news' i found SSI# up for sale or was

[Hellfighter]

ChoicePoint: We're sorry for data leak
Published: March 15, 2005, 1:01 PM PST
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

The chairman of ChoicePoint, which disclosed the personal information of 145,000 Americans to identity thieves, publicly apologized on Tuesday for the data mishap.

ChoicePoint's Derek Smith, also the chief executive, told a congressional committee he wanted to offer an "apology on behalf of our company," which he said would help anyone who suffered identity fraud as a result. The data disclosure has led to 750 known cases of identity fraud so far.

The incident "has caused us to undergo some serious soul-searching," Smith said. ChoicePoint is a data warehouse that compiles electronic dossiers on Americans and sells them to insurance companies, other businesses and police agencies.

Smith's apology comes as Congress considers new laws in response to a series of security snafus involving not just ChoicePoint but also Bank of America, payroll provider PayMaxx and Reed Elsevier Group's LexisNexis service. A U.S. Senate committee held a hearing on the security of sensitive consumer information last week.

During Tuesday's hearing, two legislative approaches seemed to be the most popular: restricting the sale of Social Security numbers, and requiring companies to disclose to people when a serious security breach of their information takes place. Some states already are considering such security breach requirements, and California has enacted such a law.

Rep. Joe Barton, a Texas Republican who chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee, asked whether there was "any reason why we should not make it illegal to trade a person's Social Security number, and the data that goes with it, without their permission?"

Deborah Platt Majoras, who chairs the Federal Trade Commission, said she generally agreed with such a rule. The only exception, Majoras said, was perhaps when police or private investigators are "tracking down criminals."

But ChoicePoint's Smith said that he wasn't willing to agree that such a law would be wise.

"I'd have to better understand the definition of 'sale' and how it's done," Smith said in response to a question from Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat. "There are certain circumstances where the sale of those numbers are in the consumer's best interests."

Kurt Sanford, CEO of LexisNexis, agreed: "I would not support a blanket ban on the sale of Social Security numbers."

Source link:

"Click-on image above"

Ps DD this is the right way to do it!! got it?

[Trojan]

My Parents are almost at that age to start to draw SSI. My Dad has retired 3 times and just opened a Consulting business with a promised income of more than what he was making at his last job and he's talking about starting SSI in a few months for extra income.

I hate thiefs. Those guys need a serious butt whoopen... .-troj

[Hellfighter]

yea sad thing is some are saling this info to get money for the information to companys out there, draw back you may get telemarketer and others calling you up, and bugging the liven hell out of you, sad part is some have taken it to the next level using it to gain money by using it for identity thieves.

i for one would hate some one call me ask i like to buy something then tell me what my SSI is. Who are they to know my SSI is? that really sucks. i was in the service they told me never give out your personnal information and never tell anyone your SSI. now we have 3rd world countrys having it by jerks who gave it away to them. telemarketing and Gateway MFG and others. it real shame to think there is a hole so wide open it burns all. ref; identity thieves

[Trojan]

Originally posted by Chief ADFP
yea sad thing is some are saling this info to get money for the information to companys out there, draw back you may get telemarketer and others calling you up, and bugging the liven hell out of you, sad part is some have taken it to the next level using it to gain money by using it for identity thieves.

i for one would hate some one call me ask i like to buy something then tell me what my SSI is. Who are they to know my SSI is? that really sucks. i was in the service they told me never give out your personnal information and never tell anyone your SSI. now we have 3rd world countrys having it by jerks who gave it away to them. telemarketing and Gateway MFG and others. it real shame to think there is a hole so wide open it burns all. ref; identity thieves

I understand and totally agree with you. Is the Patriot Act touching on this subject? -troj

[DevilDog#1]

People's SSI and other personal info has been available on the Net for years. One just needs to know how to find it.

ChoicePoint and LexisNexis were hacked because of possible DB defects. FBI is investigating the issue.

[Trojan]

How many of the"db defects" were inside jobs? or careless/non updates for security purposes? Businesses should be on their toes all the time... .-troj

[JonM]

wow kinda scary

[Trojan]

Yea man. It's disturbing... .-troj

[DevilDog#1]

New York, N.Y. - In yet another theft of individuals' personal credit information, the LexisNexis Group reports that about 32,000 of its records have fallen into the hands of thieves.

The stolen information included names, addresses, Social Security numbers and more.

A majority of the records stolen resided in the states of California, Massachusetts, New York, Florida and Texas.

