The new service will alert consumers when their personal information is being traded online.Consumers will soon be able to benefit from the same anti-fraud services that banks and financial services companies enjoy, with a new service from online risk management company Cyveillance and Intersections Inc., an identity theft protection company.
Intersections will introduce a range of new products at the end of third quarter that combine Cyveillances online intelligence to alert consumers when their personal information is being traded online, executives from the companies said.
Cyveillances technology continuously monitors the Internet for consumers stolen identity information, which is traded on Internet Relay Chat (IRC) servers, phishing Web pages and online discussion groups, according to Todd Bransford, vice president of marketing at the Washington-based company.
Cyveillances main business is identifying online threats to enterprises, such as hacks, data leaks, and copyright or brand infringement. However, the company collects reams of data about individual consumers who have had their identities stolen as a byproduct of its work on behalf of corporations, Bransford said.
In the last two years, Cyveillance has uncovered 1.2 million unique consumer credit card numbers offered for sale on the Internet, in addition to personal information such as Social Security and bank account numbers, he said.
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"Typically the person who did the identity theft is not the person who steals the identity. They monetize the information by selling it to other people in open markets," he said.
Intersections sells consumer identity theft protection services, like credit monitoring, credit management and identity theft protection services, in its Identity Guard suite. The company also markets its services as branded offerings through leading banks and financial services companies, said Amy Gergely, head of corporate communications at Intersections.
The partnership gives Intersections the exclusive right to offer Cyveillances services directly to consumers.
With the service, which does not have a name yet, consumers will be notified when their personal information has been compromised, allowing them to take action to stop fraud before it happens, Gergely said.
The service will complement credit monitoring services offered from the major credit bureaus, which are often slow to hear about compromised accounts from banks and financial institutions, she said.
"Theres a gray area between when identity information is stolen and when its used to perpetrate fraud. Thats a critical period of time for consumers and for financial institutions and lenders, because its when you can stop a loss from occurring," she said.
The data from Cyveillance will be just one component of Intersections new products, Gergely said.
The company will also integrate data from its credit monitoring division, which watches credit applications at major banks for signs of fraud, as well as fraud detection data from ID Analytics Inc. and public information from LexisNexis Seisint division, she said.
"The service will allow consumers to access the same information that data brokers have on them," she said.
Intersections will sell the new service directly, and through white-label agreements with its partners in banking and finance, as well as new partners.
The service will be priced similarly to the companys Identity Guard subscription service, which costs $12.99 a month.
The new Intersections services could be more effective than what is currently available to consumers under U.S. law, said Avivah Litan, an analyst at Gartner Inc.
"A free credit report one time a year just doesnt cut it as a prevention method," she said. "Consumers understand that, but Congress doesnt or hasnt.
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"You have to give consumers a window into the data thats collected on them. … Consumers have a right to know how its used and whether its being manipulated," she said.
But Intersections Gergely hopes that the new products her company will offer will ease concerns about identity theft, rather than stoke them.
Laws such as Californias S.B. 1386 have produced a string of dire-sounding warnings from companies about massive data breaches, such as the recent disclosure about a possible 40 million credit card accounts exposed in a hack on credit card processor CardSolutions Inc.
However, only a tiny fraction of the individuals whose information may have been exposed in attacks actually end up being victimized, she said.
"Breach notification laws are important, but were concerned about the noise that they create that makes people worry," she said. "From our perspective, these new products will cut down on that noise."
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