Ethical issue: identity theft

Name:

Date:

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Quick Questions

Shade in the A or B circle for each question.

1. What is identity theft?

A Using someone's stolen personal information to pretend to be them

B Deleting a person's account so they cannot log in

2. Which stolen details from a data breach could be used for identity theft?

A Full name, date of birth and address

B The colour theme of the company website

3. After a breach exposes customer details, what is the likely harm to the people affected?

A Fraud and financial harm, such as loans taken out in their name

B No harm, because the data was only copied and not changed

4. Which statement describes an organisation's ethical duty?

A Keep the information safe only if a law forces it to

B Protect the personal information it holds to reduce the risk of identity theft

5. A breach exposes customers' details. What is the ethical response?

A Stay quiet to protect the company's reputation

B Warn affected people promptly so they can protect themselves

Match the Pairs

Draw a line connecting each item on the left to its match on the right.

Left column		Right column
1identity theft		Aencrypt(customer_data)
2duty to warn		BDelaying notification leaves victims unaware, so criminals have time to commit identity theft and fraud. The organisation should warn affected people promptly.
3Stolen details from a breach can be used to open a loan in the victim's name		Cfraud = stolen_name + stolen_DOB + stolen_licence
4An organisation has an ethical duty to protect personal data to reduce the risk of identity theft		DIdentity theft is not losing a device. It is the use of someone's stolen personal information to pretend to be them and commit fraud.
5if breach_found: wait_6_months_then_notify()		EUsing someone's stolen personal information to pretend to be them and commit fraud
6identity_theft = losing your own phone		FAn organisation tells affected people quickly after a breach so they can protect themselves from identity theft

Definitions

identity theft

Fill in the Blanks

Complete each line of code by filling in the missing parts.

______________ is posing as another person

Stolen data from a ______ can fuel fraud

IF breach = TRUE THEN ______(customers)

Organisations have an ethical ____ to protect people from identity theft

Fraud can cause _________ harm to victims

Spot the Error

Shade in the letter of the line that contains an error.

Question 1

A IF stolen_data = FALSE THEN

B warn(customers)

C offer_credit_monitoring()

D END IF

Question 2

A stolen ← breach.get_details()

B IF stolen.has_tfn = TRUE THEN

C risk ← 'low'

D warn(customer, risk)

E END IF

Question 3

A def warn(name, email):

B msg = 'Data was stolen'

C send_email(email, msg)

D print('Warned' name)

Question 4

A FOR EACH user IN breached_list

B freeze(user.account)

C notify(user)

D count ← 1

E END FOR

Question 5

A loss = len(fraud_amounts)

B if loss > 0:

C compensate(victim, loss)

Answer Key

Ethical issue: identity theft

Section A: Quick Questions

A — Using someone's stolen personal information to pretend to be them

A — Full name, date of birth and address

A — Fraud and financial harm, such as loans taken out in their name

B — Protect the personal information it holds to reduce the risk of identity theft

B — Warn affected people promptly so they can protect themselves

Section B: Match the Pairs

identity theft → Using someone's stolen personal information to pretend to be them and commit fraud

duty to warn → An organisation tells affected people quickly after a breach so they can protect themselves from identity theft

Stolen details from a breach can be used to open a loan in the victim's name → fraud = stolen_name + stolen_DOB + stolen_licence

An organisation has an ethical duty to protect personal data to reduce the risk of identity theft → encrypt(customer_data)

if breach_found: wait_6_months_then_notify() → Delaying notification leaves victims unaware, so criminals have time to commit identity theft and fraud. The organisation should warn affected people promptly.

identity_theft = losing your own phone → Identity theft is not losing a device. It is the use of someone's stolen personal information to pretend to be them and commit fraud.

Section C: Definitions

identity theft — Using someone's stolen personal information, such as from a data breach, to pose as them and commit fraud. Organisations have an ethical duty to protect people and warn them.

Section D: Fill in the Blanks

identity theft is posing as another person

Stolen data from a breach can fuel fraud

IF breach = TRUE THEN notify(customers)

Organisations have an ethical duty
to protect people from identity theft

Fraud can cause financial harm to victims

Section E: Spot the Error

A — The warning should be sent when personal data HAS been stolen. Testing for FALSE means customers are only warned when nothing was taken. It should be IF stolen_data = TRUE THEN.

C — A stolen tax file number gives criminals enough to commit serious identity fraud, so the risk must be 'high', not 'low'. The line should be risk ← 'high'.

D — The arguments to print() must be separated by a comma. It should be print('Warned', name).

D — The counter of protected victims must increase by one each loop. Setting count to 1 each time means it never counts them all. It should be count ← count + 1.

A — len() only counts how many fraud transactions there were. The financial harm is the total amount stolen, so it should be loss = sum(fraud_amounts).