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Data Theft and Corporate Irresponsibility?
cjsnell asks: "Today, I received a letter from a student loan provider notifying me that my name and social security number had been stolen along with a contractor's computer. This makes -four- agencies that have lost my personal information, in the last year. Today's letter was the most disappointing yet: the company, Texas Guaranteed, did not offer any credit report monitoring like the previous three had. Their advice? Send a letter to the credit bureaus. Gee, thanks. Clearly, mass identity theft is completely out of hand and there doesn't seem to be any government regulation for handling these situations, nor does there seem to be any punitive action against businesses that lose customers' data. Do we, as consumers, have any recourse against these businesses?"
There is a growing and growing group of things that seem completely out of hand once it happens to you. I'm not sure who "we" are, but we need to get together either as a nation or a planet or just some concerned human beings and take a serious look at where we are and where we want to go from here.
Start over with a fresh identitiy.
Someone who never has the data to lose in the first place.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Congress will care about it when a laptop full of THEIR personal data gets stolen.
Just like the Jefferson fiasco - FBI busts down a citizen's door, it's strong justice; bust down a Congresscritter's door and it's a CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS!!!!omgwtfbbq
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
I've stopped worrying about whether or not my information is out there. Having been involved in IT security in the financial services industry for some time now, I know how haphazardly our personal information can be treated. Many company executives don't want to spend the money to turn already functional and profitable systems into secure data stores or the money to hire enough skilled security personnel as they are cost centers, not revenue producers.
Instead I've gone on the defensive and assumed that my identity is already compromised. I coughed up $130 for 3 in 1 credit monitoring services (one of the big three credit bureaus has a two for one going if you call them. got a spouse?). I also keep close tabs on my credit and debit card activities, which doesn't require all that much effort since I cancelled all but 2 credit cards and my debit card. It means some money and time spent up front, but it's not too intrusive and it gives me a reasonable degree of confidence.
As long was we maintain some degree of privacy, identity theft is here for the forseeable future. I'm not saying don't hold companies responsible. I am saying realize that many companies in control of your information will be irresponsible regardless of what they can be held accountable for and that it's a good idea to take some personal responsibility for protecting yourself.
One of these days some government employee is going to run an errand with a laptop in his car and a lucky car thief will drive off with every single name and Social Security number in the country. You could fit them all on a USB thumb drive. And they could be all over the Internet within hours. It would be game over for Social Security numbers and the rickety infrastructure that has been built on top of them. It's only a matter of time before this happens. It might not be in a single theft as I described, but smaller thefts will eventually add up to the point where everyone's SSN has been compromised, and someone is going to compile them and make them widely available.
That would be the most bitchin' thumb drive, wouldn't it? You could show it to all your friends and taunt them. I'd better not lose my keys or you're all screwed!
Make the Social Security Number public to EVERYONE.
That's right, cat's out of the bag. Can of worm has been opened. Too late.
Ban use of Social Security Number as an identifier, except for Social Security, like it was supposed to be in the first place.
Each business entities must use their OWN issued numbers.
Wide-reaching Identity Theft Containment problem limited to just the affected business.
Now, it is time to look into three-way public keys to ensure that consumer data is not misused:
1. Merchant/Business/Corporation
2. End-user/User/
3. Arbitrator/Government
With keys signed by each other in 3-ways, secured identification and security of data compartmentilization has been greatly enhanced.
Each and every transaction is signed, sealed and delivered by all 3 parties.
Now, let's get an infrastructure going on this...
Even Bruce Schneier agrees to this.
Yeah, you've got no privacy, but that's not cause to "get over it." The reason you've got no privacy is that you are coerced into giving up your private information -- coerced by government identity-tracking, supposedly for tax purposes but far, far expanded; coerced by effective cartels, like the credit and banking industries; and coerced by laws which support those cartels in their demand for your private information. You don't even have a choice, unless you want to live as a hermit, and at an incredible economic disadvantage.
Having no privacy isn't the problem in itself; the problem is other people exercising control over you with that information. Don't "get over it." Stand up to it.
If the bank stores all their customers' cash in cardboard boxes behind the building, then yes, prosecuting the bank would be in order.
Also, your rhethorical question is wrong. The robber will be prosecuted in any case (for robbery), even if the bank is prosecuted for gross neglegience.