It's central to every element of terror operations

Identity theft has been at the forefront as a societal problem for several years. The public has been made aware of the dangers of identity theft, particularly to personal and financial security. Many studies have been completed concerning the size and scope of victimization. The government, credit card and other financial service industries have responded by putting tighter controls in place. On the other hand, the insidious threat of identity fraud has not been similarly acknowledged. Both the public and private sectors must understand and confront the enormity of the identity fraud problem so that it can be solved. Identity fraud, which encompasses identity theft, is the use of false identifiers, false or fraudulent documents, or a stolen identity in the commission of a crime. It often emanates from a breeder document created from fictitious or stolen identifiers. The breeder document, such as a driver’s license or birth certificate, is used to spawn other documents, resulting in the creation of a credible identity which allows a criminal or terrorist access to credit cards, employment, bank accounts, secure facilities, computer systems, and the like. Once a criminal or terrorist has an established identity, he can use it to facilitate a variety of economic crimes, drug trafficking, terrorism, and other crimes. At one time, not that many years ago, a breeder document, such as a driver’s license, meant something; it could be used to establish a person’s identity with little or no question. Now, technology has enabled criminals to produce fraudulent documents, which can be used to procure additional fraudulent documents. Counterfeit documents, such as credit cards, used to be easily detectable; now it is relatively easy to produce a counterfeit hologram that usually passes for the real thing. Counterfeit documents are now readily available to illegal immigrants, drug traffickers, and international terrorists. Technology and the ability of the criminal element to adapt and defeat existing identification methodologies, predicated on breeder documents that are susceptible to counterfeiting, have made it necessary to develop different, more advanced identity authentication systems. Identity fraud is a component of almost every major crime and its presence is felt throughout the world. Therefore, it is absolutely essential that the importance of identity authentication is recognized whenever the potential result of misidentification is the commission or perpetuation of criminal activity. Government and industry leadership is necessary to facilitate the development of policies and technological tools that will assure accurate identity authentication.