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Identity Theft: Costs More, Tech Less: Page 4 of 5

"There are a lot of cases where businesses provide the points of compromise," said Gordon.

While about two-thirds of the cases did not involve insiders, one third did. "A third of the cases involved identity theft through employment," said Gordon. "Those numbers we think are significant."

Of the 176 cases where the point of vulnerability was the offender's place of employment, 77 involved the retail industry, more than twice as many as occurred private companies, banks, or government agencies.

The report also suggests that the demographics of identity theft offenders don't conform to the conventional wisdom. "While some of the findings about the offenders may not be surprising, others seem to contradict the image that, in some ways, has been formed by default: that identity thieves are usually white males," the report says. "The results show that identity theft is a crime that minorities are just as apt to commit as whites."

According to the report, "The majority of the offenders were black: 53.8% (467). White offenders accounted for 38.3% (332); 4.8% (42) of the offenders were Hispanic and 3.1% (27) were Asian. The race for 65 of the offenders was not made available."