On May 8, 2005, at 12:03 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:

> Sorry Hugh but several of these were asked by law enforcement agencies
> to NOT reveal the breach. California Cyber Security requires companies
> to reveal security breaches immediately UNLESS law enforcement says
> don't
>
> pak
> --
> Peter Kurilecz
> Richmond, Va
>

.............and, in the meantime, the interests of the citizen are
trampled.  Our credit
information is exposed and we are left in the dark.  The cyber thief or
those who
specialize in Identity Theft is given exactly what he or she wants,
which is time to
pilfer accounts or create identities with no awareness by the
individual that such
a theft of their information is made known.

If the information contained is about my family and your family, then
we should be made
aware at the same time the bank is aware.  Whether they announce it in
the newspaper
or CNN is another issue.  If someone breaks into your house, and steals
my car out of
your garage, shouldn't the police notify both of us? We are both
victims.

The question is: who is really the owner of the information?  If they
have my SSN, my bank
account information, my credit card information and that information
can hurt me then I should
be made aware.  Especially since the banks pushed through legislation
about bankruptcy, any
risk exposure they create is now even more dangerous.

But if these thefts can be hidden from the victims by law enforcement,
does this create more or
less liability for the bank?  Can they hide behind the "We couldn't
tell you of your exposure
because the police (or FBI) asked us not to."  I think a responsible
Bank would have said "We
have a responsibility to our depositors and credit card holders to
alert them to their exposure."

This is why I bank with a locally owned bank.  If something would
happen, my personal bank officer
would call me and alert me to the risk.  They would not view this the
same way a big conglomerate
would.  They would look at the effect this would have on their local
businesses and neighbors.

So again, it is about Accountability from those who handle our
financial records.  Failure to disclose
to their clients for so many weeks is an error in judgment in my
opinion.

It is ironic that we worry so much about the Patriot Act violating our
personal rights by gathering
information about us without our consent but myriad banks have
financial information on us.

Choice Point and many other credit reporting companies  may have our
financial information and
we have never given them permission to gather and accumulate it. And if
they lose it, they along
with the police may decide we don't have a right to reasonable
notification to act to protect ourselves.

> Sorry Hugh

I am really sorry that this legislation was written with a caveat that
helps protect the bank while it
tramples on our rights.

Hugh Smith
FIRELOCK Fireproof Modular Vaults
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(610)  756-4440    Fax (610)  756-4134
WWW.FIRELOCK.COM

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