iJack

What Does iJack Mean?

iJack refers to personal electronic information or identity theft. Victims who have been iJacked can experience many devastating effects, but iJacking has become increasingly difficult to prosecute due to lack of electronic trail evidence when pursing cyber criminals.

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Techopedia Explains iJack

iJacking occurs when a thief steals another person’s personal electronic information or confidential business or medical information in order to obtain financial information or money. The most popular type of iJacking is credit card fraud. This is followed by utilities fraud, in which a thief iJacks a person’s identity and signs up for utilities or cell phone service in that person’s name. The third most common type of iJacking in banking fraud.

In companies, server administrators may notice a decrease of bandwidth, which can tip them off to a possible iJacking situation. Most often, Social Security numbers or credit card numbers are not listed in their entirety, if at all, to prevent this type of illegal activity. In instances of iJacking, administrators are responsible for immediately reporting the potential crime, and companies should have established protocol for notifying their clients. From there, malicious attempts to steal personal identity could still take place, but users will have awareness of the potential for misuse of their personal or financial records. These warnings are often accompanied by messages urging clients to report iJacking to their credit card companies and federal authorities such as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…