The Facta Law Is a Ticking Timebomb For Businesses That Do Nothing To Prepare.
Posted: Monday, August 29, 2005
by Jeryl Harvard
Advanced Progressive Solutions
On June 01, 2005 a new provision of the FACTA Law became effective. This provision gave financial liability to any person or business that employs even "one" person, or, has "one" client who as a result of their action or inaction, allows confidential informatiion to be compromised by thieves, hackers, mistakes or otherwise. The financial liability is for actual damages and also includes Federal fines of up to $2500.00 and State fines up to $1000.00 per person, per incident.
Business Week says that the average damages for Identity Theft victims are $92,000.00 and up, per person. Using this statistic, if you have 10 employees lose their identities, then on average, your Facta Law liability could be $920,000.00 not including the federal and state fines. How many employees does your company employ? FACTA Law requires action by decision makers or the liability damages could be financially devastating for a company.
So, what if you do shred all potential employee information, and take all necessary precautions to protect your past, current, and future employees’ identities, and the information still gets out somehow? Under the FACTA law, you could still be held responsible.
Effective June 1, 2005 under FACTA, the companies listed below could potentially be liable for hundreds of millions in damages for a crime that has too many opportunities to occur. Opportunities exist from such varied sources as high tech hackers, dumpster divers, disgruntled employees (past, current and future employees), mistakes and oversights, or just a few bad apples that slipped under curtain of the interview process.t Advanced Progressive
Go to Yahoo and type in keywords FACTA Liability.
You will find over 150,000 sites that are speaking on just this issue.
It happened to these companies....are you next?
DATE MADE PUBLIC
NAME
TYPE OF BREACH
NUMBER
Feb. 15, 2005
ChoicePoint
ID thieves accessed
145,000
Feb. 25 , 2005
Bank of America
Lost backup tape
1,200,000
Feb. 25, 2005
PayMaxx
Exposed online
25,000
March 8, 2005
DSW/Retail Ventures
Hacking
100,000
March 10, 2005
LexisNexis
Passwords compromised
32,000
March 11, 2005
Univ. of CA, Berkeley
Stolen laptop
98,400
March 11, 2005
Boston College
Hacking
120,000
March 12, 2005
NV Dept. of Motor Vehicle
Stolen computer
8,900
March 20, 2005
Northwestern Univ.
Hacking
21,000
March 20, 2005
Univ. of NV., Las Vegas
Hacking
5,000
March 22, 2005
Calif. State Univ., Chico
Hacking
59,000
March 23, 2005
Univ. of CA, San Francisco
Hacking
7,000
March 28, 2005
Univ. of Chicago Hospital
Dishonest insider
unknown
April ?, 2005
Georgia DMV
Dishonest insider
"hundreds of thousands"
April 5, 2005
MCI
Stolen laptop
16,500
April 8, 2005
Eastern National
Hacker
15,000
April 8, 2005
San Jose Med. Group
Stolen computer
185,000
April 11, 2005
Tufts University
Hacking
106,000
April 12, 2005
LexisNexis
Passwords compromised
Additional 280,000
April 14, 2005
Polo Ralph Lauren/HSBC
Hacking
180,000
April 14, 2005
Calif. Fastrack
Dishonest Insider
4,500
April 15, 2005
CA Dept. of Health Services
Stolen laptop
21,600
April 18, 2005
DSW/ Retail Ventures
Hacking
Additional 1,300,000
April 20, 2005
Ameritrade
Lost backup tape
200,000
April 21, 2005
Carnegie Mellon Univ.
Hacking
19,000
April 26, 2005
Mich. State Univ's Wharton Center
Hacking
40,000
April 26, 2005
Christus St. Joseph's Hospital
Stolen computer
19,000
April 28, 2005
Georgia Southern Univ.
Hacking
"tens of thousands"
April 28, 2005
Wachovia,
Bank of America,
PNC Financial Services Group and
Commerce Bancorp
Dishonest insiders
676,000
April 29, 2005
Oklahoma State Univ.
