Todays Dose Of Data Theft: Spyware

America's fastest growing crime has moved a step closer to each of us. When will you speak up? This is no laughing matter.

Spyware researchers discover ID theft ring

Spyware researchers picking apart one of the more notorious spyware programs have stumbled upon what appears to be a massive identity theft ring hijacking confidential data from millions of infected computers.

"I'm not being dramatic. This is the most repulsive thing I've ever seen. It's very painful to see what's in these log files that are being uploaded in real time. We're seeing a lot of bank information and usernames and passwords to get in," Eckelberry said.

"There are lots of eBay account information and names and addresses of the people owning those accounts. Names, passwords, all matched up," Eckelberry added.

Another article gives us more insight:

International Identity theft ring discovered.

A spyware ring has infiltrated the IT systems of as many as 50 international banks and logged social security numbers, credit card and bank account numbers, passwords, eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) and PayPal (Nasdaq: PYPL) account information and chat transcripts, according to the security firm Sunbelt Software.

Less than 20 days ago, I conducted a survey that showed 24% of American over 18 had been exposed to ID theft in the last 90 days.

I also want to note BizzyBlog, who also has been following this closely and is a proponent of "Credit Freezes" to help protect consumers.

I have maintained throughout my posts that we need to force the institutions that maintain consumer data to institute stronger measures of data security, namely data encryption. It now appears that Mark Durham, communications director, Identity Theft 911, agrees with me:

"Consumers don't know where their data is and they can't control how it's used. As long as that's true we need to push business and government and those that have that data to control it better." Durham said

This is not a partisan issue. Protecting the private data of consumers is a noble cause that everyone should support. I pointed out here 3 areas I believe the Identity Theft Protection Act fails consumers.

I have been saying this since February, and will continue to say it:

"I suspect someone will take interest in this when they receive a letter in the mail stating their identity has been stolen." - Trey Jackson

Comments

[Joel Mishon]

Hi
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