Identity theft is the fastest growing form of fraud in the United States with an estimated 9.9 million Americans falling prey in 2008 - an increase of 22% on the previous year - according to figures released by a Congressional Research Service report into trends and issues relating to identity theft.
Online identity theft has been highlighted as a growing problem and is a key area for concern when consumers make online purchases and use services such as internet banking. While secure password encryption and data protection procedures make online shopping and online banking safe in the majority of cases, new types of computer memory currently under development in labs around the country are raising lots of interesting questions about data storage and whether or not password protection will be required for those upgrading computer memory capabilities in future.
Currently, RAM memory does not store data when the computer is turned off. So however many times you enter your credit card information or personal details such as name, date of birth, social security number, telephone number or address, the information is not stored when the computer is turned off.
However, researchers are working on many new types of memory including non volatile main memory as a means of speeding up how long it takes the computer to turn on and increasing how much apple memory or PC memory fits in to a machine. These next generation computers could soon be a reality if research into developments such as phase changing memory continues apace as it has done in recent months. Although these super charged new memory forms are excellent news for computer users who want an altogether more streamlined performance from their machine, the possibility of RAM that retains its memory also poses a number of security questions.
The new forms of non volatile main memory (NVMM) will retain information such as credit card numbers in theory for years after the computer has been switched off. This becomes an issue for those wary of identity theft as a stolen computer could yield all of the tools needed for the thief to assume the role of the original PC owner. Access to other sensitive information such as invoices, business proposals and contracts between consumer and supplier could also be compromised.
One group of researchers at NC State have been tackling this very problem and brainstorming ways to make new generation computer memory totally secure. They have developed a hardware encryption system, called i-NVMM that determines what information is and isn't needed by the processor, encrypting data that isn't needed to make i-NVMM extremely secure.
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