Justice Department Report Reveals Identity Theft is Not a Priority

Identity theft is a serious growing problem for people around the world, including over 10 million Americans, and has been put on the back burner for years according to a report released by the Department of Justice.

The internet and social media is growing faster than ever before and more people are putting their lives in the form of personal information such as your credit card numbers, social security numbers, names, addresses, and other data online. Unfortunately, fighting identity theft is a matter that is not yet a priority for the majority of Americans. This astonishing finding was revealed in a report by the Justice Department's Inspector General. The report, released March 30th, 2010, mentions that financial losses from Identity theft has reached higher than the 2005 figure of $15 billion.

Inspector General for the Department of Justice, Glenn Fine, recently said, "We found that to some degree identity theft initiatives have faded as priorities." Some people may find that it is very disturbing to know that the effort to combat identity theft has been a lagging issue since the President's task force on identity theft was initiated back in 2007.

Ever since 9-11, homeland security in general has taking the forefront of many departments within the government. Within the Justice Department's report, it states that "the specific crime of identity theft is not a top FBI priority." Ever since 9-11 many americans have appreciated agencies efforts dealing with homeland security such as the FBI. In contradiction, the report also acknowledged that identity theft can be the component to crimes such domestic abuse and terrorism.

A large number of identity theft related crimes are initiated from overseas sources. Would it be safe to say that homeland security goes hand in hand with battling identity theft?