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January 26, 2006
ChoicePoint Pays for data breach
Data-miner Choicepoint was fined $15 million -- $10 million to the Federal Trade Commission, $5 million to consumers -- after the commission decided that inadequate protections had allowed thieves to penetrate the company's data stores. The FTC ruled that the company's "security and record-handling procedures violated consumers' privacy rights and federal laws."
Scam artists posing as small business customers accessed the ChoicePoint database, "possibly compromising the personal information of 145,000 Americans," the AP reported. At least 750 confirmed cases of fraud resulted from the breach.
"The message to ChoicePoint and others should be clear: Consumers' private data must be protected from thieves," Deborah Platt Majoras, chairman of the FTC, said Thursday in a statement.
It will be interesting to see if this increases legislative interest in security of databases.
Posted by Nicole Duarte at January 26, 2006 11:29 AM
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