The system that Networks Update critiques is IMAG ("Identity Managed Access Gateway") by Apere, Inc. The way it works is by an innovative way of permitting or denying access to applications that are critical to a business; the IMAG systems knows who should and who should not have access to those critical files and applications because it has "auto discovery capabilities" that immediately click into place when any attempt is made to enter into privileged files.

But what makes this system unique - in an IT world that already has firewalls and other seemingly effective preventative measures - is that, according to the Mark Rhodes-Ousley, author of the book Network Security, The Complete Reference, IMAG automatically creates and manages "...access policies based on all sources of identity information in the network," and avoids wasteful use of IT resources "for manual network access provisioning and policy management."

While the future success of innovations like IMAG is positive and hopeful but yet to be proven, there are other ongoing efforts to come up with ways to safeguard identity security for individuals. One of those efforts is the new research center - the Center for Identity Management and Information Protection - being developed at Utica College (Kiernan, 2006). According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the center is necessary because - in the words of Thomas Longstaff, deputy director for technology at the center - there are some viable research projects ongoing and run by experts, but they're "few in number and widely scattered."

Said Longstaff: "We desperately need coordination." The executive director of the center, Gary R. Gordon, calls the center a "clearinghouse for research conducted by others" who are working on identity theft issues. The center will "shed light on practices and technologies that could block identity theft from happening in the first place," said Gordon. The annual budget at the start of the center's operation is only $500,000 - half of which comes from federal grants and the rest from two corporate sponsors, LexisNexis and IBM.

There are three academic partners as well (none of which will provide funds for the center),...

The article, by Vincent Kiernan, reports that "outsiders" may well have gained access to Social Security numbers and other personal information of nearly a quarter of a million students. One of those schools is Western Illinois University - where a hacker apparently accessed credit card numbers and Social Security information for 240,000 "current or former students." And at the University of Kentucky, a "thumb drive" (portable device) - which stored 6,500 Social Security numbers - was stolen from a faculty member.
And so, while law enforcement reports that a very small amount of stolen identity information is actually used by the thieves who hacked through firewalls and into protected files, it must also be emphasized that having any personal business information accessed by unknown interlopers is placing those violated at great risk.

Works Cited

Congress Daily. (2006). Reid Becomes Victim Of Identity Theft. Retrieved 29 August, 2006 from http://www.congressdaily.com.

Foust, Dean; & Ryst, Sonja. (2006). ID Theft: More Hype Than Harm. Business Week, Issue

3991, p. 34-36.

Kiernan, Vincent. (2006). New Center at Utica College will Study Identity Theft. Chronicle of Higher Education, 52(45).

Kiernan, Vincent. (2006). Two Incidents Put More Than 200,000 Students at Risk of Data Theft.

Chronicle of Higher Education, 52(43).

Networks Update. (2006). Apere Launches IMAG Security Appliance. Retrieved 29 August, 2006 from Worldwide Videotex /

http://www.marketresearch.com.