This hair-raising story from the UK is an illustration of the dangers that we all face from identity theft. A British security expert was able to obtain, among other information, a Dutch citizen's passport number and date of birth from a discarded boarding pass stub--the little scrap of paper many of us discard in the nearest airport trash can as we walk off the plane (I have been taking mine home and shredding them for years). The key to the theft was the frequent flier number, which allowed the security expert to get the passport and date of birth from the airline, without a password.
The article blames it in part on the U.S. terrorist screening system, but the airline also has some problems with its system, which coughed up the information without verifying who was buying the ticket.