The Data Fleecing of America

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Bob Rosenberg <bob () bobrosenberg phoenix az us>
Date: June 21, 2005 4:16:41 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: NYTimes: The Data Fleecing of America


Dave

Will other IPer's also believe the Times is being a little too  
subtle?  [ironic
grin]

Cordially,

Bob Rosenberg
P.O. Box 33023
Phoenix, AZ  85067-3023
LandLine:  (602)274-3012
Mobile:  (602)206-2856
bob () bobrosenberg phoenix az us

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PLEASE NOTE:  No trees were destroyed in the sending of this  
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The Data Fleecing of America
Credit-card companies and information brokers need to adopt stronger  
safeguards
to prevent identity theft and notify affected consumers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/21/opinion/21tue3.html?th&emc=th

..................

June 21, 2005
The Data Fleecing of America

The breathtaking success of data thieves in exposing 40 million credit
cardholders to the risk of fraud is only the latest evidence that  
Congress
urgently needs to force standards and safeguards on the feckless  
world of
consumer-data gathering. Roughly 200,000 of the accounts were  
reported stolen
outright after a credit card processing company, CardSystems Solutions,
improperly retained masses of data in vulnerable files as filchers  
moved in.
The explanation from this member of a smug, self-regulated industry:  
"We should
not have been doing that."

Horror stories grow by the day. CitiFinancial disclosed that unencrypted
computer tapes for 3.9 million customers were lost by a package  
deliverer.
Crooks were easily able to buy the data of 145,000 consumers from  
ChoicePoint,
the nation's largest broker of personal information. In the hands of  
thieves,
consumer data becomes liquid assets and must be guarded as such by  
companies
that are now far too phlegmatic about security.

If it were not for California's pioneering law requiring notice to  
affected
consumers, the rest of the nation might not have even heard warnings  
of how
their assets and identities are increasingly at risk. Senator Dianne  
Feinstein,
Democrat of California, is proposing a national requirement for consumer
notification, with civil damages for negligent companies. Her bill is  
a good
start in conjunction with a comprehensive measure by Senators Charles  
Schumer
of New York and Bill Nelson of Florida to begin regulating data  
merchants by
requiring registration with the Federal Trade Commission. It would adopt
stronger safeguards, stop the easy access to Social Security numbers  
and help
identity theft victims regain their fiscal balance.

Credit-card companies and information brokers - not consumers and  
merchants -
bear prime responsibility for the ravages of data thieves.




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