Identity Theft Nightmare in Russia

Russian mobile telephone company, Mobile Telesystems (MTS), announced earlier this week that it has been the victim of a massive security breach of its entire database of five million customers, which contained highly personal information such as home address, telephone number, credit card information, etc.

To make a bad situation even worse, the entire database, including personal subscriber information, recently began appearing on pirated CDs that are being sold on the streets in Moscow. According to a spokesperson for MTS, "We discovered it a few weeks ago. It's hard to determine where the leak came from. The measures to protect the database are very strict."

Part of the problem is that data that is confidential isn't just stored at MTS. MTS is required to share it with the police and Russian government agencies (including the K.G.B.'s successor agency, the Federal Security Service). Speculation is that an employee of one of the government agencies sold the data to an outside party. Data piracy is rampant in Russia. In a recent national survey, large numbers of Russians complained that personal information about them had been illegally distributed, sometimes available at the market in Moscow, where many other types of pirated media can be purchased for a pittance. MTS was not sure how much data was released or whether credit card information was included. The MTS spokesperson quipped that all they can offer as to the leak was "so far, we're investigating."