Self proclaimed "knowledge management innovators" LexisNexis Group a major compiler of consumer information that specializes in legal records.

LexisNexus reports that the company's own computer systems apparently were not broken into by hackers.

The thieves logged in with legitimate names and passwords assisned to LexisNesis database subscribers.

The company will not comment on whether the passwords could have been stolen by hackers of if the theives used other means.

It was actually the legitimate customers of LexisNexis that brought the illegal activity to the company's attention.

The customers were being billed for database usage they never made.

This spawned a two week investigation that verified the problem.

LexisNexis, the legal and business information firm, said yesterday that information held by a subsidiary on around 32,000 US citizens may have been fraudulently accessed by criminals.

The concern is that the fraudsters may use this information, which includes names, addresses, social security and drivers' license numbers, to impersonate the victims at a later date.

LexisNexis, a subsidiary of publisher Reed Elsevier, said that the incidents took place at its recently acquired Seisint unit – a data broker which sells information to credit agencies, law enforcement and private investigators – after criminals impersonated legitimate customers of the firm.

The information leak, which did not include the credit history, medical records or financial information of individuals, was identified as part of an ongoing review of the verification, authorisation and security procedures and policies across the risk management businesses, according to LexisNexis.

The company apologised for the breach and confirmed that it would notify all those involved and provide them with ongoing credit monitoring and practical support to ensure that any identity theft was quickly detected and addressed.

The FBI is investigating.

The announcement comes just weeks after rival US credit data firm ChoicePoint warned over 100,000 customers that their personal and financial details may have been sold to identity thieves.

Identity theft is an increasing problem for both financial institutions and for consumers. Last week UK consumer group Which? released a survey showing that one quarter of UK adults have had their identity stolen or know someone who has been a victim of ID fraud.

The group also warned that finding the basic information needed to steal an identity is easy.

One target for this information appears to be credit data companies, which store and sell personal data on a vast number of adults worldwide.

In the US concern is rising about how information on these huge databases is used and protected. Senator Patrick Leahy, who will testify today at the Senate Banking Committee’s hearing on privacy breaches of personal and financial data, questioned the security currently used by data brokers.

“This is the latest window on security weaknesses that jeopardise the personal information that data brokers hold about every American, and the view is a chilling one,” he said. “We are vulnerable not only to run-of-the-mill thieves but also potentially to sophisticated scams, organised crime or even terrorists.”

“We need to think proactively and treat these data troves with the same level of care and protection that we would any other valuables. Our peace-of-mind, our economy and even our nation’s security depend on it,” he added.

[Trojan]

You wanna know something scary guys?

I had to turn in NovaGuild members post 9/11 for information. So this FBI **** is nothing new to me ok? ... .-troj

[DevilDog#1]

I believe I posted something on this subject as soon as it was reported

http://www.novahq.net/forum/search.p...der=descending

[Trojan]

Your link is broken... .-troj

[DevilDog#1]

Works fine ... It just LOOKS broken.

[Hellfighter]

Originally posted by DevilDog#1
Works fine ... It just LOOKS broken.

your joking right now right it is a broken link

i get this link: http://www.novahq.net/forum/search.p...&searchdate=-1

and it says:

vBulletin Message
Please specify some words or valid user names to search on. There were no matches for those that you specified.

i have to agreed with troj on this one sorry guy

[DevilDog#1]

Well it was working for me before I ran SpyDoctor.

How about this and this

[Hellfighter]

will your DevilDog#1 was dated: 03-09-2005 05:21 AM if you read above you see the news' release is a update news' dated: March 15, 2005, 1:01 PM PST
sorry my is a up to date and it to the site were i got it from look at the link: http://news.com.com/ChoicePoint+Were...3-5618515.html

you can say it a follow up, what more it to the main site were i got it from, so all can read it to double check what i posted up. unlike your? you forward it to your forum site not were you got it from. there is no rat race here.
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the hackers could have use a trojan horse that taken screen shot or key entry then send the info up to them to get their hands onto. i think i read something to that fact. all it takes a virus to leech into their system bam it startup.
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Originally posted by Trojan
My Parents are almost at that age to start to draw SSI. My Dad has retired 3 times and just opened a Consulting business with a promised income of more than what he was making at his last job and he's talking about starting SSI in a few months for extra income.

I hate thiefs. Those guys need a serious butt whoopen... .-troj

i would hate to be one of them who lost their info do to jerks doing these dirty deeds