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Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr., U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia, granted EarthLink an injunction and a $16.4 million judgment against Howard Carmack, who engaged in ID theft and fraud to deliver over 800 million spam e-mails last year via the hundreds of accounts he established with the ISP. How much EarthLink can expect …
Building Trust on the Web, Consumer WebWatch’s First National Summit on Web Credibility, April 24, 2003. Presentation topics include: Health Web Sites, Search Engines, Guidelines & Best Practices on the Web, Scams & Schemes: Why Don’t Consumers Trust the Web?, and Toward a More Credible Web. See this link for Jim Guest’s opening remarks.
The New York Times reports on a New Jersey program, beginning this summer, to implement digitized security features on the state’s driver licenses to prevent theft and fraud. The features will include “holograms, a bar code and digital signatures.”
The South Carolina Senate approved The Consumer Identity Theft Protection Act (S. 222) on April 16. The bill provides for the creation of an identity theft database by the Attorney General, expedited court proceedings for victims of ID theft, stricter verification of card holder identification by credit card companies, and blocks the distribution of inaccurate …
From ABATechShow 2003, here is an updated version of my annotated bibliography (pdf) of federal, state, and advocacy resources on ID theft and fraud. Included are links to pending federal legislation, dozens of topical guides published by federal agencies and state AGs, and links to selected news about recent, high-profile cases of ID theft. Please …
Internet News reported on April 3 that the FTC “has finalized its Gramm-Leach-Bliley Safeguards Rule, which requires financial institutions under the FTC’s jurisdiction to develop and implement appropriate physical, technical, and procedural safeguards to protect customer information. The rule becomes effective on May 23.” In related news, this press release, The FTC Targets Security to …
On March 31, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) introduced S. 745, “A bill to require the consent of an individual prior to the sale and marketing of such individual’s personally identifiable information, and for other purposes.” Her press release states that the legislation seeks to establish a national standard for the protection of personal information, including …
In what can only be described as a huge step backward in the fight against ID theft, the Sacramento Bee reported that the California State University’s computer system has for some years had a “glitch” that allows users to view the social security numbers and personal data of students and employees. State Senator Debra Bowen, …
The Office of the Inspector General of the Social Security Administration recently issued a report, Federal Agencies’ Controls Over the Access, Disclosure and Use of Social Security Numbers by External Entities (PDF), documenting problems with unauthorized access to, and dissemination of, social security numbers. See also this March 6, 2003 speech by James G. Huse, …
Johnny Sutton, United States Attorney, Western District of Texas announced March 14 that University of Texas at Austin student Christopher Andrew Phillips was charged with unauthorized access to the university’s computer system and the theft of more than 55,000 records containing personal data. Sutton states: “At this point, there is no indication that the stolen …
A survey of 1,000 adults conducted by FindLaw indicates that most American are aware of the growing rate of ID theft, and are taking certain precautions to protect themselves. These efforts include shredding credit card receipts and other financial documents prior to disposal, limiting access to social security numbers, and reviewing bank and credit card …
Subsequent to the hacking of UT Austin’s computer system last week, resulting in the theft of personal data from more than 50,000 records as reported in my previous posting here, Texas lawmakers are giving closer consideration to a previously introduced bill banning the use of social security numbers on student IDs. The act, HB 1026, …
