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LexisNexis Says 32,000 Profiles Stolen
Edited for relevant information. Moderators, please file where appropriate -- I'm not sure this is the right place. Thanks!Data broker LexisNexis on Wednesday said that identity thieves have gained access to profiles of 32,000 U.S. citizens, prompting calls for better consumer protections after a rash of similar break-ins. The U.S. Secret Service and the FBI said they were investigating the incident. U.S. lawmakers plan at least two hearings over the coming week and are considering new regulations. LexisNexis, a subsidiary of Anglo-Dutch Reed Elsevier, said a billing complaint by a customer of its Seisint unit in the past week led to the discovery that an identity and password had been misappropriated. The information accessed included names, addresses, Social Security and driver's license numbers, but not credit histories, medical records or financial information. LexisNexis, which bought Seisint last year, said it is contacting the 32,000 people affected and offering them credit monitoring and other support to detect any identity theft. The company is also changing the way it handles passwords and other security features, said Kurt Sanford, president and CEO of the company's corporate and federal markets division. Seisint, based in Boca Raton, Florida, uses property records and other public data to build profiles on millions of U.S. consumers, which it sells to law-enforcement agencies and financial institutions. A Seisint-created criminal-information database called Matrix came under fire when it provided government officials with the names of 120,000 people whose personal information supposedly fit the profile of a terrorist. Along with LexisNexis and ChoicePoint, financial group Bank of America Corp. and discount-store owner Retail Ventures Inc. have reported lost or stolen personal information on customers in recent weeks. Posted by: trailing wife 2005-03-10 |
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