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Indiana Data Theft Compromises 700,000

Posted by timothy on from the can't-the-thieves-just-trade-among-themselves dept.

palewook writes "A Midwest collection company, Central Collection Bureau, admits a server and eight PCs stolen contain over 700,000 individuals' personal data. Central Collection Bureau acts as a collection contractor for doctors and utility companies. The Indiana based company admits the stolen info consists of addresses, social security numbers, and medical codes."

4 of 52 comments (clear)

  1. That's what they get for outsourcing . . . by base3 · · Score: 4, Funny

    . . . to India...na . . . oh, wait.

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  2. Business should assume that SSN is public by PIPBoy3000 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    At this point, it seems like just about everyone's SSN is out there in the public domain in one form or another. What pains me is that SSN is still used like a password for many institutions. Banks will ask for SSN, birthdate, and mother's maiden name. Unfortunately all of those things can be found out with a bit of digging.

    The more these breaches happen, the more apparent it is that we need a better "proof of identity" mechanism. I'm not advocating for the government to pass out universal ID cards to everyone. I think I'd rather see something along the lines of SSL certificates, where business can issue identification to people and later use that number and passphrase to do business with them. Perhaps a handful of business certificates become the "gold standard" and and are accepted by other businesses as a valid identifier.

  3. What authorities are saying by Alzheimers · · Score: 3

    According to anonymous officials, they're calling this heist even more daring than the time he stole the Ark of the Covenant away from the Nazis.

  4. Next, on World's Dumbest Criminals.... by Seraphim_72 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I mean they stole the data of 700,000 people that were on the roles at a Debt Collection company. I mean, these are people that can't pay their bills and have bad credit. How stupid is it to steal that data. "Uh...my SSN is...er...123-45-6789" "I am sorry sir, with your credit score we can't issue you a card." Sure it is still a bad thing for those people to have their info exposed, but sheesh what is next - "Thieves get data of soup kitchen patrons, bankrupt Campbells."? My suspicion is that they are too dumb to know what they have stolen. "Should we bring this flat one? It ain't got no screen or keyboard?" "Sure, I bet its a dvd player, grab it."

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