“Feds Require DATA BROKERS to Take Identity Theft Prevention Steps”
WHEN are our elected officials going to FINALLY wake up and see that the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes and hasn’t been for quite some time?
The three credit bureaus make their money by legally gathering important information about us without our permission and selling it to other people who need that information. Unfortunately, sometimes that information is supplied to felons who might use it to do us great harm by identity theft. It seems that the credit bureaus do this with no fear of liability. Now the credit bureaus are telling us that if we pay them some amount of money, they will stop selling information about us.
How is this different from a protection racket?
Contact your elected officials and demand FREE credit freeze protection for EVERYONE in this ENTIRE COUNTRY.
Growing concerns about identity theft have spurred state lawmakers across the country to look for new ways to safeguard consumers from this insidious form of fraud.
Because of this, most Americans now have a new tool that provides powerful protection to stop thieves from ruining their credit records.
Every day, about 27,000 Americans are the victims of identity theft, according to the Federal Trade Commission. In about a third of those crimes, crooks use the information to open new accounts in their victims’ names.
Armed with just your name and Social Security number, a thief can open fraudulent accounts and start charging away, leaving you with a damaged credit record that might take years to repair.
But the landscape is improving with security freezes, a safeguard promoted by Consumers Union (the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports) and other consumer groups that has been adopted in 37 states and the District of Columbia. A freeze essentially locks up the information needed to conduct a credit check, and creditors won’t open new accounts without that check. An imposter will be foiled, but you can lift the freeze using a PIN if you want to open new accounts.
A security freeze provides much stronger protection than the fraud alert currently available under federal law.
An alert placed on a credit file amounts to a caution flag that is supposed to trigger added scrutiny by creditors. But it doesn’t stop potential creditors from getting a credit report or credit score.
A security freeze prevents thieves from opening new accounts and hurting your credit.
Thirty-three of the states that have security-freeze laws make this safeguard available to everyone, regardless of whether a person has been a victim of identity theft. Most states that offer a security freeze make it free to identity-theft victims, and some provide it at no charge to seniors.
For those consumers who want the freeze but aren’t victims of identity theft, most state security-freeze laws allow each of the three major credit bureaus to charge $5 to $10 to initiate the protection or to lift the freeze. The best state laws keep all fees at $5 or less and allow consumers to temporarily lift or remove the freeze without charge.
Under the radar
If you haven’t heard about security freezes, it’s not surprising. Credit bureaus aren’t eager to spread the word because they have a financial incentive to make it easy for potential creditors to check credit reports. Credit bureaus also make big bucks from selling to consumers more expensive credit-monitoring services, which are unnecessary, especially when a security freeze is in place. Consumers Union has asked the Federal Trade Commission to help inform consumers about security freezes.
States with the user-friendliest laws allow consumers to request this protection by e-mail or by phone, and will require credit bureaus to lift the freeze within 15 minutes of a request. To find out whether your state offers security-freeze protection and how it works, go to: http://www.ConsumersUnion.org/ SecurityFreeze.htm.
As the crime of identity theft occurs every 79 seconds, it is the fastest growing crime in United States. Consumers’ personal information is exposed on a daily basis and because of tougher legislation, organizations are now required to report that a breach has occurred if it meets certain criteria.
The following is a list of data breaches that have occurred in 2007. Much like the Data Breaches in 2006 article, the data that was compromised was of such a nature that it could potentially lead to identity theft and other crimes of fraud. For those breaches that affect thousands of people and may be of particular interest to my readers, more detail on the breach is provided.
