Just a Few More of the Many Reasons Congress Should Pass a Universal Credit Freeze
AIG: Personal data on 970,000 lost in burglary
Insurance giant American International Group said on Friday that it has lost personal identifying information on about 970,000 consumers through a burglary at an undisclosed office in the Midwest.
The insurer said the break-in occurred March 31 and that it alerted police to the loss of a laptop computer and a file server with insurance applicants’ personal records. But the company acknowledged that it has not yet alerted consumers about their possible vulnerability to identity thieves. AIG said it plans to mail out advisories to the affected consumers by the end of this week.
“So far, we’re not aware of any misuse,” says AIG spokesman Chris Winans, adding, “We didn’t want to inadvertently inform the thief that he had a computer with sensitive information on it.”
Winans says the lost records were submitted to AIG by 690 different insurance brokers, on behalf of possibly thousands of employers, seeking group coverage for a type of supplemental medical insurance for catastrophic claims. The lost records include names and Social Security numbers, he says.
Though I’m extremely irritated at AIG’s delay in notification, the bigger point is that no company can guarantee that sensitive information won’t be burglarized.
Red Cross worker pleads guilty to identity theft
A former American Red Cross employee pleaded guilty Monday to stealing the identity information of blood donors so she could open credit accounts, U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said.
Lonnetta Medcalf, 20, of St. Louis, used Red Cross donor records to gather personal information, Hanaway said. The Red Cross gave Medcalf access to the information so she could make phone calls and encourage more donations.
I can’t think of anything the Red Cross could have done to prevent an unscrupulous employee with access to sensitive information from doing what MedCalf did.
PayPal Fixes Identity Theft Flaw
Hacker found a new way to steal credit card numbers and other personal information from PayPal users. While PayPal managed to finally fix it, it (was) yet unclear how many people have been scammed.
According to Netcraft, users were tricked into accessing a URL hosted on the real PayPal web site. When accessing the page, the victims were presented with the following message:
“Your account is currently disabled because we think it has been accessed by a third party. You will now be redirected to Resolution Center.”
Afterwards, they were to an external server in Korea, which presented a fake PayPal Member log-in page, used to get the info from unsuspecting visitors.
Holy moly. How did somebody put a page on the REAL PayPal site?
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The bad guys and gals can, and will, get access to personal information. The only way people can be sure that the bad people won’t be able to open up new accounts when it happens is if they have a credit freeze on their credit files. The, only, way.
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Selected Previous Posts:
- June 15, 2006 — E-Mail to My Congressperson Advocating Universally Available Credit Freeze
- Sept. 23, 2005 — More Proof That “They†Don’t Really Care about Preventing Identity Theft
- Aug. 10 — What May Be the Mother of All Data Thefts Proves Why Data Encryption and Credit Freezes are Needed, NOW
- July 19 — Identity Theft: It’s Time for National Credit Freeze Legislation
