LifeLock Enters Agreement with TransUnion to Automate Setting of Fraud Alerts

LifeLock and TransUnion have entered in to an agreement that allows LifeLock to automatically place fraud alerts with all three credit bureaus through TransUnion. The agreement will save LifeLock the time and manpower to set fraud alerts manually and should allow them to be done in a more timely manner and with greater security. LifeLock CEO Todd Davis stated the following in regard to this agreement.

“Protecting consumers just became easier. While we have been growing our company by providing a strong layer of defense against identity theft, we have been looking to develop a business solution with the credit bureaus that takes advantage of leading technology and provides our members with a process unchallenged in our industry.”

LifeLock joins other identity theft protection services who already have similar agreements in place for the automatic setting of fraud alerts. TransUnion will continue to offer consumers the option to place fraud alerts and renew them every 90 days but feels they are offering consumers more options to choose from when it comes to protecting their identity.

“We believe in empowering consumers through education and choice. This effort will help ensure that regardless of whether consumers choose to manage their own credit directly through the services TransUnion provides or authorize LifeLock to handle those kinds of responsibilities on their behalf, their requests and personal information will be handled in a highly efficient and secure manner.”

TransUnion has seen the need for the automatic alerts as LifeLock has continued to enroll customers at a fast pace due to a strong desire for their service which places and renews fraud alerts every 90 days in addition to a number of other identity protection measures. Consumers interested in signing up with LifeLock can read our LifeLock review and receive a discount on their service of $11 per year. The promotion also includes the first 30 days of service free so you can try them out at no risk.

Two Laptops Stolen from Department of Information Technology, Maryland

In mid November, the Department of Information Technology (of Maryland) was informed of the loss of two laptop computers.  These laptops were stored in secure offices and were stolen from the locations.  Currently, the Department of General Services Police are investigating the theft.

One laptop is thought to contain the names and Social Security numbers of over 1300 past employees of the Maryland Department of Environment.  Currently, the Department of Information Technology is hardening their policies to protect the organization from further damage to their security. Employees notified of the loss of their SSN should order and review their free credit report regularly and consider placing a fraud alert on their credit reports of employ a credit protection service to do so on their behalf.

Jackson-Madison County School System Breach

Students of Jackson-Madison County school system are at risk of having their information used inappropriately due to a computer disk stolen from the East Intermediate principal’s vehicle. This disk was known to hold information of over 200 students, listing their Social Security numbers and test scores.

The county has enlisted the help of National ID Recovery to place fraud alerts on the affected students’ credit reports. This is a precaution the principal has decided to take to be sure the students’ credit scores and personal information are not at risk. Letters were mailed to parents notifying them of the theft, and all efforts to maintain credit scores will be taken. Credit report monitoring of their credit reports will last one year after the incident.

At Least Someone is Trying to Protect the Identity of Americans

We all know how important identity theft protection is in the United States today so you would think there would be someone that the hero of this story could have turned to for help. Unfortunatley there was no one so he dedicated his time to protecting the identities of others. Here is how this story got started.

Randall Martin walked away from numerous Higley Park homes in Arizona this February after filling for bankruptcy, leaving numerous model homes vulnerable to break-ins and thefts. Since Randall Martin ceased operations, the abandoned model homes have been left alone and uncared for.

Inside one of the model homes, Julio Gonzalez, a member of an ad hoc committee of Higley Park residents, was surveying damage when he came across a box of important paperwork.

This box included loan applications, Social Security numbers and bank account information for residents of a Gilbert neighborhood, and dated back to 2005. Gonzalez has been notifying the residents to come collect their information, and any information that goes unclaimed, he intends to shred for their protection. He attempted to notify the Gilbert police, but was told the department could not take the information, so Gonzalez took the issue into his own hands as a concerned resident himself. No one would take the information as liability of the homeowner information would then be in their hands.

It is a pleasure to see Gonzalez taking on this chore and helping to protect the identity of others. I am sure there were many heart felt thanks from those he informed about the breach. Well done Julio.

Sinclair Community College Inadvertently Posts Private Information

A small scare happened at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio last week.

An employee of the college found an accessible file by doing a simple web search, and notified officials immediately of the error. The information on the spreadsheet contained the names and Social Security numbers of some 1,000 employees from 2000 to 2001, and it is believed to have been left open for public viewing on the Internet for around a year.

As of Monday, the college removed the file and has not received any reports of identity theft occurring from the visibility of this spreadsheet. Employees during those years should consider credit protection through an identity theft protection company.

Texas A&M University Corpus Christi Data Breach

Authorities at Texas A&M University are looking to hire technicians to protect their school from falling victim to yet another security breach.

In June of 2007, a flash drive with 8,000 students’ information was lost. A month later, a class roster with 49 students’ information was misplaced as well. A hacker had access to the university server on September of this year, and now, less than three months later, a student was able to access a document through an internet search that contained her own Social Security number and personal information, as well as the information of over 1,400 past and present students of the university.

This document listed applicants for admissions from all the way back to 2005, and upon knowledge of the file being available, officials shut down the site and removed the document. It is unknown how long the information had been posted and who had had access to the file before the student discovered the unprotected file.

This is the fourth time in two years that Texas A&M has had a data breach, and they are taking the steps to investigate and perhaps eliminate the possibility of another breach happening again. Needless to say students should consider identity theft protection.

