Database Used By Government To Spy On You... Hacked

from the as-expected... dept

There's nothing particularly surprising about this. It's exactly what plenty of people have been predicting since the government started their various projects to tie together various databases of personal info into one grand system. The latest version of such a database, dubbed the MATRIX, has been used for various things such as giving everyone a "terrorist quotient" to find out just how much of a terrorist you really are. Well, it turns out that much of the personal data used in the MATRIX system is from a company named Seisint, owned by Reed Elsevier Group's Lexis Nexis (yes, it's a company owned by a company owned by a company). Seisint is quite similar to Choicepoint, who is having their own problems with data leakage. In this case, though, it wasn't the company handing out the info to crooks, but the crooks breaking in and taking it. In other words, if you were already worried about Choicepoint having leaked your data, get out to your mailbox and see if you've got a letter from Lexis Nexis telling you that they've leaked your data to identity thieves as well. Once again, this shows that no matter what you do personally to protect yourself against identity theft, you're at the mercy of a bunch of big companies who are always going to leak data. Isn't it about time we started to think of better ways to deal with this sort of thing? Obviously, what we're doing right now isn't working.

9 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  1. Next generation terrorists?

    by dorpus - Mar 9th, 2005 @ 12:04pm

    In the case of Columbine, we had outcasts who shot up the tormenters. Could we see a counter-trend of high school bullies uniting to form a terrorist network?


    a href = "http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200503/200503090020.html
    ">http://english.chosun.com/ w21data/html/news/200503/200503090020.html


    Teachers say schoolyard gangs are organizing themselves into a nationwide network of violent youngsters who protect their patch through violence and intimidation.... A Seoul alliance of Iljinhoe recently organized a gathering at a local rock cafe involving about 1,000 students, during which members engaged in a public sex act known as the "sex machine." The gangs spread a culture where violence is regarded as fun, with the "beating game" and "bullying game" overshadowed by crueler versions like the "strangling game," in which gang members strangle a student until he or she passes out, or the "rape game."

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. Re: Next generation terrorists?

    by dorpus - Mar 9th, 2005 @ 12:11pm

    The Japanese version of this article says they purposefully spread a nationwide outbreak of conjunctivitis, so it looks like they qualify for bioterrorism also.

    http://japanese.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2005/03/09/20050309000089.html

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. Re: Next generation terrorists?

    by Anonymous Coward - Mar 9th, 2005 @ 12:37pm

    And this has what to do with the article?

    Oh, wait. Dourpus is back...and posting more crap.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  4. Re: Next generation terrorists?

    by dorpus - Mar 9th, 2005 @ 12:38pm

    The government will want to track such movements if they occur, right? That will open a can of worms of ethical issues.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  5. No Subject Given

    by jeremiah - Mar 9th, 2005 @ 5:20pm

    I remember a proposition years ago that would have made individual's "personal data" a "thing" that would be owned by the individual, and could be licensed to companies ala Choicepoint.

    The idea was to give individuals a legal ownership of thier personal data: addresses, relatives, employment/criminal history, etc. This way, people would have an enforcement mechanism (via Federal courts) to ensure no one was using thier personal data in unlicensed ways.

    Of course, a plan like that would require DRM for your data, and we all know how Techdirt feels about DRM....

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  6. Re: No Subject Given

    by Anonymous Coward - Mar 10th, 2005 @ 11:18am


    Has anyone considered class action lawsuits against lexis-nexis & choicepoint ?

    KA-CHING !

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  7. how i can hack

    by Taylor mcclure - Nov 14th, 2006 @ 3:50pm

    i can find anything i want rereber free county

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  8. by gook - Jan 4th, 2007 @ 6:18pm

    I WANT A FAT SAMOAN GIRL

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  9. school

    by jarrett beasley - Feb 7th, 2007 @ 1:10pm

    i need good grades

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

Add Your Comment

Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Plain Text HTML Save me a cookie
  • Plain Text: A CRLF will be replaced by break <br> tag, all other allowable HTML is intact
  • HTML: No formatting of any kind is done without explicitly being written in
  • Allowed HTML Tags: <b> <i> <p> <a> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>
Close
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Plain Text HTML Save me a cookie
Search Techdirt
And now, a word from our Sponsors..
Subscribe to Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Related Stories
Close
E-mail It