ChoicePoint hit by $275K fine for 2008 data security breach
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
ChoicePoint, a large data broker subsidiary of Reed Elsevier, has been ordered to pay a $275,000 fine by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, over a data breach in 2008 that exposed the private data of more than 13,000 customers.
The company has agreed to the fine in a court order that also requires ChoicePoint to implement better data security. FTC alleged in its court filing that ChoicePoint failed to implement a comprehensive data security program to protect customers.
In April 2008, ChoicePoint turned off a "key electronic security tool used to monitor access to one of its databases," which led to unauthorized access of data over a period of 30 days before it was detected by ChoicePoint, according to the FTC.
The FTC has fined ChoicePoint before over a serious data breach in 2005, which compromised the personal information of more than 163,000 consumers and led to 800 cases of identity theft.
ChoicePoint was required by a court to pay $10 million in civil penalties and $5 million in consumer damages for the 2005 data breach.
In the current threat environment of security breaches from online attackers, businesses face multiple challenges in addressing network security and compliance. The online payroll company PayChoice has had its website and databases compromised twice this month by hackers who stole login passwords from customers.
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