What are the bad guys doing with all of this stolen personal data?
ID theft, of course, begins with stolen data. And millions of tainted websites lurking to silently infect visitors with data stealers appear to be swelling the gigantic pool of stolen identity data, along with viral spam campaigns, such as Waledec and KoobFace. And let’s not forget big data heists, such as the recent breach at Heartland Payments Systems. It’s not a coincidence that identity theft is also rising. Nearly twice as many people — 7.5% of all U.S. adults — lost money as part of some sort of financial fraud in 2008 according to this survey by Gartner banking analyst Avivah Litan. Last Fall, Litan surveyed 5,000 consumers. She found 70% had never been a victim of identity theft fraud; 14% had had their credit card information used to charge purchases or get money; 7% said their debit card was used; 6% said a new account had been opened in their name; 5% had money transferred out of their account; and 4% had had checks forged. “It’s not getting better, it’s getting worse,” says
