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Journalism of Courage
Quick: What was the colour and make of your firstborn8217;s second car? In what year did your father remarry? What were your mortgage payments in 1993? Better get used to questions like this. As a new line of defence against identity thieves, a rapidly growing industry of data brokers is rushing to the rescue, aggregating public and private databases, and then selling that information in the form of multiple-choice questions to companies eager to trip up impersonators.
Instead of using information you give to your credit-card company 8212; your pet8217;s name, or your favorite movie 8212; this type of verification makes use of information about you gleaned without your knowledge from public databases. London-based credit agency Experian, for instance, culls information from hundreds of sources 8212; including courthouse records, electoral registries and BT 8212; to supply its 200-plus British clients with so-called challenge questions. If a customer arouses suspicion, the credit-card company sends the name to Experian and gets back, seconds later, a list of questions that can be put to the customer to verify his identity.
What happens, though, if you can8217;t remember which bank refinanced the loan on your first home? Or what if wrong information on some database causes you to answer a given question incorrectly? Authentication firms say that it8217;s up to their clients 8212; the banks or credit-card companies 8212; to build in some kind of tolerance for wrong answers.
Out-of-wallet authentication may inadvertently make some kinds of identity theft easier. Because it dramatically increases the value of the data held in credit bureaus and databases, it is more tempting for employees of these organizations to pilfer the data.
Seattle-based ex-con Ronald Hemphill told Newsweek that he once paid more than 60 people with insider database access in many organisations to send him information on usually wealthy individuals he chose to impersonate; a complete profile of a target cost less than 1,000. His fraud ring rapidly flipped through the profiles during out-of-wallet tests, routinely defeating them.
8212;Newsweek / BENJAMIN SUTHERLAND
