ID Thefts at ChoicePoint and SAIC are national security threats

[EVDebs]

"Break-In At SAIC Risks ID Theft Computers Held Personal Data on Employee-Owners"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17506-20...

""The contractor, employee-owned Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego, handles sensitive government contracts, including many in information security. It has a reputation for hiring Washington's most powerful figures when they leave the government, and its payroll has been studded with former secretaries of defense, CIA directors and White House counterterrorism advisers.

Those former officials -- along with the rest of a 45,000-person workforce in which a significant percentage of employees hold government security clearances -- were informed last week that their private information may have been breached and they need to take steps to protect themselves from fraud.

David Kay, who was chief weapons inspector in Iraq after nearly a decade as an executive at SAIC, said he has devoted more than a dozen hours to shutting down accounts and safeguarding his finances. He said the successful theft of personal data, by thieves who smashed windows to gain access, does not speak well of a company that is devoted to keeping the government's secrets secure.
"I just find it unexplainable how anyone could be so casual with such vital information. It's not like we're just now learning that identity theft is a problem," said Kay, who lives in Northern Virginia.""

Along with the equally disastrous ChoicePoint hack, isn't it about time to take this Homeland Security risk away from the oversight of the Federal Trade Commission ? This toothless tiger hasn't prevented out own crimefighters and intell warriors from being victimized...

Congress are you listening ? And these corporations have no business shooting our personal data all over the outsourced world. Keep these jobs here at home and this crap wouldn't be happening. Is it any wonder this story has been delayed from October when this stuff took place ?

[aquart]

1. Bush care about security? Congress care about security?

Not while Ridge and his successor can have "conferences" in Hawaii instead.

[KamaAina]

2. ChoicePoint is the outfit hired by Jeb to drop blacks from the voter rolls

er, uh, I mean to drop convicted felons - and anyone with the same last name in the same county :grr: -- from the Florida voter rolls.

Now they tell us they were "tricked" into giving this information away. Do you believe that?

[EVDebs]

3. But the FTC is supposed to protect us from this kind of theft ! What

if foreigners are using it right now ? Who would know, and who would protect us ?

California leads way on ID theft legislation
http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/hacking/story/0,10801,76721,00.html

contains a bit of scary information that no one is telling us...
""But Alan Paller, director of research at the Bethesda, Md.-based SANS Institute, said the California law is probably necessary because of the kinds of crime that are occurring. A group in Russia and Ukraine has been acquiring customer data, extorting money to prevent its release and then selling it anyway. Paller believes some companies are paying off the extortionists in an attempt to contain the damage.""

Who knew ? Who notified those affected here in the states ? What gave companies the right to treat YOUR data as if it were theis and without protection ? Who can you SUE ?

[cosmicdot]

4. I'm for ending these personal/private data collection clearinghouses

SAIC, ChoicePoint, the Carlyle Group's USIS.com ... is Accenture into this?

how ironic ... they steal our identities on a daily basis only for those identities to be stolen or put in the wrong hands ... puts us at risk ... how does it make us 'safer'? seems we're more vulnerable

I'm not holding my breath for our corporate american congress to do anything to help.

[McCamy Taylor]

5. ChoicePoint did the 2000 Felons list in Florida. See what happens

when you reward incompetence with big contracts? You get even grosser incomptence. This company that former Iran Contra figure and Bush administration member Richard Armitage helped found should have been put out to pasture after the 2000 election.