Identity Hack! Is Your Company Next?

Abstract

Identity theft affects the lives of countless Americans and is the fastest growing crime in America. Most instances of identity theft are attributable to breaches of privacy or confidentiality. Professional accountants, especially management accountants, internal auditors, and external auditors, are uniquely positioned to help in the design of controls that prevent or detect and correct the effects of identity theft. This paper provides an overview of identity theft and the associated risks and exposures. In addition, the paper addresses the challenges and opportunities that privacy and confidentiality issues present to management accountants and other members of the accounting profession. The paper concludes by describing procedures that organizations and individuals can use to prevent and detect identity theft, along with procedures to implement when privacy problems are discovered.

Keywords: cybercrime, ecrime, identity theft

JEL Classification: M4