Stolen U.S. customer data -- news from LexisNexis

Relating to the theft of U.S. citizens' profiles at LexisNexis subsidiary Seisint (see blog entry from about a month ago here), there is now additional (and bad news).

As parent company LexisNexis reports in a news release yesterday, no less than 59 incidents have been uncovered in the last two years (which is the time span that had been analysed) where personal data may have been obtained by unauthorized persons. As a consequence the company will notify an additional 280000 individuals about whom information may have been acquired. A month ago, LexisNexis estimated the number of affected individuals to be 30000, only a tenth of the number given today.

As German IT news service Heise reports, Senators Schumer (NY) and Nelson (Fla.) now plan to submit a Comprehensive Identity Theft Prevention Act that will strongly restrict trading with US citizens' personal data and outlaw the sale of Social Security Number related information.