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40 Million Credit Cards Hacked - YOU as Identity Theft Victim by Mike Banks Valentine Copyright © June 21, 2005

Best Credit Cards Saturday, MasterCard blamed a vendor of ALL credit card providers called CardSystems Solutions, Inc., a third-party processor of payment card data, as the source of loss of 40 million consumers credit card information.

Unused credit cards are putting millions of Brits at greater risk of falling victim to identity theft, according to a specialist credit history firm.

Chase Credit Cards As is pointed out by several newspaper and web articles over the last few weeks, each recapping long lists of financial information data breaches, something's gotta give before we entirely lose trust in financial institutions, data brokers and credit bureaus. How much privacy loss can we take without acting?

Identity Theft is when someone uses someone else’s personal identifying information for illegal purposes. or obtaining credit in the victim’s name. ID Theft can be as simple as illegally using another’s credit card for fraudulent purchases, or it can be more complex where the Identity Thief uses another’s personal information to apply for and obtain new credit, for example, for a new credit card or home loan. Unfortunately the illegal purpose may be committed over long periods of time before the victim even discovers the fraud.

Credit Card Consolidation These types of data loss were very likely common and have
very probably been going on for a very long time. The difference is that now, THEY ARE REQUIRED BY LAW TO DISCLOSE THOSE LOSSES - not just in California, but in many states. National disclosure laws on data security breaches are being considered in Congress.

: 10 million victims a year in the U.S. % and growing. The FTC reports that one of the most common methods of ID theft involves thieves who %teal your mail, including bank and credit card statements, credit card offers, new checks, and tax information% including through % practice known as %™umpster diving.'% The average victim of mail ID theft spends 30 hours trying to undo the damage to his credit rating, credit card bills, etc. The negative effects can last over a year, sometimes several years, before being fully resolved.

Credit Card Generator I suggest that these breaches of data security all came to light due to the California law requiring disclosure from companies suffering hacking loss or leaks or social engineering or crooked employees or organized crime rings posing as "legitimate" customers. All of the above have been given as reasons for security lapses or poor security policies.

Student Credit Cards About three years ago, a friend told me his paycheck deposit
to Bank of America went missing from account records after
he took his check to the bank on Friday. By Monday, Bank of America was in the news claiming a computer glitch had disappeared the entire day's deposits. I mumbled to myself, "I'll bet that was a hack and that hacker just made a huge offshore banking deposit with B of A depositors' money."

Stop identity theft All is not lost, You can still uncover identity theft if you're willing to monitor your financial records regularly. Your credit reports can show unauthorized activity made in your name; so can your bank and credit card statements, depending on how the identity thief targets you. There are also programs available that can alert you to changes in your credit report, and some credit card issuers make an attempt to contact their customers if they detect unusual buying patterns or other signs of abnormal card usage.

Capital One Credit Card But we didn't find out why it happened in that particular
case because there was no disclosure law in place at the
time. Now we have disclosure laws that mandate notice of security breaches. Now suddenly - huge financial services hacks and devious criminal social engineering outfits posing as legitimate customers and apparently "innocent" losses by transport companies of backup tapes begin to come to light.

Bp Credit Card This spate of data loss incidents is proof of the need for corporate "sunshine laws" that make public notice mandatory of those data losses that threaten customer information.

Credit Card Deals Who is going to lose here - the public, the corporations,
the criminals, or the government? I'd prefer that the bad
guys get the shaft and take down crooked company insiders
that either facilitate data loss by underfunding security
and encryption or participate in data theft or loss in any
form - even if that participation is security negligence.

Bad Credit Credit Cards Financial companies and data brokers have been covering up
the losses and keeping quiet about hacks so as not to worry
or frighten their customers. But that practice is
essentially ended now that they must notify the public and disclose those losses instead of hushing them up.

Credit Card Via Pay Pal Keeping the breaches hidden from public view is bad practice
as it maintains the status quo. Disclosure will facilitate internal corporate lockdowns on the data and all access to it. Disclosure will educate the public to the lack of security and danger to the sensitive information we all provide rather casually and routinely to businesses.

Sunoco Credit Card As the following link to a silicon.com story suggests, we cannot take much more of this lack of regard to privacy and must lock down financially sensitive data securely and must begin to hold data brokers, bureaus and handlers VERY accountable.

Credit Cards For Bad Credit

Prepaid Credit Cards Insist to your elected representatives that your financial
data be locked down, encrypted and guarded by those
entrusted with storing, transporting and using it. Since our financial, medical and legal lives are increasingly being housed in digital form and transmitted between data centers of multiple handlers - we need to know it is secure. We also need to know when that security has been breached and our data compromised or lost.

Bank Of America Credit Card Thieves are becoming more aware of the ease with which they
can find and access financial data. Hacking is not the
source of the greatest losses.

Low Interest Credit Cards Organized crime has easily found their way into our
financial records by simply paying for it by posing as "legitimate" business customers of information brokers such as ChoicePoint and Lexis/Nexis. Any business can buy financial and credit information from those information bureaus and credit reporting agencies by meeting rather lax requirements for "need to know" that data.

Credit Card Rates As long as it is possible to purchase our sensitive data
from brokers and bureaus, organized crime will
"legitimately" buy it from those sources, then ruin our
credit by selling that information at a higher price in identity theft schemes.

Secured Credit Cards Since disclosure laws have come into effect, those breaches have been made public, credit cards cancelled before losses can occur and credit reports monitored to watch for suspicious activity. The bad guys activities are squelched because we are made aware of the possibility our information has been compromised.

Credit Card Via Paypal Not all blame can go to financial institutions and data brokers. Protect your own private data by protecting your computer records at home, in the office, on your laptop and in your PDA by using basic keyword security and locking down files. Use built in encryption on your operating system and your home network to keep data secure. Then be certain to clear that sensitive data off the computer when you sell it or throw it away.

Visa Credit Card Data security is something we all need to take seriously and the corporate breaches are dramatic illustrations of how important it has become to build digital fortresses around our critical financial, legal and medical information.

Accept Credit Cards About the Author:

Credit Card Fraud Mike Banks Valentine is a privacy advocate and blogs about privacy issues at
You can read more about identity theft issues at:

Citgo Credit Card Contact MikeValentine for Search Engine Optimization http://www.seoptimism.com/SEO_Contact.htm

Credit Cards Guaranteed About the Author:

Shell Gas Credit Card Mike Banks Valentine is a privacy advocate and blogs about privacy issues at
You can read more about identity theft issues at:

Shell Gas Credit Cards Contact MikeValentine for Search Engine Optimization http://www.seoptimism.com/SEO_Contact.htm

Hsbc Credit Card Contact him at http://www.seoptimism.com

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