Careless about privacy

At the end of last year the FBI broke up a New York fraud ring which cost US consumers upwards of $2.7 million in fraudulent transactions. It was the largest ever case of identity theft, affecting over [email protected]?000 victims. The perpetrators were able to obtain confidential passwords and codes enabling them to download victims' credit reports via the Internet and sell the information on at $30 each to criminals, who were able to impersonate the victims and run up fraudulent debts. Passwords are often the weakest link in terms of protection.