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: term identity theft or identity protection been suggested. And, this just goes to show our current level of awareness towards a threat so obvious.

The current situation

The biggest case of identity theft ever seen, took place in August of this year. Eleven people, including a US secret service informant, had been charged in connection with the hacking of nine major retailers and the theft and sale of more than 41 million credit and debit card numbers! This data breach is believed to be the largest hacking and identity theft case ever prosecuted by the US Department of Justice, which announced that the suspects were charged with conspiracy, computer intrusion, fraud and identity theft. Three of those charged are US citizens, while the others are from places such as Estonia, Ukraine, Belarus and China.

The areas of data protection and securitsation are still very weak. How else could 11 people whose nations barely get along, pull of a heist involving a whooping 41 million credit card and debit card numbers. Yes, one can argue that this happened half-way across the globe and India is so much safer. But is it really? Forget the Ken Haywood incident, one might pass it off as an extreme case still in the grey area. But, last year when there was a duplicate Axis bank web page created, which was "phising" for unsuspecting baits on the internet, the victims and crime was a lot closer home. Or, a while before that when Kingfisher Airlines was duped of Rs 17 crore caused by an online ticket booking fraud, caused by credit card bookings. These credit card details were obtained by the thieves from various places like shopping mall, restraunt and petrol-pump emplyees who swipe these cards, felt the officers working on this case.