Digitial technology has made identity theft easier, bigger and faster.

In this digital world, more and more information is being digitized. This makes it easier to find the information but also makes it easier for criminals. Modern thieves are using massive digitized databases to access and steal consumers' personal information.

It is more than certain that your identity records have become digitized and stored in some corporate computers. The records contain social security numbers, medical claims histories, credit card numbers and other private information. With the growing ubiquity of digital data and of computers and devices that transmit or store such data, the criminals can gain access to identifying data with remarkable ease and use that data to defraud financial institutions and businesses.

A victim may even be unaware that his or her personal information is being stored in a particular data warehouse and, of course, has no power to ensure that information is protected thoroughly from hackers who steal identities

Every day, criminals are realizing that crime is getting easier than the day before because corporations are going digital. Most credit card thieves concentrate on raiding databases maintained by merchants, financial firms, and credit reporting services.

As long as companies continue to warehouse information, consumers are sitting ducks for identity theft. This is not a case of people being careless about their passwords or documents or the security of their PCs. But the weak link in the chain of authorizations, authentications, passwords, access controls and data warehouse administrations will keep consumers on the verge of identity theft crimes. You can't prevent this kind of theft however careful you are with your personal information.

Data security is something we all need to take seriously and the corporate breaches are dramatic illustrations of how important it has become to check your credit report regularly.