It is an important subject as we're all vulnerable. Speaking with some experience as my wife and I had our identities stolen.
We don't share the same last name and thought it was extra unusual to both be compromised on almost the same day. Only 3 places where both our information is combined. Our accountant, our medical insurance company, and our mortgage company.
I trust our accountant when she said it wasn't her. No other clients effected. We'll never know where the loss happened, but it's likely a mortgage broker had our (and others) documents on an unsecure laptop.
On a side note, some of you are probably starting to receive notices about becoming current with our new Federally mandated national identification card system known as Real ID. Slipped into must past legislation by a zealot congressman, the legislation established a Federal database of all our critical personal information including scanned copies of our original birth certificate or passport, our original Social Security cards, photograph, and documents from places like banks or financial institutions that help prove we live at a particular address. All anyone needs to steal your identity (plus some), in a nice cozy file stored on a server in each of the 50 states........you guessed it, Department of Motor Vehicles. A place were password123, or Fluffymycat are still considered secure. And, all 50 states are required have this information available to DHS, other federal agencies (and therefore, the Iranians, North Koreans, Russians, and Chinese) at the click of a mouse. Only in America would we serve up this treasure trove of personal information of it's citizens all in one place, in the name of homeland security. (Insert dope slap emoji here)
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