What's the root of identity theft

Dennis Bailey in the Open Society Paradox raises a very interesting question about the root causes of identity theft. In his view, it is not the fault of the organization that leaks personal information to identity thieves. Rather, he says, it is the credit grantors who provide credit facilities to the impostors.

The Open Society Paradox: Tonight's Reflection on ChoicePoint:

"ChoicePoint is being crucified for not having done due diligence to verify the identity of the individuals who stole data. Why aren't financial institutions being held to the same standard when it is their giving of accounts to identity thieves which is at the core of the problem. Don't they also have a responsibility to verify the identity of their customers? Fix that part of the equation with improved identification and biometrics and ChoicePoint's data becomes a non-issue. Can't anyone see the waterfall for the river that Congress is heading down? If I've said it once, I've said it a million times, you can't lock down data in the information age. You can only prevent its misuse."

It does take two to tango ...