January 03, 2003

Enormous Thefts of Personal Information May Lead to Identity, Credit Fraud

In two recent cases, enormous quantities of personal information have been stolen from data warehouses. The Defense Department reported that thousands of medical records were stolen from a Pentagon health care contractor. In that incident, thieves stole hard drives containing more than 500,000 records with Social Security numbers, but left other computer equipment behind. The data was stored electronically as part of the process of building a large network to computerize all military health care files. A $100,000 award is now being offered to individuals who solve the crime.

In a separate incident, the personal information of all 9,600 residents of Iwashiro, Japan was stolen. The data, which included unique identifiers, was stored on data tapes, and apparently were encrypted backups of the national resident registry system.

Pentagon Health Contractor Suffers Theft, Associated Press, December 31, 2002.
Data on residents of town stolen, Theft raises questions about security of residency network, Japan Times, December 29, 2002.
Thanks for Not Stealing My Identity, New York Times, December 6, 2002.
Identity Theft More Often an Inside Job, Old Precautions Less Likely to Avert Costly Crime, Experts Say, Washington Post, December 3, 2002.