<story><title>Russian Gang Said to Amass More Than a Billion Stolen Internet Credentials</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/technology/russian-gang-said-to-amass-more-than-a-billion-stolen-internet-credentials.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>steven2012</author><text>How much rampant identity theft has to occur before our government admits that it&amp;#x27;s broken?  Leaving things like credit ratings in the hands of 3 incompetent companies like Experian, Equifax and Transunion that control our livelihood is an affront to common decency.&lt;p&gt;As a victim of identity theft, and as someone who took extreme measure to protect himself from identity theft before it occurred, I can tell everyone without a doubt that the only reason why you&amp;#x27;re not a victim of identity theft is because of random chance.  There is no mechanism to protect yourself, and your information is readily available.  The only reason why you haven&amp;#x27;t gotten your identity stolen is because the thieves simply haven&amp;#x27;t gotten to you yet.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s infuriating that these companies can get away with what is essential libel and not have anything done to them.  I shredded all my mail, I haven&amp;#x27;t given any real information about me on any web site since 1997, never gave out any information about me willy-nilly including applying for too many credit cards, and I never fall for phishing attacks.  And yet somehow I found myself victim of identity theft, and it took 2+ years to clean up, and it&amp;#x27;s still not over.  Since so many web sites use Experian data to verify my identity, I&amp;#x27;ve lost a lot of opportunity to get credit, loans, etc, because Experian has mixed my information with the fraudulent information, so I get answers to those automated question wrong.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s truly infuriating, and the system is completely broken, yet no one in government cares.</text></comment>
<story><title>Russian Gang Said to Amass More Than a Billion Stolen Internet Credentials</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/technology/russian-gang-said-to-amass-more-than-a-billion-stolen-internet-credentials.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>smackfu</author><text>Wow, that is some photo the NY Times put on that article.</text></comment>