Consumer Database Company Hacked Again

x-guru writes "CNN is reporting on the indictment of a Florida man on 144 identity theft charges including fraud, money-laundering, and obstruction of justice. Approximately 8.2 GB of data was stolen from Acxiom Corp, a company responsible for the storage of vast amounts of personal, financial and corporate data. It looks to be an inside job as six Acxiom employees have agreed to cooperate with the investigation." Acxiom was hacked last year as well.

Comments

disclosure

[Anonymous Coward]

of course i can't be bothered to RTFA, but when will we have laws making it a mandatory requirement for companies like this to fully disclose events like this to the public. after all, it is our information they're "losing"

Case in point

[Lord Grey]

Approximately 8.2 GB of data was stolen from Acxiom Corp...

This is yet another example of why it would be a terrible idea to institute a national ID card. The people backing the card, when faced with the concept of someone stealing the contents of the database that would support the card, invariably insist that "it couldn't happen -- we'll secure it real well."

Beyond the fact that a national ID card wouldn't provide any additional security, putting that much private information in one place is just asking for trouble. As this latest debacle shows, and as Schneier points out in the article I referenced.

From the CNN article:

"We will aggressively pursue those who steal private information from computer networks and make it clear that there are serious consequences for such crimes," [Assistant Attorney General Christopher Wray] said.

Oh, good. That will surely stop it from happening.