NEWS: Security Breach Could Expose 40M people to Fraud

I've often wondered how long and how severe this has been going on, but the recent surge in credit card theft seems to have hit the roof. Could there be something going on here that we're failing to see? Is this surge an orchestrated effort, or merely an everyday occurance?



But the recent spat of data theft seems to have caught the eye of the weary.. lets take a look..




Thats all fine and dandy, but is there a bigger picture here?

In September of '04 the US Government hired an elite crew of hackers for Security and Defense..

www.internet-security.ca...

Since February of 2005, when people were alarmed by the ChoicePoint theft, a total of 44 different reports of data theft have been reported averaging upwards of 60 million identities stolen. 60 MILLION in the United States alone.



So is this all a ripple down effect of the new California law requiring inquiry into these breaches?

www.privacy.ca.gov...

I did some research into the past history of Identity Theft, and to see if it has really increased as of late.. I was somewhat surprised at what I found..



The "estimated" record of 2002 was 11.8million.. Today's rate is over 60 million and we're only half way through the year..

So whats going on here? Could there be more to the picture? Implants? RFID tags? National ID? Let's dig a little harder and see if we cant find some disturbing trend.. and what, if anything, the government has proposed to "fix" the problem... that it may be creating?


Related News Links:
apnews.myway.com
www.privacy.ca.gov

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Government Sponsored ID theft to bring in "the chip"?
3.9 million data files go missing

[edit on 6/18/2005 by QuietSoul]

[edit on 6/18/2005 by QuietSoul]

[edit on 6/18/2005 by QuietSoul]

What I thought was intersting was that the link happened weeks ago amd we're only hearing about it now.

Quite troubling when companies entrusted with sensitive information get attacked, seeeminlgy easily and all too frequently.

I guess it pays to keep track of your credit card usage and get your free credit reports as often as you can.

Those numbers are staggering. I thought, for a while, that these attacks were going down, but after hearing about this a while back I really wondered what was going on. We've really reached an epidemic here, or at least are on the cusp of one. I shudder to think about 5, 10 years down the line. Hopefully, we'll have learned to turn some of these attacks against them.

Oh, and DTOM, the post was made a week ago.

Once again, our security is being threatened. I really don't understnd how these things happen. Employees being lax? Not enough hacking protection?

So whats going on here? Could there be more to the picture?... Let's dig a little harder and see if we cant find some disturbing trend.. and what, if anything, the government has proposed to "fix" the problem... that it may be creating?

I would call this a disturbing trend though big media doesn't seem to agree. Anybody feeling more secure about their personal data?

WASHINGTON -- The Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday it has ordered a full security review of a $20 million contract awarded to ChoicePoint Inc., a data broker under fire for a security breach that let criminals gain access to its database of personal information.

IRS Commissioner Mark Everson ordered the security review of the five-year contract to make sure it will not endanger taxpayer confidentiality, the agency said in a statement. The IRS said it had no security problems during a previous five-year contract with the company.

The arrangement allows IRS auditors and criminal investigators to use ChoicePoint's databases to locate assets owned by delinquent taxpayers. It's part of an IRS effort to close a more than $300 billion gap between taxes owed and taxes paid.

ChoicePoint would be given names, addresses and Social Security numbers for data searches. Their employees would be bound by the same federal privacy laws and regulations governing IRS employees.

A few lawmakers criticized the IRS contract decision.

seattlepi.nwsource.com...

Oh for goodness sake, where does it end? Why does the IRS even have the right to subcontract out our personal data?

At this point I just laugh every time I see someone complain about their privacy being jeopardized. We don't have any, get over it.

I am one who had nothing to hide, so privacy is not my biggest concern, but I have seen what identity theft can do to a persons life. It's hell.

As a personal experiment I once gave my real name to someone I had chatted with for a long time, but who lived far enough away to not really concern me (another country). I just wanted to see how much of "me" he could come up with. In seconds he had my maiden name and I still can't figure out how, since the only place it can be found on the web does not show up in google and would have given him less important information he did not come up with. From there he had everything of significance in short order. Privacy is a joke.

Part of the problem is our SS # was never supposed to be used for anything other than the IRS and now it is used for everything. I once had a problem with someone trying to access my phone records and they had already successfully ordered new service for my home. I called every utility to put a passcode onto the accounts to prevent unauthorized changes. The idiot who took my call with the cable company blurted out, how about your husbands SS # and recited it to me. I had done nothing prior to verify who I was. I was horrified!

In the case of credit cards, if the banks are subcontracting and a breach occurs, they need to held responsible for all repercussions. Meanwhile, everyone needs to stop kidding themselves that there is any such thing as privacy in the world today.

Yeppers, I got the letter just a few days ago. It goes like this:

Dear customer,

Visa International Inc. has notified us that a security breach at a debit and credit card processor that processes for merchants has resulted in the disclosure of name and card number data for certain Visa cards...yada, yada, yada...

Your Arvest checkcard number and name as identified on the card were listed within the report we received from Visa...yada, yada, yada.....


Then they tell me to keep a close eye on all my accounts....NO #? Ya think I ought to be keeping an eye out for fraud? Just cause they hung my ass out the back window and offered it to the world, ya think I should be worried and watchful.....

Sigh.....ok, i'm ranting.....sorry...it just, just...

Wupy

I still hold to my theory that this is all being set up. The recent increase (11.8 million to 60+ million in 6 months?) is just too large to overlook.\

What better way to herd the sheeple then to make them think their precious money is being threatened. Then slap out a new "solution" via chip, RFID tags or national ID's...