ID theft: epidemic due to security breaches

[Tami]

ID theft emerges as epidemic due to security breaches
by Ian Katz

Identity theft has emerged as one of the major business stories of the young year, and it will only get bigger.

ChoicePoint Inc., which buys and sells personal data from property records to Social Security numbers, last month provoked consumer angst and political ire when it revealed that information of at least 145,000 people nationwide -- including 10,000 Floridians -- had been stolen. Investigators think those numbers will climb.

Last week Bank of America Corp. entered the spotlight of shame when it disclosed that it had lost computer data tapes that contained information on 1.2 million federal employees. Some are U.S. senators, including Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina and Patrick Leahy of Vermont, The Associated Press reported.

The data includes Social Security numbers and other information that could make some of the federal employees susceptible to identity theft. But Bank of America said it had no evidence that the tapes have been accessed or misused.

It would be nice if we could suggest ways to get yourself removed from the databases of these personal info collectors. However, aside from withdrawing from society and living in a cabin like the Unabomber, there's not much you can do.

But if you think your personal information may have been compromised, check your credit report with one of the big three credit agencies: Experian (www.experian.com), Equifax (www.equifax.com) or Trans Union (www.transunion.com).

AT&T Corp. can sympathize with Mark Twain's famous protest that the "report of my death was an exaggeration."

AT&T, a former monopoly that was once a symbol of the U.S. phone system, has taken a beating in the media since SBC Communications Inc. said in late January it would buy AT&T for $16 billion. It has been particularly painful for AT&T employees to hear that their proud company will disappear, when the truth is that it simply won't be a stand-alone entity any longer.

So it's with a bit of defensiveness that AT&T is trying to tell the world that it is still alive and well. In late February the company won a contract to build networks for Miami-based Sweet Paper Sales Corp., a wholesaler of sanitation and janitorial services. AT&T, which has been promoting itself as a networking company since it gave up on the long-distance residential market last year, will integrate Sweet Paper's 11 U.S. locations on an Internet protocol virtual private network.

The merger with SBC is expected to be completed by early 2006. It must first be approved by the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission and will also be analyzed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

How do you impress a company you want to buy? Show your mean streak. As part of its revised $8 billion bid to purchase MCI Inc., Qwest Communications International Inc. said it would cut up to 15,000 jobs.

Verizon Communications Inc., whose $6.75 billion bid was accepted by MCI in February, had vowed to cut a significant but smaller 7,000 jobs.

Since it is a stronger company, Verizon's lower bid was still expected to win, but Qwest made it a contest by increasing its offer and sharpening the job ax.

Tech stat of the week: The number of people who talk on a cellular phone while driving rose last year to 8 percent, or 1.2 million drivers, at any given daytime moment, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That's up from 6 percent in 2002. The biggest increases were found among women and 16- to 24-year-old drivers.

[url=\"http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/lo ... -headlines\"]Source: Sun-Sentinel[/url]