Personal information on as many as 310,000 U.S. citizens – including Social Security numbers (SSN) or Driver’s License numbers (DLN), may have been stolen from a LexisNexis database, publisher and data broker Reed Elsevier Group PLC said Tuesday. The figure is 10 times more than LexisNexis’s initial estimate last month.
The company said an analysis of data search activity for the past two years found 59 incidents in which unauthorized users “may have acquired personal indentifying information” of individuals in the United States through Seisint, a unit of Lexis Nexis. The majority of instances involved IDs and passwords stolen from Seisint customers that had legally permissible access to SSNs and DLNs for legitimate purposes, such as verifying identities and preventing and detecting fraud.
In addition to the 30,000 individuals already notified, LexisNexis will begin notifying approximately 280,000 additional individuals who may have been affected. The company said it would offer free support services to individuals who receive the notification, to monitor and protect them from possible fraud associated with identity theft, including credit bureau reports, credit monitoring for one year and fraud insurance. In addition, LexisNexis will provide fraud counseling services or specialized assistance on a case-by-case basis to any individual who has been the victim of identity theft related to these instances.
(via Reed Elsevier)
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