« Previous Post | Blog Home | Next Post »
A Mistake From The White House May Lead to Identity Theft
Posted on Apr 2, 2007 by Michelle Pastor
You can only do so much to prevent identity theft. Take this article from US News and World Report, for example.
A mundane trip manifest of reporters who traveled to Latin America with President Bush has turned colossally controversial because the White House included personal ID info on the E-mail sent to news bureaus. The key ingredients of identity theft-Social Security and passport numbers and dates of birth-were listed in the E-mail that the White House Travel Office sent out in what's typically the first stage of billing.
The reporters' vital information was emailed to a list of media billing offices and bureau officials. Within a second, this mistake could have undermined any and all of the reporters' previous efforts to prevent identity theft.
With all that is known about identity theft and its link to social security numbers, it amazes me that incidences like this still happen.
What I thought was especially alarming is that some news organizations completely missed the boat.
Some news organizations aren't taking chances. They are warning correspondents to check their charge accounts.
Fraudulent charges on credit cards are the least of the reporters' worries, it's the social security numbers that can be used to create new accounts and so on and so on and so on!
Filed under: Data Breach, Fraud, Identity Theft
Tags: id theft, reporters, white house
Comments
Post a Comment