Why identity theft is "so easy" and what consumers can do to combat the threat
The Identity Theft Resource Center said that the significant new threat to consumer data is as simple as large organizations failing to add a password to protect their cloud-based data.The group estimates about 165 million sensitive records were exposed in 2019 when nearly 15,000 breaches of U.S. private and government organizations were uncovered, a 17% jump from the year before. Their published report mentions noteworthy "credential stuffing" attacks in 2019 included Boost Mobile, Dunkin', and Disney+. Credential stuffing refers to the exploding trend of hackers buying someone's stolen login and password from the dark web, and then using the same combination to access their other online accounts. "The reason it's so easy is because so many of us use the same password for multiple accounts," Identity Theft Resource Center COO James Lee told CBS News' Anna Werner. Werner told "CBS This Morning" that the surest protections are using different password and login combinations for different accounts.