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Identity Theft via File Sharing Peer to Peer Network
Posted on Sep 6, 2007 by Tom Fragala
This is the first case I am aware of where someone was arrested for committing ID theft through peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, which are popular software and services for getting media including pirated movies, games and music. The story from PC World:
A Seattle man faces as many as 29 years in prison after being charged with using the LimeWire and Soulseek P-to-P (peer-to-peer) networks to commit identity theft.
Gregory Kopiloff was arrested Wednesday on charges of mail fraud, accessing a protected computer without authorization and two counts of aggravated identity theft, said Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington. This is the first case that Langlie's office is aware of that involves P-to-P identity-theft charges, she said.
In court filings, federal prosecutors alleged that Kopiloff began the scam around March 2005, using the P-to-P networks to search for victims who had accidentally configured their software to share sensitive documents. Hard drives were searched for "federal income tax returns, student financial aid applications and credit reports that had been stored electronically," court filings state.
The take away is watch out what you install on your computer double check the settings when you do install some client software.
Filed under: Data Breach, Identity Theft
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