Identity theft occurs when stolen personal data is used to impersonate someone, access accounts, commit fraud, or bypass security controls.
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Identity theft is the unauthorized use of another person’s personal information or account credentials to impersonate them or obtain money, services, or access. Stolen names, government identifiers, payment details, passwords, and authentication tokens can support account takeover, fraudulent purchases, new-account applications, or synthetic identities assembled from real and fabricated data. Information may be obtained through phishing, infostealer malware, social engineering, SIM swapping, or exposed databases.
For security teams, the key concerns are limiting exposure of personal data and detecting misuse after credentials or identifiers are compromised. Useful controls include data minimization, strong access controls and encryption, phishing-resistant multifactor authentication, rapid password and session revocation, and monitoring for unusual logins, account changes, or applications. When theft is suspected, incident response should determine which identities and data were affected, contain active access, preserve evidence, and provide appropriate notifications or fraud-protection guidance. Privacy and breach-reporting obligations may apply depending on the data and jurisdiction.
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A 29-year-old Ukrainian national has been sentenced to five years in prison in the U.S. for his role in facilitating North Korea's fraudulent information technology (IT) worker scheme
A 20-year-old member of the notorious cybercrime gang known as Scattered Spider has been sentenced to ten years in prison in the U.S. in connection with a series of major hacks and cryptocurrency thefts
AI agents are changing the way businesses work. They can answer questions, automate tasks, and create better user experiences. But with this power comes new risks — like data leaks, identity theft, and malicious misuse
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has indicted 14 nationals belonging to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) for their alleged involvement in a long-running conspiracy to violate sanctions and commit wire fraud, money laundering, and identity theft by illegally seeking employment in U.S. companies and non-profit organizations
A Chinese national has been indicted in the U.S. on charges of conducting a "multi-year" spear-phishing campaign to obtain unauthorized access to computer software and source code created by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), research universities, and private companies
40-year-old Russian national Vladimir Dunaev has been sentenced to five years and four months in prison for his role in creating and distributing the TrickBot malware, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) said
A new large-scale smishing campaign is targeting the U.S. by sending iMessages from compromised Apple iCloud accounts with an aim to conduct identity theft and financial fraud
An illicit online marketplace known as SSNDOB was taken down in operation led by U.S. law enforcement agencies, the Department of Justice (DoJ) announced Tuesday