• Ohio State University, Columbus Ohio- Reported April 18, 2007. Approximately 17,5,00 current and former staff members had their personal information compromised as a two laptops were stolen from a faculty members home. The information compromised Social Security numbers, employee ID numbers and dates of births. Risk = med
• Georgia Secretary of State, Atlanta Georgia- Reported April 12, 2007. Approximately 75,000 voter’s of Fulton County Georgia had their personal information compromises as their voter registration cards were found thrown in the trash. The information contained in the registration cards were their names, addresses and Social Security numbers. Risk = High
• Georgia Department of Community Health, Atlanta Georgia- Reported April 10, 2007. Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) loses a computer disk with the personal information of 2,900,000 health care claimants for the State of Georgia. This compromise occurred as the result of a lost computer disk and isn’t the first breach suffered at the hands of ACS. The Department of Education Data Breach occurred as the result of an error in code written by ACS. In this instance ACS has the contract to handle health care claims for the state and a computer disk containing the names, birth dates and Social Security numbers Medicaid and children’s health care recipients went missing. Risk = High
• Chicago Public Schools- Reported April 5, 2007. The personal information of approximately 40,000 current and former employees of the Chicago Public School system was compromised when two laptop computers were stolen. The laptops contained the names and Social Security numbers of these employees and was stolen from the CPS Central Office at 125 S. Clark St. The laptops belong to the accounting firm of McGladrey and Pullen and its subcontractor which who were doing a review of contributions to the Chicago Teacher Pension Fund. The laptops contain the names and Social Security numbers of employees who contributed to the Chicago Teacher Pension Fund between 2003 and 2006. Risk = Medium
• Fort Monroe, Virginia- Reported March 26, 2007. A laptop computer containing the names, Social Security numbers and payroll information for up to 16,000 civilian employees was stolen from an employee’s personal vehicle. The employee will not face any disciplinary action as she was authorized to work from home. Risk = Medium
• Group Health Cooperative Health Care System (Seattle, WA)- Reported March 23, 2007. Two laptops were stolen that contained the names, addresses, Social Security numbers and Group Health ID numbers of local patients and employees. Those affected in this breach were approximately 31,000. Risk = Medium
• Johnny’s Selected Seeds in Winslow, Maine- Reported March 3, 2007. Approximately 12,000 people affected in this breach as a hacker accesses credit card information of their online customers. According to Alisa Keimel, the Marketing and PR Manager of Johnny’s Selected Seeds, a keylogging Trojan virus on their internal systems was the cause of the breach. They are not sure who installed the Trojan nor exactly when it occurred, however they claim that their systems are very secure.Risk = High: Account information has already been used fraudulently.
• Fruit of the Loom Data Breach – Reported February 28, 2007. 2,000 present and former employees of five Fruit of the Loom facilities were affected in this breach as their names and SSNs were posted to a company Web site.RISK = MEDIUM
• SpeedMark (Mystery Shopping Company), Woodland Texas – Reported February 10, 2007. 35,000 employees and contractors of this mystery shopping company were affected after computers were stolen that contained the names, addresses and SSNs RISK = MEDIUM
• East Carolina University, Greenville NC – Reported February 10, 2007. 65,000 students, staff and alumni affected in this breach as the names, addresses, SSNs and in some instances, banking information (credit card numbers) was displayed on a Web site due to a programming error.past RISK = MEDIUM
• Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Hospital – Reported February 7, 2007. Approximately 135,000 past and present employees and patients affected in this data breach. The university reports that 9 backup tapes are missing including payroll information, SSN’s and in some instances banking information. There was also one tape that contained patient information, though it is not clear just how sensitive that information really is. RISK = HIGH
• U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs- Reported February 3, 2007. They are at it again, this time with approximately 500,000 veterans and 1 million non-va physicians having their personal, or otherwise sensitive, information compromised. This information consisted of SSNs of veterans and medical billing information of these physicians that occurred as the result of a hard drive of a VA employee at a Department facility in Birmingham, Alabama, is either lost or stolen. RISK = HIGH
• Vanguard University- Reported January 27, 2007. Approximately 5,000 financial aid students have their personal information such as names, addresses, drivers license and date of birth compromised as (2) computers are stolen from the universities financial aid office. RISK = HIGH
—————————————————————————————————
• Washiawa WIC program, Honolulu, HI- Reported January 25, 2007. Approximately 11,000 current and former clients had their personal information such as names, addresses and SSNs stolen by an agency employee. The employee then went on victimize three of those clients perpetrating identity theft and other crimes of fraud. RISK = HIGH
• Ohio Board of Nursing- Reported January 25, 2007. Approximately 3,000 recently license nurses had their names and SSNs posted to a Web site. This is the second time that this has occurred. As normal practice the newly licensed nurses are posted to a Web site however personal information such as SSN should have been removed prior to being posted.RISK = MEDIUM
• KB Home – Charleston South Carolina- Reported January 17, 2007. Approximately 3,000 people had their personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers and other identifying information stolen when a computer was stolen from the sales office of this home builder. Those affected were those that had visited the sales office for Foxbank Plantation near the Charleston area. The system was not protected with ay encryption technology.RISK = MEDIUM
• Department of Revenue – North Carolina- Reported January 14, 2007. Approximately 30,000 people had their personal information tax payer information which included names, SSNs, federal tax information compromised when a laptop was stolen from an employee of the NC Department of Revenue. RISK = HIGH
• MoneyGram International- Reported January 12, 2007. Approximately 79,000 people had their personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers and in a few cases–bank account information. The breach occurred as it was discovered that the data was illegally accessed over the Internet. The matter is under investigation.RISK = HIGH
• University of Idaho- Reported January 11, 2007. The names, addresses and SSN’s of at least 70,000 alumni, donors, employees and students of the University was exposed as (3) computer systems were stolen.
