February 27, 2005 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – On Friday, February 24, Bank of America disclosed that it lost backup tapes containing the personally identifiable financial information and credit card data of 1.2 million customers, including possibly that of all 100 U.S. senators and hundreds of thousands of other government employees.
The Bank of America disclosure adds fuel to a growing uproar among privacy rights experts and government regulators who fear that Americans are increasingly threatened by identity theft and other privacy violations due to sloppy or inadequate data privacy and data security practices.
Recently ChoicePoint inadvertently sold the consumer data for 500,000 individuals to criminals last year. The thieves operated for over a year and used the information to defraud at least 750 people.
Identity fraud is an increasing risk as online purchasing and money transfers make it very convenient for criminals once they have an established fraudulent identity.
