US data collectors fall victim to theft of consumer records

by Daniel Farey-Jones, Brand Republic 15-Mar-05, 07:30

LONDON - Thousands of personal records have been stolen from two databases in the US.

Reed Elsevier called in the FBI last week after discovering the theft of personal details of 32,000 people from Seisint, a security information database run by its business and legal information division Lexis-Nexis.

The information obtained includes names, passwords, identification codes, addresses, national insurance and driver licence numbers.

The news came as another data collector, ChoicePoint, faces a lawsuit and investigation into its compliance procedures after 150,000 consumer records were stolen, resulting in at least 700 cases of fraud. It revealed the theft last month.

According to Rosemary Smith, managing director of RSA Direct and deputy chairman of the DMA, the thefts were an accident waiting to happen because the US is awash with public data such as driver's licence and social security numbers, which is not so common in the UK.

However, the office of the Information Commissioner has expressed reservations that the introduction of a national identity register in the UK could lead to widespread recording of identity numbers and make identity theft easier.

In the US, more than 635,000 people reported cases of identity theft and consumer fraud last year.

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