Russian Gang Said to Amass More Than a Billion Stolen Internet Credentials
How much rampant identity theft has to occur before our government admits that it'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.<p>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'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't gotten your identity stolen is because the thieves simply haven't gotten to you yet.<p>It'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'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's still not over.  Since so many web sites use Experian data to verify my identity, I'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.<p>It's truly infuriating, and the system is completely broken, yet no one in government cares.