Privacy: Not a Good News Day
This has not been a good news day on the financial and personal privacy front.
First, Michelle Malkin notes the chilling possibilities of Google hacking. People can cleverly use the seach engine to find lists of credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, and the like.
Next, eWeek reports that phishing (e-mails that pretend to be from your bank or other financial entity that attempt to get you to disgorge personal info) is being taken over by mafia-like underworld organizations. If rank amateurs could steal millions, imagine what the pros can do.
Finally, I have learned, and I don’t think it was reported earlier, that those Bank of America tapes containing financial information for 1.2 million people, including a number of U.S. senators, have been missing since December 2004 (look for the second listing for March 7 in the link), i.e., almost 3 months, before the public learned of the problem.
B of A must not be worried. Fedsmith.com, a site that apparently tracks goings-on as they affect federal employees, opines that:
In fact, someone looking for updated information on the Bank of America website would be advised to exercise great patience in trying to even find mention of the incident at all – nothing about it is available on the home page. Or a secondary page for that matter. A user has to navigate several clicks into the site just to learn that Bank of America is giving this the attention it deserves and is not downplaying this accident one bit.
In its only press release buried numerous levels into its website, the very first sentence speaks volumes of the care, concern and accountability Bank of America is taking regarding the loss of customers’ personal information.
“Bank of America today confirmed that a small number of computer data tapes were lost during shipment to a backup data center. The missing tapes contained U.S. federal government charge card program customer and account information.”
So there it is � the important number is not the number of customers impacted by the problem � 1.2 million, but that the actual number of tapes themselves containing this personal information is a “small number.”
Whew! What a relief that must be for federal workers whose good name and credit could be compromised or ruined.
I have two questions for B of A:
- Is it possible that you are so unconcerned because Uncle Sam will foot the bill for all the losses involved?
- How many million compromised accounts does it take until the number is considered “large”?
