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?"

Comments

starting over

[silentscope]

Start over with a fresh identitiy.

Re:I just got "the letter" too

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

If the most well-funded military in the world can't keep a lid on our personal data, who can?

Someone who never has the data to lose in the first place.

Re:I think Ice Cube said it best

[R2.0]

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

Re:Completely out of hand

[plover]

In this particular case I think the credit reporting agencies have way too much power. Their information is used for everything from cell phone contracts to insurance rates to employment background checks. And they've done it without oversight, without honesty and without ethics. They will collect, report and do anything to sell someone another peek at your Fair Isaac score. And every company wanting to sell anything at all gets to use this automated system of discrimination ("hey, it's not a race/ethnic thing, it's just your computer score and the computer is color blind." As if having an address in The Projects would be anybody's choice, yet it all factors into your score.)

We've evolved our own Big Brother via capitalism.

Somewhere, Karl Marx and George Orwell are sharing a laugh from beyond the grave.

Re:I just got "the letter" too

[MillionthMonkey]

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!

Best solution is...

[Dark Coder]

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.