Hiding behind a computer screen, an identity-theft predator commits crimes under a veil of anonymity and silence.

Invisible to eyewitnesses and often undetected for months, identity criminals can violate a victim's identity 24 hours a day with a few keystrokes.

As thousands of identities are stolen each day, researchers in the MSU Identity Theft laboratory are working to unmask the predator and break the code on this quickly evolving crime.

Identity theft occurs when someone knowingly uses another person's identification to break the law.

Predators appear in many forms, according to "Perpetrator Profiles," a forthcoming study by MSU identity theft researchers Judith Collins and Sandra Hoffman.

The typical identity thief is a 24- to 36-year-old male who steals personal information such as social security and credit card numbers and bank account codes - often by breaking into databases.

"We are in a world of databases and people managing databases who have not been secured," said Collins, director of MSU Identity Theft Partnerships in Prevention.

About 35 percent of identity predators are women, according to the report based on about 1,000 identity-theft cases. Collins says women are more likely to commit identity theft than other crimes.

"Females perpetrate crimes when they have the opportunity - especially low-risk crimes," said Collins, who learned that a woman impersonated her in 1999 by opening credit cards and a post office box in her name.

"Perpetrators can do identity theft in the privacy of their own home when no one is watching."

Most identity thieves aren't working alone. More than 60 percent were believed to have been connected to an identity-theft ring. Collins released a manuscript of the study to The State News.

Most identity thieves chase sensitive information stored in loosely protected business databases and government records. Or, they hunt vulnerable consumers who put their information at risk.

Until people heed the warnings about securing personal information, Collins fears these predators will continue to exploit the reputations and destroy the names of honest people.

Partnerships in businesses

"The real source of identity theft is in the workplace," said Collins, who consults businesses on information security.

Nearly half of the predators used a business as a source for preying on victims. Criminals often set up their own businesses as fronts for stealing the identities of customers, the report says.

Soon after Collins began studying identity theft in 1999, about 200 executives with General Motors Corp. learned they were among the growing number of victims.

Working with the company's investigative arm and the Detroit Police Department, Collins began conducting research on the network of identity thieves that attacked General Motors.

"As a result of that research ? I learned a lot about identity theft networks," said Collins, an associate professor in the School of Criminal Justice.

After a year-long investigation, Collins had a better understanding of the origins of identity-theft rings, how they operate and their connections to the business world.

"Businesses are victims, too," she said. "So far, the focus has been primarily on the victim - the personal victim. We need to put more focus on the business as a victim.

"That's the basis of our economy."

Attorney General Michael Cox has named identity theft as one of the fastest-growing concerns to Michigan residents and businesses.

"More people are using new forms of commerce because of the Internet and electronic sales," said Matt Davis, a spokesman for Cox. "Those electronic transactions are taking place at the same time that there is a concern with identity theft."

The impact on the economy "is felt far and wide," Davis said. "What if thousands of people could no longer purchase goods along Grand River Avenue?

"There is a domino effect."

As a result, businesses are losing billions of dollars in actual losses and time spent investigating the crime.

"There are things that businesses can do to secure the workplace and protect their information," Collins said. "Workers and businesses must shoulder the burden to a great extent to combat identity theft."

A facilitator for violent crimes

While predators typically target medical facilities, financial institutions and government agencies, they also are used to facilitate other serious crimes.

About 15 percent of identity thefts were related to violent crime and drugs - and more than 10 percent of predators were connected to terrorism.

"Every act of terrorism enacted against the United States has been facilitated with either fake or stolen identities," Collins said.

A copy of the al-Qaida training manual sits in the MSU Identity Theft laboratory as a resource for researchers investigating how terrorists use identity theft to facilitate their crimes.

"When the terrorists leave the training camps, they are given five different sets of identities," Collins said. "It is up to speculation as to where they get them."

The manual, Collins says, instructs potential terrorists about how to use stolen identities to conceal their whereabouts as they travel.

According to "Perpetrator Profiles," five of every hundred identity thieves are terrorists. About 2 percent were believed to be connected to al-Qaida.

Another manuscript is in progress that tracks identity theft within several terrorist organizations.

"Given the fact that identities are used by terrorists, given the fact that there is rampant crime worldwide," Collins says, "we can expect exponential increases in identity theft."

Preventing the crime

"There is very much a way to get a handle on it," Collins said, adding that the first step would be to reconsider the trend of exporting white-collar jobs to other countries.

"Let's call it what it is: We are exporting our identities."

These positions include payroll, benefits, customer service and database management departments.

"These jobs would not exist but for the fact that they require the processing of personal identification information," Collins said.

These employees often have access to databases that contain some of the most sensitive and personal information. If these records are accessed by the wrong hands, they can be used to steal identities for a number of crimes.

Everyone in the United States who has received health care or has an insurance policy is listed in a national health care database as of last October, Collins said.

"That database is not secure," she said.

To protect these large databases, Collins and her colleagues are writing about standards for information security. They expect to release a book on information security later this year.

"Although the computers are secured, we have not secured the personnel, necessarily, who are using the computers," she said.

Until sensitive information is better secured, Collins predicts the number of identity thefts will climb. It is projected that 1.7 million identities will be stolen in 2005.

"If a car is manufactured in another country, it is to meet the same standards universally," Collins explained. "We need information security standards internationally."

Steve Eder can be reached at ederstev@msu.edu.