Preventative measures essential to information security planning. Essay

1.1 PROBLEM DESCRIPTION AND MOTIVATION
As techniques used by hackers continue to become more complex and sophisticated, the ability for information security measures to match and counter these attempts is crucial to the livelihood of secure information in this case, as it specifically pertains to social media and nontechnical user exploitation. Thus, the culture of information security is dynamic and the managers and team members responsible for the upkeep of this sensitive information must consciously and actively monitor systems for threats past, present, and future. Due to the rapid expansion of ecommerce and advertisements present on commonly used websites such as social media platforms, credit card and other billing information is easily compromised or obtained from many sites who fail to continuously monitor their systems for breaches and attacks from external sources. The preset information users voluntarily provide for social media sites and online shopping mediums create further opportunities for hackers to exploit account holders and steal information that can potentially destroy the financial status of the affected party to a point that can be devastating and permanent, causing widespread panic among developers and consumers alike. Due to the volatile nature of information technology protocols and maintenance, the motivation created by the consumer demand for competent products and services that exceed their expectations force information technology innovators and developers to continuously evolve and cater to the segment of the market which it is to serve. With regards to identity theft and fraud, the ability of an organization to keep consumer information private and secure can severely hurt or help the reputation an organization maintains in the market and impact how they are perceived by potential customers and investors. Another problem that has become a concern to be dealt with involves the preventative measures essential to information security planning by over confident managers who fail to properly complete adequate risk identification, assessment, and control processes for each independent element involved in the information security operations analysis.
PATTERNS OF IDENTITY THEFT
This portion of our survey paper will discuss what has been found on the patterns of identity theft. With the data collected by dozens of organizations, including government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and credit reporting agencies, patterns of identity theft and the extent in which they occur have been analyzed. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a report that estimated approximately 8 million individuals in 2005 had experienced losses due to identity theft, which totaled in $16 billion in damages. Typically it is the insurance companies and businesses that end up being responsible for these damages. The individual may take some losses related to the time spent in attempt to resolving the issue and the minimal expenses also related to that. For example, CALPIRG a public interest research group, released a survey that estimated the average time an individual spent recovering from identity theft and its associated issues was 175 hours over the span of two years. Along with all that time spent, individuals also experienced emotional distress and mistrust.