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Lifelock Worries After Employee Data Leaked To Web
itwbennett writes "Last week, Phoenix New Times reporter Ray Stein revealed that LifeLock CEO Todd Davis (who famously published his Social Security number in LifeLock ads) had been the victim of identity theft at least 13 times. This week, LifeLock made it clear that it's not so cavalier with its employees' personal data. The company asked the New Times to remove from its website a police report containing a redacted Social Security number, date of birth, address, and phone number of Lifelock employee Tamika Jones. In an interview, Stein said that the fact that LifeLock had to call and ask for the document to be removed reflected badly on Lifelock's service. 'I think this shows clearly that they know that it's got potential problems.'"
Not everyone reviews a credit report before issuing any type of credit.
ID thieves can potentially abuse personal information, no matter how many types of fraud alerts you put, there is no guarantee that it will be seen by every third party.
Or the ID thief may employee social engineering and even defeat the 'fraud alert'
Todd Davis' publishing his social security number is a gimmick, and he should understand the risks, and chose to do so anyway, clearly as a publicity stunt.
As CEO and well-known media figure he can probably more easily deal with any ills that result than the average joe, and rely on his company to pay all the money and take all the hassle haggling with creditors of ID thief.
Minor cost well worth the publicity.
His SSN is also more likely to be recognized by banks, and (I suspect) he has little need to himself apply for credit, personally, otherwise he would not do it.
As for other employees of the company.... they have not agreed to this, not agreed to the hassle, and are in a much poorer position to defend themselves against ID theft. They have every right to their privacy, and to not have media organizations publish redacted/legally sealed or legally witheld info.
it might be helpful but its no substitute for common sense.
Common sense would be banks requiring more information than an SSN and DOB from an internet connected computer before opening lines of credit. I watched someone apply for a line of credit with Citi online and receive a $15,000 account with no verification of his identity beyond the SSN/DOB match. What's wrong with that picture?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
...Freeze your credit reports.
EQUIFAX Online Help: How to place a security freeze
Experian Online Help: Security Freeze
TransUnion Personal: Security Freeze
Problem solved, and you're not paying $9.95 a month for a service you can easily perform yourself that is far more effective then what any of these supposed "Identity protection" companies offer.
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You are absolutely correct! They are doing exactly as I would expect the service to do. She got her info on a police report. The police department gave a media outlet the report in such a way that her personal information was exposed. LifeLock called the media outlet and asked to remove her data. There is no way anybody could have prevented the info from getting there in the first place... except maybe not giving the police department your SSN when reporting a crime happening to someone else.
If I was a customer of theirs, and a police department did the same to me, then LifeLock is doing exactly as I would expect them to do, if they wanted to continue getting my monthly fee.
However, Tamika is one of their own, and the police report was published in an article about them. I don't think they would even notice if it had happened to a regular customer and/or if it had not been an article concerning LifeLock.
Right on, brother!
This is exactly what I said when they first invented banks! I mean, anyone can just walk into one of those places with a fake ID and *bam* they've got all my money! That's why I keep all my money in gold Krugerrands in a shoe box under my...
Hey now, I'm not gonna tell you where I keep my shoe box! Now get off my lawn, you wacko!
When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
Where is that story? Oh, lifelock is an easier target. I understand.
The stories and info posted here are artistic works of fiction and falsehood.
Only fools would take it as fact.
There are any number of ways that a bank could be compromised, and the data distributed. Unlike a password, or a username, or even a SSN, there is no way to change your mother's maiden name, etc.
I opened a bank in a foreign country. They take and hash your password as you give it to them. The password is never known by anyone there, can't be retrieved and will never be seen. It's up to me to make sure I don't use it on an infected system. If it gets out, I'm pretty much on the hook for whatever is in my account when someone wipes it out. That password is worth thousands of dollars. You make sure it's secure, and you treat it as such.
The fraud levels in the US are some of the highest in the world, and it's because the banks don't care. They make enough with the fraud and aren't held responsible for the actual harm they cause people when they put inaccurate information on credit reports.
Let someone sue when there's an inaccuracy on their credit report (with the burden being on the person who put it there to prove it's accurate) and you'll see that crap stopped pretty quick. Make the banks pay an "oops" fee of $100 to their customers when the banks take out money because of a fraudulent transaction the customer couldn't have prevented. Hold the banks responsible for the damage they are causing through "identity theft" (which is nothing more than lax security blamed on their customers when the banks have the ability to stop nearly all identity theft). When that's done, then fraud will drop and identity theft will be gone except for the few cases where couples pretend to be the other to wipe out an account as part of a breakup.
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