In Russia, a country looking to join the World Trade Organization, there is still rampant piracy of music, movies, and software. A visit to the street markets in major cities quickly reveals an incredible selection of CDs and DVDs, being sold cheaply almost regardless of their specific content. For example, when I visited Russia in 1999, all CDs cost the equivalent of US $3, whether they contained the latest band’s music or a copy of a Windows OS.

These days, however, there is a scarier deal on the market. It appears as though the information being acquired by fraud artists, hackers, and phishers is reaching the street markets, as personal information is being sold in bulk. The examples given in this Globe and Mail article include Russia’s 2003 tax return records and a mobile phone company’s subscriber list.

It appears that in our day and age, the privacy of our PII is constantly under attack by the flow of information, whether such flow was intended or not. As long as those with criminal intent are able to so easily acquire PII, the aggregation and exploitation of that information will only continue to grow.