LifeLock’s Services eRecon and TrueAddess

LifeLock, the leading provider of identity theft protection services in the United States, introduced two new services to its portfolio on April 8th of this year in order to protect consumers even better. These two services are eRecon and TrueAddress.

About eRecon
With eRecon, an information monitoring service, LifeLock tracks over 10,000 websites and online databases – for example, message boards – well known for their use by identity thieves and other criminals in order to insure that LifeLock subscribers’ information is not being bought, sold or traded on them. LifeLock will use its software to regularly search for each member’s Social Security number, credit card numbers, driver’s license number and e-mail address. If an individual’s information is present in one of these arenas, it is a good indicator that he or she has been or is about to be victimized.

If a LifeLock member’s information is found through eRecon, that person will be notified as soon as possible so that he or she can take the proper steps to protect his or her identity from any further distribution, as well as put safeguards on his or her accounts and if need be, contact the authorities.

TrueAddress
With TrueAddress, LifeLock does a comprehensive search to make sure that no one changes the address on any of its members’ credit accounts without their knowledge. More specifically, LifeLock tracks address databases to make sure there is no unauthorized activity and will notify a member of any mailing address changes that are made as soon as possible after they happen, whether they are legitimate changes or not. (Better to exercise too much caution than not enough.)

This is an important service for consumers since a typical practice of identity thieves is to change the address on the victim’s accounts and then collect the account statements, thus temporarily hiding the charges that start to add up on the bills.

Once notified by LifeLock of an unauthorized address change, the member can either change the address back to the proper one or decide to close the account and reopen it with different account information, thus stopping the thief from doing any further damage.

Both of these services are available with LifeLock’s basic service package, which also includes Mailbox Relief, credit file monitoring the WalletLock service to help members recover important documents and identification, and more. There is no extra charge to include the two new services in the LifeLock package.

As more and more consumers become the victims of identity theft, it’s important to be sure that you are doing enough to protect yourself and your family. Thus, companies offering identity theft protection will continue to adapt and cater their services as new threats come to their attention. In addition to LifeLock, there are dozens of other organizations that offer these services, so you can find the one that is right for your family’s needs.

To find out more about LifeLock and all of the services that the company offers, and to compare its services to other like-minded organizations, please see our LifeLock Review.

Correctional Officers Exposed in Hack at Plymouth County Correctional Facility

Convict may receive two years in prison if found guilty of identity theft.

A Level 3 (or high-risk) sex offender in Massachusetts hacked into the Plymouth County Correctional Facility computers and may have allow other inmates access to past and present information on prison employees. This information included names, birthdays, Social Security numbers, home addresses and phone numbers of over 1,000 employees.

Francis G. Janosko hacked into the prison’s computer network in late 2006 and allowed access to prison employee information to inmates until around February of 2007.

The arrest was made the beginning of November 2008, and Janosko, 42 years of age, could face 10 years in prison and a quarter million dollar fine if convicted on the count of intentional damage to a protected computer in addition to the two years for identity theft.

This is terrifying beyond the risk of identity theft as correctional officers home addresses were available to convicts who may have a grudge against them. Employees would be highly advised to protect their identity from theft with a credit protection service. A home alarm system and some pepper spray for the better half may be a great idea as well.

Christus Health Care Data Breach

Hundreds, maybe thousands, of patients’ personal information is at risk of identity theft. Christus Health Care System in Houston, Texas has been a victim of theft. Data tapes containing information on recent patients who owe money to the company were stolen from the car of an associate. It affects not only Christus patients in Houston, but patients in Louisiana, Utah, Arkansas and Mexico, as well as some outside of the Christus system.

Among the information stolen were patient names, Social Security numbers, demographic information and diagnosis codes. The hospital system is not currently offering credit protection services to those who may have been affected, but encourages those involved to be proactive in watching their credit reports for suspicious activity. We think this was a mistake on their part and that all companies experiencing a data breach should offer some form of protection to the clients whose personal information they exposed to identity theft.

Express Scripts Breach and Extortion

This is a weird data breach indeed as it is an attempted extortion of Express scripts. The breached information is obviously in the hands of someone willing to sell it so if this affects you it would be a good idea to purchase identity theft protection to protect both your credit and good name.

Instead of simple information being stolen from the company, they instead received a letter in early October from an unknown source attempting to extort money from the company. They threatened to expose millions of members’ personal information, including Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and prescription information, if the demand was not met by the company. In addition, some of their clients have received threatening letters as well, and these are believed to be connected to the extortion letter received by the company in early October.

Express Scripts is a medical company that deals with health benefit organizations to process prescriptions with home delivery companies as well as retail pharmacies. If the member information is released as threatened, it will become one of the largest data breaches on record. TrustedID is a good identity theft protection company to use for protection from medical identity theft so those concerned about this may want to read our review or take the company up on their offer detailed below.

Currently there is an FBI investigation underway, and in the meantime, they have set up www.esisupports.com to assist those who have been affected by this recent threat. On their site, you can sign up for e-mail updates to help keep informed on the situation and current findings.
If members are concerned about their identity being stolen, Express Scripts is offering their members free identity protection services from a New York-based company, Kroll, if they happen to fall victim to this growing problem. They are also offering a $1 million reward for anyone who supplies information that results in the arrest and conviction of the responsible party or parties.

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