As many as 35,000 Californians may have had their credit card numbers, social security numbers, and other personal information compromised when hackers accessed identification and credential verification service provider ChoicePoint’s data servers.
Hacks into ChoicePoint’s system have already lead to six documented cases of identity theft in California alone. Authorities say that “hundreds of thousands of Americans elsewhere may be at risk”.
In addition, Chuck Jones, a spokesman for the Georgia-based ChoicePoint says that “ChoicePoint has not notified consumers in other states, nor is it working with law enforcement agents elsewhere”.
California is a special case because it has a law on the books – apparently one of the only in the country – which requires companies which do business with California residents to notify them if their personal information has been compromised in a computer network security breach.
It is anticipated that incidents such as these could cause other states, and even the Federal government, to enact similar laws.
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Explained Matt Stevens, CTO for Network Intelligence, “More of these incidences and people will wake up. Right now you’ve got people in Massachusetts saying, `Hey, why am I less important than people in California?'”
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