identity theft

One would like to think that military secrets about operations in Afghanistan and Iraq would have the strictest security possible. Apparently, this is not the case:
“…Chris Ogle, 29, paid $15 for the player and when he plugged it into his computer he found 60 pages of military data, Television One News said.
The files contained [...]

A security breach of historic magnitude may have exposed your credit card information. Millions and millions of confidential files have been compromised:
“…On Tuesday, with all eyes on the inauguration, Heartland Payment Systems, a company that processes 100 million credit card transactions for 1750,000 merchants every month, announced that its computer system was hacked. Last [...]

This could be historic. The dubious distinction is that this might be the largest security breach ever noted. There may be in excess of 100 million personal files compromised:
“Heartland Payment Systems (HPY) on Tuesday disclosed that intruders hacked into the computers it uses to process 100 million payment card transactions per month for [...]

Every day, there are news reports of security breaches and identity theft. Apparently, the severity of identity theft problem has not reached the Canadian passport offices. If these government officials who administer the passport offices indeed are aware of the preponderance of identity theft crime, then the security protocol is even more baffling:
“A [...]

It’s supply and demand. With the constant data breaches, personal identity information can be obtained for a price. And it is available online:
“Internet fraudsters sell complete financial identities for just £80, according to an online safety group.
The details packaged and sold online include names, addresses, passport numbers and confidential financial data such as [...]

A study by PayPal shows the incidents of online identity theft is tied to the attitude towards passwords. Computer users in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom are subjected more to identity theft as a result:
“…Online consumers in Canada, the UK, and the U.S. are the most frequent victims of identity theft, [...]

In another incident of a government data breach, possibly 1.7 million people may have had their personal information exposed by the British Ministry of Defence:
“…In some cases this would include data such as bank details, passport, National Insurance and National Health Service numbers, driver’s licence information and details of next of kin.”
link: Missing British [...]

It is a data breach of staggering proportions. In one incident, 30 million personal files have been compromised:
“Confidential data on 30 million German phone users could be consulted on the Internet as a result of an error until the phone company locked access, a spokesman for Deutsche Telekom said Saturday.”
link: Error puts data [...]

Staff details are on a stolen Health and Safety Executive (HSE) laptop. It exposes thousands of staff members to the risk of identity theft:
“…Staff were not told for 13 days that an unencrypted laptop containing all their personal details had been stolen from HSE offices at the Carnegie Centre in Dublin’s Lord Edward Street. [...]

There is a new federal law enacted to address the consequences of an identity theft:
“President Bush last week signed into law a bill that seeks to make it easier for prosecutors to go after cybercrooks, while ensuring that identity theft victims are compensated for their time and trouble when convicted identity thieves are forced to [...]