Identity Theft Scandal

In my opinion, identify theft is an instance when a criminal obtains personal information that he or she uses to pose as that person, while also obtaining a financial gain. People are going to be targeted because the offender is probably in need of money and chooses crime instead of applying for a job. Personal information that could be stolen includes, social security numbers, bank account information, usernames and passwords to accounts, etc. It is very important for people to proceed with caution in order protect their identities when websites ask for various information because you never know who is on the other end. There are identity thieves all over the place, such as the Internet, telephone, stores, and gas stations. Down in Tampa,
A person should never throw away documents or personal checks without ripping them up. It’s easy for someone to go through trashcans that have the intent to steal identities. A well-known and controversial identity theft scandal that occurred was at Target in November of 2013 when hackers stole 40 million credit card numbers, 70 million telephone numbers and addresses, and more (Riley, Elgin, Lawrence, & Matlack, 2014). Offenders most likely chose to hack into Target’s system during that month because of Black Friday shoppers and the holidays right around the corner. This was the largest hack in retail history in the United States (Riley, Elgin, Lawrence, & Matlack, 2014). Although Target just had malware software that would detect any issues installed around the time of the hack, the security team and the software still failed to recognize the malware that was stealing millions of people’s information (Riley, Elgin, Lawrence, & Matlack,