STATES PROBING MASSIVE DATA BREACH OF SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS

Posted by Kathryn McEwen on April 6, 2014 at 4:01pm

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In what could be one of the biggest data breaches in history, the federal government and authorities in several states are investigating the criminal sale of Social Security numbers, bank account data and other personal information for up to 200 million U.S. citizens.
The investigations stem from the case of Hieu Minh Ngo, a Vietnamese man who pleaded guilty last month in New Hampshire federal court to selling the data to more than 1,300 of his customers, according to a court transcript.
The breach is the latest demonstration of the growing vulnerability of personal information in the digital age, and is particularly troubling because of the involvement of Social Security numbers.
"It's scary," said Eric Chiu, president of Mountain View security company HyTrust. "That could be information used to steal our identities or drain our bank accounts."
The court records said Ngo obtained the personal data from Ohio-based U.S. Info Search through Court Ventures, a Southern California firm bought by consumer credit-reporting giant Experian in March 2012. Court Ventures' customers typically used U.S. Info Search's data to find court records.

read more: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/business/ci_25498586/states-probin...

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