While you can be a victim of identity theft even if you never get online, cyber identity theft is the most prevalent form of ID theft because it's the best resource for finding victims. While non-cyber identity theft happens often - people steal your wallet, overhear your phone call, go through your garbage, or take your restaurant receipt with your credit card number - cyber identity theft happens in far greater numbers than any of these. The Internet has made the acquisition of financial and other personal data much easier for these thieves. Most firms store client information on their online databases, and if that database is hacked your information is available to them. The Web is also a simpler way for these cyber identity theft criminals to trade or sell your information and that also makes it harder for law enforcement personnel to apprehend or even identify the cyber identity thief.
Cyber identity theft is an opportunity crime, which means you are the victim not because you are personally selected but because your information becomes available. Yours may be the information and identity stolen just because one of the firms you do business with has a more easily accessible database, or because your demographics are more appealing (more affluent, for example) or the thief finds a market for some particular information and you're one of the folks on that list. If your financial and personal information is stored in the database of a firm and that database gets compromised, you may become one of the victims of cyber identity theft.
Cert Cyber Tips