Identity crime in sights of Australian Attorney-General
- 25 July, 2012 15:47
- Comments
Federal Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon.
In response to concerns about identity crime, the Federal Government’s proof of identity system, Document Verification Service (DVS), will be introduced to private sector industries including banking and telecommunications from 2013.
The DVS is an electronic online system used by goverment agencies to check whether a proof-of-identity document that has been presented by a person applying for a benefit or service is authentic. If a document matches information held by the issuing agency, a positive response is returned.
According to a statement on the Australia Government Attorney-General’s Department website, the DVS does not store any personal information.
“Requests to verify a document are encrypted and sent via a secure communications pathway to the document issuing agency,” read the statement.
A spokesperson from the Attorney-General's Department said that it expects to be able receive applications for private sector access to the DVS from the end of 2012.
"This would allow the private sector to commence verifications of documents from September 2013, possibly earlier," the spokesperson said.
Speaking at Security 2012 in Sydney, Attorney-General Nicola Roxon told delegates that the move will save businesses money by reducing unnecessary manual processes, data collection and record keeping.
“It will also help to support law enforcement agencies such as the Australian Federal Police [AFP] in their efforts against identity crime,” she said.
The Federal Government set aside $7.5 million in this year’s Budget to extend the DVS to the private sector from 2013-14.
“The DVS will provide a tool to help reduce the incidence of identity fraud and improve the integrity of consumer identification used by the banking and finance, telecommunications, aviation and maritime security industries,” read the Budget 2012-13 documents.
Roxon also updated delegates on the Trusted Information Sharing Network (TISN) for Critical Infrastructure Resilience, a network designed to share information on issues such as cyber security, terrorism and pandemics.
“TISN has already helped to raise the awareness of risks in critical infrastructure, leading to improved techniques to assess and mitigate risks and better national security resilience for relevant organisations,” she said.
“We hear that the information being shared is helping senior management put national security threats into context. It is also driving practical solutions and cultural change to help organisations become more resilient, so they can manage threats and incidents.”
Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick
Follow CIO Australia on Twitter: @CIO_Australia
Recommended
Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.
- Bookmark this page
- Share this article
- Got more on this story? Email CIO
- Follow CIO on twitter
-
Why change management doesn’t work
-
Larry Page wants to see your medical records
-
Dual-Persona Smartphones Not a BYOD Panacea
-
After two-year hiatus, EFF accepts bitcoin donations again
-
CIOs struggle to deliver timely mobile business apps: survey
-
Best Practices for Migrating to SharePoint 2013
This white paper details a number of best practices for migrating to SharePoint 2013. These best practices also apply to migrations to most earlier versions of SharePoint. Download now. -
Advanced Persistent Threats and Real-Time Threat Management
Businesses face a constantly evolving threat landscape. One of the greatest challenges is presented by advanced persistent threats (APTs), which are sophisticated, multi‐faceted attacks targeting a particular organisation. Mitigating the risk of APTs requires advances beyond traditional layered security to include real‐time threat management. This whitepaper describes the nature of APTs, the risks they pose to businesses, and techniques for blocking, detecting, and containing APTs and other emerging threats. Read now. -
Top 10 tips for Migration
As users bring multiple devices to the workplace, IT departments need to have a single view of all their mobile devices. Find out how to build a secure and reliable management platform for next generation mobile computing across multiple platforms. Click for more!
Get exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis. 
