Identity Theft in the Workplace

By Isela Reyes

Identity theft can occur when someone takes and uses your personal information, like your name, social security and credit cards without your knowledge or permission and uses them to commit fraudulent crimes. Identity theft has been plaguing people and businesses alike for years now, growing as scam artists are making a career out of taking advantage of people. By focusing their efforts solely on scamming people, they have come up with more sophisticated ways of taking advantage of people and businesses alike. There are many common ways that people fall victim to identity theft and also very simple ways that you can protect yourself from identity theft.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, about nine million people become victims of identity theft in the United States each year. Workplace theft can occur when company information or information about customers has been leaked to outsiders. The biggest reason for identity theft among businesses according to the article is simple carelessness. It can be passed through someone not properly disposing of important documents, papers left on a desk or by not having properly stored computer files. This is a common occurrence in many businesses, and a study done by the Ponemon Institute found that eighty five percent of businesses have been exposed to the type of data breach that involves the loss of a customer or employee or consumer.

There are simple ways to protect you and your business form identity theft and the most common methods that thieves use to take advantage of people. For your personal papers, something as simple as investing in a paper shredder instead of simply tossing your papers in the garbage can help to protect you. Dumpster diving, when someone rummages through your dumpster or trash bins, is a common way that identity thieves use to target their victims. Another way to protect yourself from identity theft is by using and creating passwords to protect all your important files and by reducing the amount of usage of your social security numbers. Many identity thieves pretend to be financial institutions or companies and send out spam e-mails and pop up messages to people in hopes that they will reveal some personal information that they could use. They also go directly to the companies such as phone and banking institutions that you solicit, and pretend to be a customer so that the companies will give them access to your personal information. To avoid fraud in these situations, it is important for people to be more careful and suspicious of people or companies who are asking for personal information.

We are living in a time where people are making a career out of scamming people by using very sophisticated methods of stealing from you. Many times it takes a while before victims of scam artists are even aware they have been scammed. This can become an especially sticky situation for businesses that have to protect the privacy of their customers and employees alike. If there should be leak involving customer information, they can find themselves in hot water by the customers who may seek legal action against them for not properly protecting their information.

Birth control in High Schools

By Isela Reyes

Teen pregnancies have skyrocketed in the past few years throughout the country, raising questions over what needs to happen to protect and educate these children who are having children. It is more common these days for a young, single woman to have a baby then in years past. A lot of that stems from several factors including not enough resources and lack of education. Recently, a controversial idea has been raised as a response to a recent spike in teen pregnancies in a Denver area High School, the decision on this case may have the power to radically change the country’s belief system and pave the way for other controversial decisions.
According to the Denver North High School’s health clinic, at least one teenage girl enters a day wanting to do tests to determine if she is pregnant, and more often then not, she is. The city of Denver has more then double the amount of teenage birthrates than the countries average, leaving many to wonder if this is something that officials may do to help these rising statistics. Health clinic officials at the North High School are aware of the area’s inflated birth rates as they examine many teenage girls who come to their clinic for testing. As a result the school officials are considering a controversial proposal in which the high school clinic may offer contraceptives to students. The contraceptives will only be available in the schools six health clinics and will only be available to students.
Many people object to the proposal, saying that it would only serve to encourage the students to have sex and likens the idea to abandoning standards for kids. Those who object say there are better methods of teaching our children and preventing young girls from becoming pregnant. These parents are concerned that handing our contraceptives will make teenagers think they are incapable of conceiving, leading students to have sex more freely and putting them at risk of contracting a deadly disease, like HIV. Some studies suggest that dispensing birth control can increase the number of sexually active kids, but the amount of teen pregnancy does decrease as well. This is the type of evidence that concerned parents look towards when a proposal or idea such as this one arises in their area. They are concerned that their children will become far more sexually active when they are on contraceptives then not.
In Denver, one study done of the local adults found that seventy percent of parents said they were fine with schools offering contraceptives to students as long as the parents have given their consent. This way, those parents who want to protect their children may allow them to have access to birth control, and those who are against the idea don’t have to give their child access to the contraceptive. This is a highly controversial issue and often drives strong proponent reaction to such an issue involving teenagers. This is a strong case whose legal implications will have a strong impact on other rulings around the country if it is passed.