• Altria- Reported January 09, 2007. When a former employee (allegedly) stole (5) laptops that contained personally identifiable information approximately 18,000 people were affected. The personal information on the computers consisted of names, SSN’s and other benefit related data.
• MoneyGram International- Reported January 12, 2007. Approximately 79,000 people had their personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers and in a few cases–bank account information. The breach occurred as it was discovered that the data was illegally accessed over the Internet. The matter is under investigation.RISK = HIGH
Citizen you nailed it! I’ve too have wondered how companies can build a data base on us, based on information that we do not voluntarily supply, sell it to others and then charge us to protect that information.
I believe that if we can stop it we should join in by requiring a law that every credit offer in the mail come with a cashier’s check for say $100 for the priviledge of using our credit information. After all its our info we should be the ones getting paid when it is used. Let’s see, with as many credit offers as I receive everyday I’d quit my job and play golf.
Even with banks monitoring our information. They need a system in place to restore the clients identity back to pre-theft status for the client. Not a company that only assists in restoring your identity. Prepaid Legal is the only company that offers such a program. http://www.lancemalone.com
We have updated our privacy policy to be more clear and meet the new requirements of the GDPR. By continuing to use our site, you accept our revised Privacy Policy.
Shouldn’t the headline have said this?
“Feds Require DATA BROKERS to Take Identity Theft Prevention Steps”
WHEN are our elected officials going to FINALLY wake up and see that the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes and hasn’t been for quite some time?
The three credit bureaus make their money by legally gathering important information about us without our permission and selling it to other people who need that information. Unfortunately, sometimes that information is supplied to felons who might use it to do us great harm by identity theft. It seems that the credit bureaus do this with no fear of liability. Now the credit bureaus are telling us that if we pay them some amount of money, they will stop selling information about us.
How is this different from a protection racket?
Contact your elected officials and demand FREE credit freeze protection for EVERYONE in this ENTIRE COUNTRY.
Security freezes stop identity thieves cold
June 28, 2007
Growing concerns about identity theft have spurred state lawmakers across the country to look for new ways to safeguard consumers from this insidious form of fraud.
Because of this, most Americans now have a new tool that provides powerful protection to stop thieves from ruining their credit records.
Every day, about 27,000 Americans are the victims of identity theft, according to the Federal Trade Commission. In about a third of those crimes, crooks use the information to open new accounts in their victims’ names.
Armed with just your name and Social Security number, a thief can open fraudulent accounts and start charging away, leaving you with a damaged credit record that might take years to repair.
But the landscape is improving with security freezes, a safeguard promoted by Consumers Union (the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports) and other consumer groups that has been adopted in 37 states and the District of Columbia. A freeze essentially locks up the information needed to conduct a credit check, and creditors won’t open new accounts without that check. An imposter will be foiled, but you can lift the freeze using a PIN if you want to open new accounts.
A security freeze provides much stronger protection than the fraud alert currently available under federal law.
An alert placed on a credit file amounts to a caution flag that is supposed to trigger added scrutiny by creditors. But it doesn’t stop potential creditors from getting a credit report or credit score.
A security freeze prevents thieves from opening new accounts and hurting your credit.
Thirty-three of the states that have security-freeze laws make this safeguard available to everyone, regardless of whether a person has been a victim of identity theft. Most states that offer a security freeze make it free to identity-theft victims, and some provide it at no charge to seniors.
