Phonebusters published some interesting information on their web site and I thought that I should share it with all of you. They released their statistics for December 2009 and those stats include a snapshot of the year in identity theft. Those statistics seem to indicate that fewer people fell victim to identity theft, but the average loss was much greater.

In 2008, 11,511 reported being the victims of identity theft. These people were victimized out of a total of $9,697,199.05. In 2009, only 11,135 people reported being the victims of identity theft but they lost a total of $10,993, 348.72. If you do the math, this means that in 2009, the average identity theft victim lost $987.28.

Those of you who follow this spot know that I am a big fan of Phonebusters and that I like to re-print and promote their statistics on identity theft in Canada. Further, you may have noticed a rather troubling trend - identity theft seems to be on the rise.

With that trend in mind, I was especially happy to see Phonebusters' October numbers. In October 2009, only 295 people called Phonebusters and reported being a victim of identity theft! These people were defrauded out of a total of $609,933.79. Those numbers compare favourably to September 2009, when 808 people were defrauded out of a total of $1,143,206.95.

It turns out that, if you are so inclined, you can buy the 'Adrenalin botnet kit for $3,500. The 'premium product' includes built-in exploits (like a keystroke logger), the ability to steal digital certificates, the ability to encrypt any data that is stolen, the ability to conceal itself from security tools...and complimentary 24/7 technical support.

Oh yes, cyber criminals have become so brazen that they now openly offer technical support to anyone who can step up and buy their products. Not only is this a sad sign of how ineffective our current model of law enforcement is against cyber-crime, it is also a sad sign of the changing face of cyber-crime. Think about it - if they offer technical support, it must mean that they want anyone (with a criminal mindset and $3,500 kicking around) to be able to use this tool to set up botnets and steal as much personal data as possible.

Phonebusters came out with its October report and I wanted to pass along an update so that you could get some more information on the state of identity theft in Canada. September 2009 was another bad month for identity theft - Phonebusters reported that 808 people called in to report identity theft. These people lost a total of $1,143,206.95.

When you compare those numbers to August, you will see that the number of cases reported dropped while the total stolen went up a little bit. In September, 1,468 people reported being victims, but they only reported having been defrauded out of $1,056,880.49. If you work out these averages, it means that in August, the average loss was $719.95. In September, the average loss increased to $1,414.86. The average loss per case increased by over 90%...in one month.

Yesterday, I wrote about the most recent privacy problem to emerge from Alberta, Canada.  The Alberta health department, long considered a leader in moving medical records online, admitted that a virus had possibly stolen over 11,000 medical records.  The political/public-relations side of a privacy crisis is always intensely interesting and this crisis is no different.  In response to the latest problem to emerge from Alberta, another province (which is also leading the way to putting our medical records online) chimed in to say that their records are completely safe.

Deanna Allen, a spokesperson for eHealth Ontario, told the Toronto Sun that her organization is, "fully patched for all five known variants of this virus."  Allen also reassured Ontario-ans (is that a word?) that eHealth has "a bevy of staff charged with keeping information secure and updates its protections routinely."

If you live in Alberta, Canada, you may be in for a rather troubling letter from Alberta Health Services.  The agency recently acknowledged that a virus which infected their systems may have stolen thousands of personal health records.

Alberta Health Services examined all their logs and compiled a list of 11,582 people whose medical records may have been stolen between May 14 and May 29. Those people are going to get a horrible letter in the mail, informing them that their personal health records may not be so personal anymore.

Phonebusters, Canada's Anti-Fraud Call Centre, has long been one of my favourite organizations.  Their entire purpose is to raise awareness of and protect people from scams.  You know those horrible lottery scams?  It is doubtful that as many people would know about those if not for the people at Phonebusters.

I also like Phonebusters because they keep the best statistics on identity theft in Canada.  While they will never claim that all cases of identity theft are reported to Phonebusters (studies indicate that only 0.5% of cases of identity theft are actually reported to the centre), we need some way to measure a problem if we hope to solve the problem.

Yesterday, I wrote an article about how Canadians can reduce their risk of falling victim to an identity theft by only giving their Social Insurance Number to those organizations that absolutely require it, and that are mandated to receive it.  In that article, I promised to do a little bit more research into Social Security Numbers so that I could give American readers the same advice I gave to Canadian readers.

I managed to find a couple of great sources and learned a whole lot about how Americans can protect their Social Security Numbers.  In the course of learning about this, I was happy to discover that American and Canadian laws are surprisingly similar when it comes to protecting these very important pieces of identification.