Data Broker LexisNexis said Personal Data of 310, 000 U.S. citizes feared stolen

An investigation by the firm’s Anglo-Dutch parent Reed Elsevier determined that its databases had been fraudulently breached 59 times using stolen passwords, leading to the possible theft of personal information such as addresses and Social Security numbers.

This is the second biggest breach after Bank of America incident. And then there were breach at ChoicePoint, DMV etc. Such incidents put a big question mark in their ability and of the industry in general. Corporations managing personal information should follow a minimum standard of security procedures. Unfortunately a government regulation may be only way out unless they act faster on their own to self-govern their security protocols. We need to define minimum standard requirements for data security in all corporations. However as with all security protocols it must be a dynamic document and corporations should have to upgrade regularly. There is no shortcut to security.

The information accessed included names, addresses, Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers, but not credit histories, medical records or financial information, LexisNexis said.

The stock went down by 1 per cent in London and Amsterdam at 9:55 GMT.

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Footnote: I wonder how many companies today still uses ATG Dynamo like Reuters?