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Congress to Investigate ChoicePoint
twzop writes "I just saw a story on the CBS evening news about the previously posted story about ChoicePoint, Inc. in Atlanta, GA getting hacked and US citizens' data being compromised. The story stated that Congress was going to get involved by investigating the scandal and that there was a large class action lawsuit against the private firm."
What I find odd about the reportage of this story is that noone seems to be pointing out that Choicepoint was also responsible for providing Florida with some of the data it used to strip people from the voter rolls back in 2000. That wasn't exactly good either.
Can anyone tell me why ChoicePoint never did any deeper background checks on their clients knowing full well that identity theft is at an all time high? Didn't they have enough time to ramp up their security protocols to prevent this sort of thing from happening? Plus, who the !@#$% gave ChoicePoint permission to gather data on me?
.NET establishment. Gather all personal info on one database. Currrently, it's a mistake to put all the eggs in one basket.
Funny, ChoicePoint kind of reminds me of what Microsoft wants to do with their
!@#$% whole-grain cereal. When I want fiber, I eat some wicker furniture. - G. Carlin
Why is it such a concern that something as benign as a 10 digit number, plus information that can be found in the phone book, should be of such a concern? One reason is that armed with such a small amount of information, someone can do a tremendous amount of harm to people, and the companies those people do business with.
Someone can get a driver's license in your name, and build a bad driving record, or worse, in your name. And the state will insist it is you. The affected state will file this with your state, and your own state may cancel your driver's license because it looks like you moved to the other state. In extreme situations you could be arrested.
Someone can get a bank account in your name. Then with these checks that have your SSN and address on them, make a hundred fraudulent purchases totaling tens of thousands of dollars, on an account they probably stuck just $250 in to get it open. This will ruin your rating with banks, which is kept by a separate reporting agency not subject to the same reviews as the 3 big credit reporting agencies are.
There are many other kinds of examples, including opening credit accounts. The common problem in all of these is the assumption that by having certain information, the person with it must actually be you. Those of us familiar with security protocols already know that having the very information you give to someone else to show who you are, enables who you just gave it to to masquerade as you. Most people are honest but a slight few are dishonest. Theft of identity information has been happening for decades but it is only now becoming so widespread that politicians and lawmakers are no longer going to be able to hide their head under the carpet and pretend it doesn't exist in order to avoid the hard choices they will have to make.
And remember, this is identity theft; it is not authenticity theft. Identity only says who you are. We need to stop businesses and governments from assuming that identity is authenticity.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
I'm from a private company, and I'm here to help myself without your consent.
I work in the goddamn insurance industry (IT; not sales; I'm not completely evil) and even my co-workers think Choicepoint are a bunch of evil thieving bastards.
My own personal experience with them revolved around the three weeks it took to get them to remove accidents that my sister had on her own automobile policy (i.e: no relation to me!) off of my CLUE report. They claimed that they showed up on my CLUE report because her SSN is only two digits removed from mine.
In the process of trying to get this fixed so that I wouldn't be surcharged for my sisters accidents they stonewalled me and generally tried to walk all over me. Every time we would change something they would need to generate a new clue report. But they could only generate those reports overnight. Apparently the computer system that allows an insurance company to get a copy of your CLUE report in about 15 seconds only allows one copy of the consumer version of that report to be generated -- and it takes several hours for them to generate it.
Furthermore I take exception to the fact that they listed an accident that I had under my parents policy (borrowed car while mine was in the shop). Perhaps I sign away my own rights when I buy my own insurance policy but I don't recall signing anything with my parents insurance company when I borrowed the car that authorized them to release my personal information (SSN/lic #) to Choicepoint. Where the hell is the outrage? I'm sick and tired of companies stockpiling information on me without permission.
In a fair world they wouldn't be allowed to release that sort of information to some data clearinghouse. So what if the insurance industry can't verify your accident record? If you lie to them then it's insurance fraud (felony in most states) and your policy is null and void. Why can't they use that as an enforcement mechanism rather then enriching the likes of Choicepoint and the big-three credit reporters?
Bah! End rant...
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
I wonder if they'll ask Hank Asher, who started the company (and DataBase Technologies), about his cocaine flights into Florida for Iran/Contra. Or how John Poindexter (of Iran/Contra) got them that fat contract for TIA, and saved it as the secret MATRIX program when TIA got too hot for Congress. Or about that Florida voter-purge list, with over 40K legitimate Florida voters prevented from voting in 2000, and again in 2004. Maybe Asher will have some answers that won't get the coincidence theorists freaking out about how this one company could be so lucky for so long with the same people.
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make install -not war