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LexisNexis Suddenly Notices Massive Data Security Breaches Everywhere They Look
from the oh,-look,-there's-another-one! dept
Funny how once the media attention for the various computer security break-ins started receiving attention, the various firms who were caught handing out your private data suddenly noticed that they'd actually been leaking data all along. Choicepoint, which was the first big one to admit a problem, later found a history of leaked data. It appears they're not alone. LexisNexis, whose Seisant subsidiary wasn't particularly careful in how it kept all that data about you that you didn't realize they had (much of it, probably wrong), decided that maybe it would be a smart move to look over some past transactions to see if this data leakage was a new problem. Turns out that it wasn't. LexisNexis is now admitting that they found not one or two more cases, but fifty-nine cases where their security was breached, opening up access to all sorts of private data (this is one of the databases the government likes to use to build profiles on people). The company is sending out letters to 280,000 people to let them know that they may have to spend the rest of their lives carefully scanning credit reports to make sure the company's own negligence didn't result in identity theft. Meanwhile, everyone's still being told that, basically, there's nothing they can do against any of these firms that didn't seem to care about your privacy at all.
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Reader Comments (rss)
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What if dead people come back to life?
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20050412-00000182-kyodo-soci
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according to Netcraft
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You do have recourse....
IANAL, but it sure seems to me like these companies (let's take ChoicePoint) have a responsibility to prevent fraud and criminal activity. If, by virtue of their low standards, they are facilitating criminal behavior, such as identify theft, then they really should be part of the crime -- in a manner similar to the bartender who allows a customer to get totally soused and then drive home.
As a person who has been wronged by the John Doe criminals, you should be able to go after the company that facilitated their crime by lack of diligence.
How about going after them for libel? If they have published incorrect information about your financial status, that could cause you undue stress and duress, and irreparably taint your image.
Or, go after them under Federal law: the SSN is not to be used as a means of identification by anyone except the federal gov't (that's codified in the US Code).
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Recourse in the Courts
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Data Leak
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Re: Data Leak
I think not. The credit card company is often also a victim: the fraudster has produced all the correct information to obtain a credit card. How can you blame a company for issuing credit when they have been presetned with 100% valid identification? (Now, the credit card companies are guilty of a host of sins, such as giving credit to people who probably won't pay and then getting the bankruptcy laws changed so are first in line to collect money after personal bankruptcy is declared, but I don't hold them directly responsible for this.).
The credit card companies sure could make it harder to use physically stolen cards, but that's a different issue altogether.
The real fault lies in the data repositories, since they are not safeguarding the information, they should be held liable.
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Lawyers rejoice !
I SMELL A BIG FAT CLASS ACTION SUIT ....
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Re: You do have recourse....
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Re: You do have recourse....
Duh, can't *you* read? I specifically stated IANAL.
But, for the record, the inforamtion definitely *IS* published, every single time someone gets any information on you, it's published.
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Re: Data Leak
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Re: You do have recourse....
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Re: You do have recourse....
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Make it worthless
A mailing the other day "If you have a 500+ credit score, you can get a home loan" and a 590 credit score means 21% of the US population has a lower score backs the idea that the lenders are outta control and shows how low your score has got to be to get turned down.
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