Missing laptop
37,000
May 2, 2005
Time Warner
Lost backup tapes
600,000
May 4, 2005
CO. Health Dept.
Stolen laptop
1,600 (families)
May 5, 2005
Purdue Univ.
Hacking
11,360
May 7, 2005
Dept. of Justice
Stolen laptop
80,000
May 11, 2005
Stanford Univ.
Hacking
9,900
May 12, 2005
High ScHinsdale Central hool
Hacking
2,400
May 16, 2005
Westborough Bank
Dishonest insider
750
May 18, 2005
Jackson Comm. College, Michigan
Hacking
8,000
May 18, 2005
Univ. of Iowa
Hacking
30,000
May 19, 2005
Valdosta State Univ., GA
Hacking
40,000
May 20, 2005
Purdue Univ.
Hacking
11,000
May 26, 2005
Duke Univ.
Hacking
5,500
May 27, 2005
Cleveland State Univ.
Stolen laptop
44,420
May 28, 2005
Merlin Data Services
Bogus acct. set up
9,000
May 30, 2005
Motorola
Computers stolen
unknown
June 6, 2005
CitiFinancial
Lost backup tapes
3,900,000
June 10, 2005
Fed. Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC)
Not disclosed
6,000
June 16, 2005
CardSystems
Hacking
40,000,000
June 17, 2005
Kent State Univ.
Stolen laptop
1,400
June 18, 2005
Univ. of Hawaii
Dishonest Insider
150,000
June 22, 2005
Eastman Kodak
Stolen laptop
5,800
June 22, 2005
East Carolina Univ.
Hacking
250
June 25, 2005
Univ. of CT (UCONN)
Hacking
72,000
June 28, 2005
Lucas Cty. Children Services (OH)
Exposed by email
900
June 29, 2005
Bank of America
Stolen laptop
18,000
June 30, 2005
Ohio State Univ. Med. Ctr.
Stolen laptop
15,000
July 1, 2005
Univ. of CA, San Diego
Hacking
3,300
July 6, 2005
City National Bank
Lost backup tapes
unknown
July 7, 2005
Mich. State Univ.
Hacking
27,000
July 19, 2005
Univ. of Southern Calif. (USC)
Hacking
270,000 possibly accessed "dozens"exposed
July 21, 2005
Univ. of Colorado-Boulder
Hacking
42,000
July 30, 2005
San Diego Co. Employees Retirement Assoc.
Hacking
33,000
July 30, 2005
Calif. State Univ., Dominguez Hills
Hacking
9,613
July 31, 2005
Cal Poly-Pomona
Hacking
31,077
Aug. 2, 2005
Univ. of Colorado
Hacking
36,000
Aug. 9, 2005
Sonoma State Univ.
Hacking
61,709
Aug. 10, 2005
Univ. of North Texas
Hacking
39,000
Aug. 19, 2005
Univ. of Colorado
Hacking
49,000
Aug. 22, 2005
Air Force
Hacking
33,300
TOTAL
50,579,179
.........and the list continues to grow.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure", is definitely the case when it comes to securing personal information. However, no matter what prevention steps you take, there is no 100% effective way to be sure that employee’s information won't be compromised. Even if the information doesn't get out from your company, an employee can claim that it did. Find out what you should do to protect yourself. Go to Yahoo or MSN and type in keywords FACTA LAW or FACTA LIABILITY.
I am so thankful that this information has been put out there. It almost happened to us, but we had the foresight to work with Advanced Progressive Solutions and Mr. Harvard , before our situation occured. We totally contained our damages.
I would have never thought that I needed this. I am glad that I called just to get more information. The program saved my business. I did all of the disposal requirements and information still got out. If you own or manage a business, call today
Sometimes we complicate a process that is simple in nature. Unfortunately I waited, had numerous meetings, commitees, and before I had the chance to get this service, someone accessed our data. I wish we would have moved sooner. Learn from me.
The SPAM comments on this article were clearly written by the author to promote their own cause.Not to mention that this is a plagiarized article.Obviously a disgruntled, non-ranking competing website owner's opinion......and to taken for just that.