For those consumers who want the freeze but aren’t victims of identity theft, most state security-freeze laws allow each of the three major credit bureaus to charge $5 to $10 to initiate the protection or to lift the freeze. The best state laws keep all fees at $5 or less and allow consumers to temporarily lift or remove the freeze without charge.
Under the radar
If you haven’t heard about security freezes, it’s not surprising. Credit bureaus aren’t eager to spread the word because they have a financial incentive to make it easy for potential creditors to check credit reports. Credit bureaus also make big bucks from selling to consumers more expensive credit-monitoring services, which are unnecessary, especially when a security freeze is in place. Consumers Union has asked the Federal Trade Commission to help inform consumers about security freezes.
States with the user-friendliest laws allow consumers to request this protection by e-mail or by phone, and will require credit bureaus to lift the freeze within 15 minutes of a request. To find out whether your state offers security-freeze protection and how it works, go to: http://www.ConsumersUnion.org/ SecurityFreeze.htm.
Visit the Consumer Reports Web site at http://www.consumerreports.org.
A Record of Incidents
As the crime of identity theft occurs every 79 seconds, it is the fastest growing crime in United States. Consumers’ personal information is exposed on a daily basis and because of tougher legislation, organizations are now required to report that a breach has occurred if it meets certain criteria.
The following is a list of data breaches that have occurred in 2007. Much like the Data Breaches in 2006 article, the data that was compromised was of such a nature that it could potentially lead to identity theft and other crimes of fraud. For those breaches that affect thousands of people and may be of particular interest to my readers, more detail on the breach is provided.
• Ohio State University, Columbus Ohio- Reported April 18, 2007. Approximately 17,5,00 current and former staff members had their personal information compromised as a two laptops were stolen from a faculty members home. The information compromised Social Security numbers, employee ID numbers and dates of births. Risk = med
• Georgia Secretary of State, Atlanta Georgia- Reported April 12, 2007. Approximately 75,000 voter’s of Fulton County Georgia had their personal information compromises as their voter registration cards were found thrown in the trash. The information contained in the registration cards were their names, addresses and Social Security numbers. Risk = High
• Georgia Department of Community Health, Atlanta Georgia- Reported April 10, 2007. Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) loses a computer disk with the personal information of 2,900,000 health care claimants for the State of Georgia. This compromise occurred as the result of a lost computer disk and isn’t the first breach suffered at the hands of ACS. The Department of Education Data Breach occurred as the result of an error in code written by ACS. In this instance ACS has the contract to handle health care claims for the state and a computer disk containing the names, birth dates and Social Security numbers Medicaid and children’s health care recipients went missing. Risk = High
• Chicago Public Schools- Reported April 5, 2007. The personal information of approximately 40,000 current and former employees of the Chicago Public School system was compromised when two laptop computers were stolen. The laptops contained the names and Social Security numbers of these employees and was stolen from the CPS Central Office at 125 S. Clark St. The laptops belong to the accounting firm of McGladrey and Pullen and its subcontractor which who were doing a review of contributions to the Chicago Teacher Pension Fund. The laptops contain the names and Social Security numbers of employees who contributed to the Chicago Teacher Pension Fund between 2003 and 2006. Risk = Medium
• Fort Monroe, Virginia- Reported March 26, 2007. A laptop computer containing the names, Social Security numbers and payroll information for up to 16,000 civilian employees was stolen from an employee’s personal vehicle. The employee will not face any disciplinary action as she was authorized to work from home. Risk = Medium
• Group Health Cooperative Health Care System (Seattle, WA)- Reported March 23, 2007. Two laptops were stolen that contained the names, addresses, Social Security numbers and Group Health ID numbers of local patients and employees. Those affected in this breach were approximately 31,000. Risk = Medium
• Johnny’s Selected Seeds in Winslow, Maine- Reported March 3, 2007. Approximately 12,000 people affected in this breach as a hacker accesses credit card information of their online customers. According to Alisa Keimel, the Marketing and PR Manager of Johnny’s Selected Seeds, a keylogging Trojan virus on their internal systems was the cause of the breach. They are not sure who installed the Trojan nor exactly when it occurred, however they claim that their systems are very secure.Risk = High: Account information has already been used fraudulently.
