The Cult of Data Hoarders

There is no sign that the pace of spectacular data-breaches is abating, or is about to any time soon. The theft of nearly a half billion Yahoo accounts, disclosed last week, is the latest reminder. Despite the prevalence of such events, most people have no idea who hackers are and how they operate. Joseph Cox, in the online magazine Motherboard, sheds some light on the mystery, with this report on an obscure cyber-backwater, a cult of hackers that collect and trade stolen personal data by the terabyte in part just for the hell of it, the way some people collect baseball cards.