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Can you imagine 3.6 million social security numbers stolen? It happened. And such massive personal data theft can only happen via a cyber attack. Late last month, an international hacker illegally obtained tax information from a South Carolina computer system, reports The New York Times. It was, in fact, the largest cyber attack on a state government.

Along with the social security numbers, the hacker stole  387,000 credit and debit card numbers. A majority of the stolen credit cards were encrypted;  the Social Security numbers were not. Still, the state said it would pay up to $12 million to provide a free year of credit monitoring and identity theft prevention to anyone affected.

The attack isn’t only being felt in that state, but nationwide as it has put other states on high alert.

This is not the first time this has happened. While not on the scale of the South Carolina attack, “(s)ince 2005, at least 11 state tax agencies have faced security breaches, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a consumer rights group. But most were caused by internal accidents, not attacks, and none were on this scale,” reports the newspaper.

Such cyber attacks most often lead to identity thefts. The Social Security numbers can be used by hackers for financial gain. “The most common line of attack for identity thieves is to use your personal information to apply for credit cards and of course, you won’t know that until it’s too late,” reports Carolina Live. Your name and social security number can also be used to open brokerage accounts and loan requests. Most often vicitims don´t know until it is too late.

Once you are a victim of identity theft, it can take years to clean up your credit and financial records.

Horrible. Here are some tools direct from the Federal Trade Commission to help prevent identity theft. And here’s our previous coverage of how to prevent credit card fraud.

Most times when you hear Chris’s name mentioned in the same sentence as Twitter, you can pretty much assume the R&B singer was popping off at the keyboard. But this time, he’s absolutely not at fault, an evil hacker somewhere out in the Twitterverse is.

I’m thinking someone out there has an uncanny hatred for Chris Brown and Cher, and an undying sense of loyalty to Barack Obama, to strike up such an unlikely beef between the two over the president. Randomly, a tweet went out from Breezy’s account earlier that read:

“That damn GRANNY b**** CHER needs to keep her mouth SHUTTTT about her opinion against obama !!! smh she needs a beating (sic).”