• Fruit of the Loom Data Breach – Reported February 28, 2007. 2,000 present and former employees of five Fruit of the Loom facilities were affected in this breach as their names and SSNs were posted to a company Web site.RISK = MEDIUM
• SpeedMark (Mystery Shopping Company), Woodland Texas – Reported February 10, 2007. 35,000 employees and contractors of this mystery shopping company were affected after computers were stolen that contained the names, addresses and SSNs RISK = MEDIUM
• East Carolina University, Greenville NC – Reported February 10, 2007. 65,000 students, staff and alumni affected in this breach as the names, addresses, SSNs and in some instances, banking information (credit card numbers) was displayed on a Web site due to a programming error.past RISK = MEDIUM
• Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Hospital – Reported February 7, 2007. Approximately 135,000 past and present employees and patients affected in this data breach. The university reports that 9 backup tapes are missing including payroll information, SSN’s and in some instances banking information. There was also one tape that contained patient information, though it is not clear just how sensitive that information really is. RISK = HIGH
• U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs- Reported February 3, 2007. They are at it again, this time with approximately 500,000 veterans and 1 million non-va physicians having their personal, or otherwise sensitive, information compromised. This information consisted of SSNs of veterans and medical billing information of these physicians that occurred as the result of a hard drive of a VA employee at a Department facility in Birmingham, Alabama, is either lost or stolen. RISK = HIGH
• Vanguard University- Reported January 27, 2007. Approximately 5,000 financial aid students have their personal information such as names, addresses, drivers license and date of birth compromised as (2) computers are stolen from the universities financial aid office. RISK = HIGH
—————————————————————————————————
• Washiawa WIC program, Honolulu, HI- Reported January 25, 2007. Approximately 11,000 current and former clients had their personal information such as names, addresses and SSNs stolen by an agency employee. The employee then went on victimize three of those clients perpetrating identity theft and other crimes of fraud. RISK = HIGH
• Ohio Board of Nursing- Reported January 25, 2007. Approximately 3,000 recently license nurses had their names and SSNs posted to a Web site. This is the second time that this has occurred. As normal practice the newly licensed nurses are posted to a Web site however personal information such as SSN should have been removed prior to being posted.RISK = MEDIUM
• KB Home – Charleston South Carolina- Reported January 17, 2007. Approximately 3,000 people had their personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers and other identifying information stolen when a computer was stolen from the sales office of this home builder. Those affected were those that had visited the sales office for Foxbank Plantation near the Charleston area. The system was not protected with ay encryption technology.RISK = MEDIUM
• Department of Revenue – North Carolina- Reported January 14, 2007. Approximately 30,000 people had their personal information tax payer information which included names, SSNs, federal tax information compromised when a laptop was stolen from an employee of the NC Department of Revenue. RISK = HIGH
• MoneyGram International- Reported January 12, 2007. Approximately 79,000 people had their personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers and in a few cases–bank account information. The breach occurred as it was discovered that the data was illegally accessed over the Internet. The matter is under investigation.RISK = HIGH
• University of Idaho- Reported January 11, 2007. The names, addresses and SSN’s of at least 70,000 alumni, donors, employees and students of the University was exposed as (3) computer systems were stolen.
• Altria- Reported January 09, 2007. When a former employee (allegedly) stole (5) laptops that contained personally identifiable information approximately 18,000 people were affected. The personal information on the computers consisted of names, SSN’s and other benefit related data.
• MoneyGram International- Reported January 12, 2007. Approximately 79,000 people had their personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers and in a few cases–bank account information. The breach occurred as it was discovered that the data was illegally accessed over the Internet. The matter is under investigation.RISK = HIGH
Source: About.com: Identity Theft
http://idtheft.about.com/od/databreaches2007/a/Databreaches07.htm
Citizen you nailed it! I’ve too have wondered how companies can build a data base on us, based on information that we do not voluntarily supply, sell it to others and then charge us to protect that information.
I believe that if we can stop it we should join in by requiring a law that every credit offer in the mail come with a cashier’s check for say $100 for the priviledge of using our credit information. After all its our info we should be the ones getting paid when it is used. Let’s see, with as many credit offers as I receive everyday I’d quit my job and play golf.
Even with banks monitoring our information. They need a system in place to restore the clients identity back to pre-theft status for the client. Not a company that only assists in restoring your identity. Prepaid Legal is the only company that offers such a program. http://www.lancemalone.com