40 Million Credit Cards Hacked - YOU as Identity Theft Victim by Mike Banks Valentine Copyright © June 21, 2005
Laptop Battery Saturday, MasterCard blamed a vendor of ALL credit card providers called CardSystems Solutions, Inc., a third-party processor of payment card data, as the source of loss of 40 million consumers credit card information.
Unused credit cards are putting millions of Brits at greater risk of falling victim to identity theft, according to a specialist credit history firm.
Thinkpad As is pointed out by several newspaper and web articles over the last few weeks, each recapping long lists of financial information data breaches, something's gotta give before we entirely lose trust in financial institutions, data brokers and credit bureaus. How much privacy loss can we take without acting?
When confronted with the identity restoration process, identity theft victims are told not to panic, and that acting fast is the best way to a quick recovery. But can you blame them for panicking Even with identity theft numbers currently on the decline, studies indicate that U.S. consumers spend some 297 million hours on identity restoration annually, and there have still been over 27 million separate ID theft incidents in the last five years.1 And those are just the ones that were actually recorded — only about one half of all identity theft victims ever even know that their identity has been taken.
Microsoft These types of data loss were very likely common and have
very probably been going on for a very long time. The difference is that now, THEY ARE REQUIRED BY LAW TO DISCLOSE THOSE LOSSES - not just in California, but in many states. National disclosure laws on data security breaches are being considered in Congress.
prompting creditors to obtain authorization for new lines of credit or credit file changes that could lead to identity theft. financial identity theft. LifeLock backs its restoration services with a unique $1 million service guarantee that will recover 100 percent of a victim's related losses. In addition, approved credit card offers, viewed as one of the most common sources of information theft. LifeLock provides the nation's only identity theft prevention program for children.
Laptop Computers I suggest that these breaches of data security all came to light due to the California law requiring disclosure from companies suffering hacking loss or leaks or social engineering or crooked employees or organized crime rings posing as "legitimate" customers. All of the above have been given as reasons for security lapses or poor security policies.
'Tis something, nothing; Twas mine 'tis his and has been slave to thousands. But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed. Othello, III, iii, 61 (Iago) identity theft is reaching epidemic proportions. The Federal Trade Commission survey estimated in 2003 there were 9.9 million victims of identity theft, up from an estimated 6.9 million victims in 2002 and 3.4 million victims in 2001.73 (For more details on these and other surveys, see Chapter 10).
Laptop Computer About three years ago, a friend told me his paycheck deposit
to Bank of America went missing from account records after
he took his check to the bank on Friday. By Monday, Bank of America was in the news claiming a computer glitch had disappeared the entire day's deposits. I mumbled to myself, "I'll bet that was a hack and that hacker just made a huge offshore banking deposit with B of A depositors' money."
Because Windows and other applications often leave snippets of your Internet activities out in the open, your computer makes you vulnerable to identity theft. Identity theft has become the fastest growing crime in America and can no longer be overlooked. CBS News reported that every 79 seconds a thief hacks into a computer, steals a victim's identity, and then goes on a buying spree.
Desktop Computer But we didn't find out why it happened in that particular
case because there was no disclosure law in place at the
time. Now we have disclosure laws that mandate notice of security breaches. Now suddenly - huge financial services hacks and devious criminal social engineering outfits posing as legitimate customers and apparently "innocent" losses by transport companies of backup tapes begin to come to light.
Notebooks This spate of data loss incidents is proof of the need for corporate "sunshine laws" that make public notice mandatory of those data losses that threaten customer information.
Lenovo Who is going to lose here - the public, the corporations,
the criminals, or the government? I'd prefer that the bad
guys get the shaft and take down crooked company insiders
that either facilitate data loss by underfunding security
and encryption or participate in data theft or loss in any
form - even if that participation is security negligence.
Hard Drive Financial companies and data brokers have been covering up
the losses and keeping quiet about hacks so as not to worry
or frighten their customers. But that practice is
essentially ended now that they must notify the public and disclose those losses instead of hushing them up.
Travelstar Keeping the breaches hidden from public view is bad practice
as it maintains the status quo. Disclosure will facilitate internal corporate lockdowns on the data and all access to it. Disclosure will educate the public to the lack of security and danger to the sensitive information we all provide rather casually and routinely to businesses.
Gateway As the following link to a silicon.com story suggests, we cannot take much more of this lack of regard to privacy and must lock down financially sensitive data securely and must begin to hold data brokers, bureaus and handlers VERY accountable.
Laptop Parts
Software Insist to your elected representatives that your financial
data be locked down, encrypted and guarded by those
entrusted with storing, transporting and using it. Since our financial, medical and legal lives are increasingly being housed in digital form and transmitted between data centers of multiple handlers - we need to know it is secure. We also need to know when that security has been breached and our data compromised or lost.
Hard Drives Thieves are becoming more aware of the ease with which they
can find and access financial data. Hacking is not the
source of the greatest losses.
Electronics Organized crime has easily found their way into our
financial records by simply paying for it by posing as "legitimate" business customers of information brokers such as ChoicePoint and Lexis/Nexis. Any business can buy financial and credit information from those information bureaus and credit reporting agencies by meeting rather lax requirements for "need to know" that data.
Canon As long as it is possible to purchase our sensitive data
from brokers and bureaus, organized crime will
"legitimately" buy it from those sources, then ruin our
credit by selling that information at a higher price in identity theft schemes.
Desktop Pc Since disclosure laws have come into effect, those breaches have been made public, credit cards cancelled before losses can occur and credit reports monitored to watch for suspicious activity. The bad guys activities are squelched because we are made aware of the possibility our information has been compromised.
Desktop Computers Not all blame can go to financial institutions and data brokers. Protect your own private data by protecting your computer records at home, in the office, on your laptop and in your PDA by using basic keyword security and locking down files. Use built in encryption on your operating system and your home network to keep data secure. Then be certain to clear that sensitive data off the computer when you sell it or throw it away.
Think Pad Data security is something we all need to take seriously and the corporate breaches are dramatic illustrations of how important it has become to build digital fortresses around our critical financial, legal and medical information.
Repair About the Author:
Data Recovery Mike Banks Valentine is a privacy advocate and blogs about privacy issues at
You can read more about identity theft issues at:
Cisco Contact MikeValentine for Search Engine Optimization http://www.seoptimism.com/SEO_Contact.htm
Keyboard About the Author:
Monitor Mike Banks Valentine is a privacy advocate and blogs about privacy issues at
You can read more about identity theft issues at:
Desktop Contact MikeValentine for Search Engine Optimization http://www.seoptimism.com/SEO_Contact.htm
Infosys Contact him at http://www.seoptimism.com
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