How Secure Is Your Personal Information?

And here we go yet again. Another company, another theft, another computer, another million people having their information exposed:

A thief recently stole a computer server belonging to a major U.S. insurance company, and company officials now fear that the personal data of nearly 1 million people could be at risk, insurance industry sources tell NBC News.

The computer server contains personal electronic data for 930,000 Americans, including names, Social Security numbers and tens of thousands of medical records. The server was stolen on March 31, along with a camcorder and other office equipment, during a break-in at a Midwest office of American Insurance Group (AIG), company officials confirm.

An AIG spokesman says that there's no evidence that the thief has accessed the personal data on the server or used it for any illicit purpose. The server is password protected, the AIG spokesman adds

Now let's see if we can sum this up. We got the VA Computer with 26.5 million. This one adds another million. Another 1.3 million in a Texas Student Loan corporation. 1,300 from the University of Kentucky and 1,500 from a Department of Energy computer (which happened last September but not reported to anyone, including the victims, until a couple of weeks ago). We are up to almost 30 million people who have had their personal information stolen within the last few weeks. That is 10% of the population. That number is not acceptable at all.

So what is the United States Congress doing to help with this problem? What is on the agenda for the great Republicans? They are working on legislation to make it easier for the people who steal this information to use it:

Congress is considering pre-empting laws in 17 states that allow anyone to freeze their own credit and instead restricting the privilege to ID theft victims. The proposed Financial Data Protection Act of 2006, expected to be voted on by the House as soon as next week, comes on the heels of the recent theft of sensitive data for 26 million veterans and active duty military personnel. If it becomes law, vets and military personnel who live in states that permit unrestricted credit freezes would lose that option.

A credit freeze cuts off access to your credit history. Since most banks and merchants insist on seeing a credit report before issuing credit, identity thieves can't open bogus accounts using ill-gotten data. Under the bill, backed by the financial services industry, simply having your data lost or stolen isn't enough. You must file a police report describing a specific instance of it being used to commit a crime.

"It's like telling someone you can't put a deadbolt on your front door until after you've been burglarized," says Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna.

Exactly - the Americans are getting fucked in the ass while the corporate world merits from the reach around. The Republicans have declared a Jihad on America. They are out to destroy the working families and doing whatever they can to keep these people down. At the least they need to be replaced. At the most they should be charged with crimes against humanity.