Children can be hit worst by data breaches

The study’s findings claim that millions of children are victims of identity fraud that can lead to families being millions of pounds out of pocket. The study also indicated that children can be far more likely to have their information compromised, and researchers saying that children are targeted more because they offer a “blank slate” when it comes to their identities and financial histories.

Children are reportedly targeted for the “value of their identity”, and because they do not tend to have debit and credit accounts, automated cross-checking can be far harder when a fraudster does steal a child’s identity.

In terms of information, a child may be far less savvy when it comes to identifying threats against them when online as well. This can leave them more vulnerable to giving up information online which can all be used by criminals and fraudsters to steal their identity.

Al Pascual, Senior Vice President of Research, and Head of Fraud & Security at Javelin Strategy & Research, the authors of the report, said:

“Child identity fraud is a serious problem and is frequently overlooked as the public focuses on high-profile breaches involving the personally identifiable information of adults. Child identity fraud has unique characteristics that make it particularly hard to prevent, though there are steps that parents and guardians can take to help keep children safe.”

Many parents know the risks of letting their children loose online, but a lot of the time the focus can be on making sure they are not exposed to anything explicit. But if that’s all we’re looking out for, are we missing opportunities for fraudsters to cleverly take information from a more vulnerable child when they are using the internet unsupervised?

The findings of the study certainly give parents some real food for thought.