Cybercriminals are relying less on consumers’ personal information and more on consumer behaviors to commit identity-related crimes, making personal information less valuable and attractive to cybercriminals. Cybercriminals are making more money defrauding businesses with ransomware attacks and phishing schemes that rely on poor consumer behaviors than traditional data breaches that rely on stealing personal information. As a result, data breaches are on pace to be down by 30 percent in 2020 and the number of individuals impacted down more than 60 percent year-over-year.  The ITRC believes pandemic-related identity crimes will impact victims well into 2021. Re-victimization rates for identity crimes and compromises are rising, too. The ITRC’s Aftermath survey data shows an increase in identity crime re-victimization (28 percent in 2019 versus 21 percent in 2018) occurring before the massive increase in fraud/scams and identity crimes in 2020. The post-pandemic analysis should show an even greater rise.   The ITRC expects privacy, cybersecurity and identity laws to continue to merge into a more holistic set of public policies – at least at the state level – as evidenced by California voters passing the Consumers Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), the toughest privacy law in the U.S.  Listen to our new podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fraudian-slip-podcast-itrc-2021-predictions-episode-8/id1543301596?i=1000501268125 Read more here: https://www.idtheftcenter.org/2021-predictions-government-support-for-identity-crime-victims-is-out-and-stealing-passwords-is-in/