Women, Data Breaches and ID Theft

September 29th, 2009 Keith Lubsen

It has become a regular occurrence in the news to see both individuals and groups of people have their personal identifying information breached. What is more shocking is that it is often the case that neither the media nor the individuals who have had their data breached are told about a breach.

Breach victims data akin to a name tag

According to a SearchSecurity.com Staff article, 163,000 women who were participants in a mammography study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had their personal identifying information breached.

Information such as an individuals name, Social Security number, date of birth, address, and mother’s maiden name is valuable on the identity theft black market. People who have had their data breached are at higher risk of becoming identity theft victims.

As might seem to be common sense the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is sending breach notifications by postal mail to all individuals who were participants in the study. It is not yet known if the University will offer credit monitoring to the breach victims.

Notifying individuals who have had their data breached is not mandated by federal law. Some states have data breach notification laws and some are in the process of enacting such laws.