The dam has broken on the use and abuse of our personal data by the information brokerage industry. Choicepoint wasn't the beginning, and certainly isn't the end of it. Almost daily, another company announces a breach, and this time LexisNexis.
This article in Thursday's Washington Post reports that yet another power player has recently given access to our personal data to thieves. But this time, the company involved is the brain behind the government's Matrix. [more]
Identity thieves have penetrated another company that collects and sells personal information on millions of U.S. consumers, the latest in a series of breaches that is throwing a spotlight on the practices and safeguards of a booming data-collection industry.
LexisNexis, a worldwide provider of legal and business data, announced yesterday that information about 32,000 consumers was fraudulently gathered in a series of incidents. The data include names, addresses, Social Security and driver's license numbers.
The breaches occurred at the company's recently acquired Seisint Inc. subsidiary, a Florida firm that sells data amassed from extensive public records searches to law enforcement agencies, businesses, private investigators and others.
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LexisNexis Group acquired Seisint last summer for $775 million in cash. At the time, Seisint was best known as the company behind a counter-terrorism supercomputer called the Matrix, which enabled law enforcement and intelligence authorities to blend investigative files with billions of public records.
Also, for those keeping up with this issue, hearings start Thursday, March 10 on Capitol Hill. You can listen on C-Span radio at 2:30pm.