns of Identity Theft and Identity Abuse

"In the area of online-banking a worldwide damage of several billions has been caused since 2004." This statement comes from the survey "Identity Theft and Identity Abuse", which was published by the German Federal Ministery of the Interior a few days ago. The statement continuous: "Attacks are getting more and more professional in terms of both the technical sophistication and the chosen targets." The four notable scientists, who wrote the study on behalf of the German IT Security Agency, believe that the danger is not limited to online-banking. They also see a considerable risk for access data used for e-mail accounts, social online-networks, and auction platforms. While in the past most attacks were conducted by laymen, nowadays site operators are facing well-organised criminals trying to maximise their profit. As counter-measures the authors of the survy name, among others, cryptological solutions, which can be used for authentication, digital signatures and encryption. The survey is available for free on the internet: survey