Deliberate coverup of security breaches confessed by ChoicePoint and LexisNexis

Privacy invasion behemoths ChoicePoint and LexisNexis have lost control of sensitive data in the past, but deliberately covered it up because no law required them to come clean, executives from both outfits confessed Wednesday during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the recent epidemic of ID theft plaguing the USA.

Numerous past breaches went without notification, ChoicePoint President and COO Douglas Curling admitted under questioning from Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (Republican, Pennsylvania). Curling explained that after notifying the relevant law enforcement authorities, “no one was made aware; law enforcement didn’t tell us anything.” The ChoicePoint person in contact with law enforcement simply didn’t appreciate the importance of the situation, he whinged.

The admissions - under oath, finally - that these companies gladly covered up their blunders and misdeeds, until required by California law to notify victims, proves that regulation is essential to keeping them honest.

ChoicePoint’s Douglas Curling boasted that the company provides services that create a safer, more secure American society. Link

I am speechless. This is the guy so many people trusted with their personal data!

This is the reason I do not trust my personal data with any company, including “Do no evil” Google. Corporations will do only as much as is absolutely required by law, no more.

The silver lining of the story is that it forces creation of stricter regulations to ensure basic data security procedures, which should have been done anyway if these companies had any moral values.