Identity theft/records theft

[ruth]

In the September "What's going on in your world" section I reported that one of my daughters was a victim of identity theft when records were stolen over a two year period from her mortgage company, "Countrywide". I found a few articles about this and now I have a better grasp of what occurred. Countrywide is owned by Bank of America. Here are two links to reports that you might be interested in reading:

http://www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/28259034.html

http://attrition.org/dataloss/2008/08/cwide01.html

[Charlie]

In the September "What's going on in your world" section I reported that one of my daughters was a victim of identity theft when records were stolen over a two year period from her mortgage company, "Countrywide". I found a few articles about this and now I have a better grasp of what occurred. Countrywide is owned by Bank of America. Here are two links to reports that you might be interested in reading:

http://www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/28259034.html

http://attrition.org/dataloss/2008/08/cwide01.html

It seems shocking that someone could get their hands on the information this easily. That said, at least (not that it is any consolation) it was done by someone acting maliciously - we have had at least 2 major scandals in the last year or so of a similar nature, but these have been where the data has just been lost - including where 2 CDs containing the details of millions of benefits claimants, which had bank account details and national insurance numbers and addresses, were lost in the post. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7117291.stm and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7449927.stm). Has your daughter had everything sorted now with her problems with it? What annoys me is how easy it seems to be able to access this sensitive data, and consequently the huge trouble that would happen if this information fell into the wrong hands. The encryption and security is obviously not upto scratch, so if that is the case then they should have to find away of storing the information seperately, so it is harder to garner all the information about a person in one go. Of course it would need the ability to be cross referenced, so it would not be infallible , but at least it would need a lot more work on the criminals part to get anything out of it, so it would be more dissuasive.

[ruth]

25 million people at risk with a sum of £1.5bn to criminals. Wow. Lost in transit? I see what you mean by malicious versus incompetence. And yet, it's not really certain that this case was not malicious with criminal intent. The truth is still out, despite the current lack of evidence. I'm just wondering how smart it is to make this public knowledge at this point and thereby hindering the investigation or tempting the development of criminal intent where without this information none might have existed. I mean, suppose an employee, or anyone for that matter, were to come across the discs and because of the publicity and the reported black market value decide to cash in on a lucrative opportunity. But then, I suppose they did have to alert the families. It's a very weird situation. Perhaps the whole truth has not been told for a very good reason.


I'm not sure how far my daughter has pursued her problem which is made more difficult because her husband lives and works in London, and ironically, is a banker of sorts himself. But I was relieved to read in the article that the mortgage company is providing all concerned parties with free services to help keep track of their credit and additions to their credit reports. When I learn more I will relay it.

[Charlie]

Unbelievable - we were only discussing this yesterday, and guess what comes up in the news....

Trust loses 18,000 staff records

Discs containing personal information on almost 18,000 NHS staff have gone missing from a North London hospital. Whittington Hospital NHS Trust admitted the discs were lost when they were put in the post by mistake in late July. The discs contain names, addresses, dates of birth and National Insurance numbers, of 17,990 staff members.

In a statement, the hospital said the four discs were password protected and did not contain bank account details. An investigation is under way. The trust said police had been informed, but advised that the incident should be treated as a loss with minimal risk to staff. David Sloman, Chief Executive of the Whittington Hospital NHS Trust, said the hospital had apologised to all the staff involved and one staff member had been suspended.

"It is trust policy to send any such information by courier. To our knowledge this is the one and only time that such information was directed through the post," he said in a statement.

Those affected include current staff and some former staff at the Whittington Hospital, Islington Primary Care Trust, Camden Primary Care Trust and Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust.

[ruth]

Incredible indeed. It makes you feel like taking your money out of the bank and keeping it under your mattress. And perhaps using courier pigeons instead of the post office. We just recently experienced two incidents of "undelivered or mis-delivered" mail which has wreaked havoc on us for the past two months, granted, in a mild way compared to all of this highly serious business we're hearing about with record loss/theft.

[Charlie]

And another one to hit the news today. It seems like nothing is safe.

[ruth]

West Midlands Police would not confirm or deny reports that the data stick contained information on terrorism.

OMG

25 million people! How did the world exist before computer technology. Where would they have filed 25 million records? We seem to be going to hell on a handcart, a computerized handcart.

[Charlie]

West Midlands Police would not confirm or deny reports that the data stick contained information on terrorism.

OMG

25 million people! How did the world exist before computer technology. Where would they have filed 25 million records? We seem to be going to hell on a handcart, a computerized handcart.

I hope you are not confusing the 2 stories - the 25 million referred to in that article is the 25 million records lost which could net criminals £1.5bn. Anyway - the simple answer on how to store 25 million records before computers is simple. They didn't. There was no need for them. I suppose it is a bit like work expanding to fill the time given to it. But as we are able to create records and store them now, we can create jobs for people to keep them.

[ruth]

Hello Hutong69

Don't quite understand how the story of "Little Tommy" is relevant to this thread. Maybe it wasn't intended to be. We have a joke thread on the forum. viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2457

[Noctivagus]

Hello Hutong69

Don't quite understand how the story of "Little Tommy" is relevant to this thread. Maybe it wasn't intended to be. We have a joke thread on the forum. viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2457

Sorry Ruth... its a spam bot that got through. His messages will all be deleted now.

[ruth]

Thanks Nocti. No need to apologize. Span happens.

[Sophist]

Thanks Nocti. No need to apologize. Span happens.

Spam too.

[ruth]

Thanks Nocti. No need to apologize. Span happens.

Spam too.

Spam a lot. Span not so often.

[Noctivagus]

Spam spans the ages in all its nicest forms and flourishes

[Sophist]

SPAMALOT!!!

**starts singing like an effeminate Richard Burton**