I'm about to get a new tin-foil hat; all the records going missing

[Atman]

What is up with this? Why, all of a sudden, is every major data collection center, LOSING THEIR FUCKING CUSTOMER RECORDS? Now Citibank...what the hell is going on?

Theories?

Getting addresses to help enforce the coming draft? Is this a way for BushCo to compile the databases it's been pining for, but have been unable to accomplish so far? I'm not suggesting necessarily that they are, as I'd have to wonder why anyone would go public about the losses instead of just keeping mum. BUT...something is stinky. It seems like every major player in the data biz has "lost" (or had stolen) all their customer's personal information in the last couple of months.

That just doesn't smell right.

:tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat:

[Inland]

1. Try Reynold's Wrap.

Taking credit card information for everyone of every age isn't exactly the most efficient way of compiling draft age persons, and stealing even less efficient.

The reason why the companies report the theft is that thousands of their customers have their identities stolen---and they are stuck with millions of illegal charges to the companies. Either is pretty bad. You can't and wouldn't cover it up.

[cornermouse]

2. Theft on a global scale?

Inadequate security on computers used by financial institutions resulting in a major heist on a national or maybe even, global scale.

[FSogol]

3. It another unregulated industry that

puts CEO compensation ahead of doing their jobs correctly or ethically.

[Roland99]

4. Lost by UPS...maybe a spammer doubles as a UPS driver?

He now has access to 4 million names/addresses. :)

[LaurenG]

5. Its a conspiracy

Truth is stranger than fiction. My first thought when I read this; Another way to feed their data bases with our personal information. I guess they figure if regular citizens can steal personal info so can they. I do not trust this at all. How many times has this happened this year?

[Atman]

7. "How many times has this happened this year?"

THAT is the point. I thought nothing of the first loss, Choice Point, or whomever was first. It sucked, but quite frankly, I'd welcome someone stealing my identity, as long as I could see the look on their face when they keep getting turned down for loans! LOL! But then the second major "loss." And a third, now CitiBank. All in the span of a couple of months. THAT is why I donned my Chappeau de Reynolds Wrap. I don't really believe it; as was pointed out, it doesn't seem too practical. BUT, there is something more to this. There's gotta be. Think of the alternative isn't too pretty, either...all of these massive companies are just sieves, and your personal information is simply not safe ANYWHERE no matter what precautions you take.

[Quakerfriend]

6. I heard on CNN last night that this has been going on

for a long time, but now because of new California law people must be notified.

[Theres-a]

8. I smell an RFID solution

Just a thought.:tinfoilhat: Same with all the horribly overdone "missing" people.With a microchip,everyone would know where everyone is and who everyone is.Don't worry it's for our own good.

[Al-CIAda]

15. Yes, good theory. Create the problem for a predetermined 'solution'.

"Problem, reaction, solution".

"A catalyzing event, such as a New Pearl Harbor".

[HughBeaumont]

9. Hate to add to it, but

Cleveland State University just lost a laptop containing the records and personal info of 44,000 former and current students.

Curiouser and curiouser . . .

[elehhhhna]

10. Step away from the tinfoil! They've ALWAYS been cavalier about

securing these records--this has happened to probably every financial institution, thanks to hackers and plain human error, since the banks & fin. co's have 6.00 per hour employees handing your data, anyway--

They cop to it now because it comes out later anyway, and then their customers REALLY get ticked. This is butt-covering. "Hey Mister My Identity Was Stolen, we TOLD you we lost your records..."

[stickdog]

11. Just softening us up for the new RFID REAL ID. For our own good, ya know.

[tanyev]

12. I've got my tin foil hat on.

"We must start thinking differently," says Air Force Gen. Ralph E. "Ed" Eberhart, the newly installed commander of Northern Command, the military's homeland security arm. Before 9/11, he says, the military and intelligence systems were focused on "the away game" and not properly focused on "the home game." "Home," of course, is the United States.

"We are not going to be out there spying on people," Eberhart told PBS' NewsHour in September. But, he said, "We get information from people who do." Some of that information increasingly comes not from the FBI or those charged with civilian law enforcement but from a Pentagon organization established last year, the Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA). The seemingly innocuous CIFA was originally given the mission of protecting the Defense Department and its personnel, as well as "critical infrastructure," against espionage conducted by terrorists and foreign intelligence services.

CIFA, moreover, has been given a domestic "data mining" mission: figuring out a way to process massive sets of public records, intercepted communications, credit card accounts, etc., to find "actionable intelligence." "Homeland defense relies on the sharing of actionable intelligence among the appropriate federal, state, and local agencies," says Lt. Gen. Edward G. Anderson III, Eberhart's deputy.

Another ambitious domestic project is being undertaken by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which is gathering "geospatial information" about 133 cities, the borders and seaports. This "urban data inventory" combines unclassified and classified data (including such things as the location of emergency services, communications, transportation and food supplies) with a high-resolution satellite map of the United States. When the mapping efforts are completed, a national "spatial data infrastructure" will be created down to the house level. Intelligence analysts speak of one day being able to identify individual occupants, as well as their national background and political affiliations. Though the military is just getting its systems in place, there can be no other conclusion: Domestic surveillance is back.

http://www.notinourname.net/restrictions/military-23nov03.htm

[MadHound]

13. I'm as much as a conspiracy theorist as the next person, but

I don't think that this is anywhere close to :tinfoilhat: status. You wouldn't believe how cavalier both government and corporations are with not just personal records, but all sorts of sensitive material. I worked at Kinkos years ago in our state capital, and you wouldn't believe what various government agencies brought in and left with us. Incredibly sensitive security stuff, just dropped off like another resume to be run, with no thought about who is working behind the counter, and who now has access to that info. Truly astonishing.

This information is being widely reported now in order to blunt the anger when this info is picked up by a hacker and turned into ID theft. If the company remained mum and this shit started breaking out, the rage would be so great that it would drive the company into the ground. This way they merely suffer some angry phone calls, have to change some security procedures, and suffer a temporary drop in their stock price.

[Kelvin Mace]

14. It's been happening all along

but now people are paying attention because ID theft is having consequences.

[AlCzervik]

16. Names were stolen and the sold-to scammers

[halobeam]

17. My question is this...

do they lose passwords to online bank accounts?

[bobthedrummer]

18. It's Admiral Poindexter's TIA crew

http://www.darpa.mil/

[Just Me]

21. Back door information gathering on US citizens?

So, are the corporacrat criminals following our money? *LOL* I'm sorry for laughing but, some matters are just so extreme it's freakin' funny.

[bobthedrummer]

22. Just Me, here's a lot of links alleging major government crimes.

Take your time with them.
He who laughs last laughs best btw.

Major Government Crimes
http://www.raven1.net/othcrime.htm

[linazelle]

19. I agree...something VERY fishy about this. n/t

[slaveplanet]

20. When this happens to large financial and credit

institutions....they are using it for "float" transferring large sums for profit while the accounts are frozen, they also are using it to cover certain funds(pension) for accounting time, which I suspect are drained dry...then funds are then replaced.
Pretty much the same reason the banks have eliminated customer float via the E-check, so they can have their own float(that's why the delay for you to receive funds when there is no reason ALL transactions couldn't happen instantaneously with todays technology).

Identities are also sold to data miners in the process.

ID theft is the cover story....and they plan on providing a faulty solution to the problem they themselves created

[bobthedrummer]

23. Kick.

:dem::kick: