Center for Identity Management and Information Protection (CIMIP)

Protecting Your Identity
New Partnership Targets Data Theft

06/28/06

FBI Exec. Ray Morrow answers a question at the launch of the new Center for Identity Management and Information Protection.

It costs American businesses and consumers a reported $50 billion a year, causes untold headaches for an estimated 10 million U.S. victims annually, and even makes it easier for terrorists and spies to launch attacks against our nation.

Identity theft is an increasingly insidious and pervasive problem—one that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies can’t tackle alone despite many ongoing initiatives. Now, with the help of a new public and private sector partnership, we won’t have to.

On Wednesday, the FBI joined corporate, academic, and government leaders in announcing a new Center for Identity Management and Information Protection (CIMIP) to combat the increasing threat that identity fraud and theft pose to personal and national security.

Led by and housed at Utica College in New York, the CIMIP will unite academia, the private sector, government, and law enforcement in driving and funding research on identity management, information sharing, and data protection. Founding partners include the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute’s CERT/CC, Indiana University’s Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, Syracuse University ’s CASE Center, Utica College, LexisNexis, IBM, the U.S. Secret Service, and the FBI.

What will the CIMIP offer? Valuable research on:

• The causes, early detection, and prevention of identity fraud and theft;
• The evolving threat from cyber criminals, insiders, and organized crime groups;
• The impact and role of policy decisions, legislation, and regulatory actions;
• The improvement of identity theft authentification systems to reduce fraud and improper payments, and protect national security; and
• The role of enabling technologies to protect information, facilitate privacy, and share information.

The center will also bring together a wide variety of experts and interested stakeholders to share ideas and best practices and to propose comprehensive solutions.

The payoff to the FBI and other law enforcement agencies? A better understanding of the increasing complex issue of identity theft, which will help us identify intelligence gaps and develop new strategies to prevent crimes and stop those behind them—including criminal networks and corporate insiders who are using increasingly sophisticated techniques such as key logging programs and phishing and spoofing schemes to gain access to databases containing vast amounts of personal information.

Ray Morrow, acting deputy director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, called the new center “an important partnership in our nation’s efforts to combat identity theft and identity fraud.” He said that the initiative “represents a significant step forward in promoting the type of cooperation that citizens expect from their government, academic, and corporate leaders.”

Resources: Center for Identity Management and Information Protection