Sounds like it’s truly become a business like any other with price competition driving prices down. I wonder if they have a full color brochure…
On the other hand, this does come from a company with a vested interest in data theft being as bad as possible.
Data theft getting more businesslike
How’d you like to be somebody else — for under 20 bucks?
Online, for as little as $14, you can pick up a new identity, complete with working U.S. bank account, credit card with security code, date of birth and government-issued social security number.
“You can become a brand new American. It’s frightening that it could be sold pre-packaged and ready to go like that,” said Alfred Huger, vice president of the Symantec Security Response at Cupertino software maker Symantec.
[…]
For the first time, Symantec also set up a group of servers without any protective software, then, after online criminals took control of them, collected information on the black market transactions occurring on the systems. While the security industry has shown increasing concern about the professionalization of online crime for more than a year, the new data describe a massive, sophisticated shadow information economy, with huge lists of bank account information, e-mail addresses, and even World of Warcraft online video game accounts bought and sold in bulk.
“The hobby-horse hacker is a thing of the past. These guys work business hours,” Huger said. “It’s pretty organized, which is the scary part. Now we’re seeing a well-oiled machine for stealing data.”
I would like to see commercial id separate from government id.
The commercial id should consist of a PIN and an RSA SecureID like, periodically expiring, alpha-numeric password.
Large corporations use RSA technology to open portals to their systems; no reason individuals should not have the technology trickled down to them (other than short-term cost).
$14 for a complete new identity? Jeez, the little cartoon “never trust the gubmint” devil sitting on my shoulder is yelling at me to get one. Wonder if Symantec has posted links to the service.
The problem is there is so little police protection from ID theft. My local Sheriff’s Department is too small to track someone down half way across the country. The vast majority of police have the same problem. Since this is a national problem, there should be policing from a national force.
Instead of worrying about the RIAA’s piracy, here are some real criminals.