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DOD Fraud Conference Attendees At Risk of Identity Theft

Posted on May 14, 2006 by Tom Fragala

GuardMyCreditFile reports that attendees at a 2001 Defense Department fraud conference may have been exposed to identity theft—not in 2001, but this year.

In August of 2001, the DOD held a conference on healthcare fraud in San Diego, CA. More than 14,000 of the attendees had registered for the conference using an online registration form. The data required to register included names, addresses, Social Security Numbers, credit card numbers and employer information. On April 28, 2006, the Pentagon’s data monitoring system noticed "unusual activity" on a server at the Tricare – the agency that administers healthcare benefits for approximately 9.2 million active duty and retired military personnel and their families. At this time, it appears that only the records of those who electronically registered for the 2001 conference were accessed. There is no evidence that any medical records were exposed.

This is an example of what I tell people is the biggest ID theft vulnerablity for everyone: the vast number of pieces of paper, applications, spreadsheets, etc. that people have used to store names, SSNs and other sensitive information over the years. All without thinking what happens to these files in the future. These things are located in nooks and crannies everywhere—doctor’s offices, company’s HR files, property management companies, mortgage brokers, insurance companies…the list is virtually endless.