Robert Siciliano discusses a data breach at Atlantis Paradise Island that exposed 55,000 customers' names, addresses, credit cards, and Social Security numbers. He notes that insider breaches account for roughly 70% of identity theft cases and warns against using SSNs as primary identifiers.
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Another breach of privacy in the digital age we now live in. Kirzner International saying the management of its Atlantis Paradise Island resort discovered a theft of about 55,000 customers' personal information. The information stolen includes names and addresses, credit cards, Social Security numbers, driver's licenses, and bank account numbers. Now the company is saying through George Markatonis, the president and managing director of Kirzner, quote, "This is a crime against Atlantis that could affect some of our customers. Our customers are our number one priority, and we take our obligation to safeguard their personal information very seriously." The resort is notifying potentially affected customers in writing so they can take steps to protect themselves from possible identity fraud, and they're providing at no cost to them a credit monitoring service for 1 year. To date, the resort has not received any evidence that the information has been used to commit identity fraud or in any other manner adverse to its customers. Joining us now live to discuss identity theft is Robert Siciliano with IDTheftSecurity.com. Good morning, sir.
Good morning.
Um, as identity theft goes, how big is this one?
Well, this is a blip compared to the 40 million credit cards compromised with MasterCard last year, and then the 145,000 at ChoicePoint, and the 200-and-so-thousand from Marriott just last week. But still, 58,000—
Right.
It's still not a blip if they get your Social Security number and start assuming your identity.
Correct.
From what you can glean and what you know in general, how does something like this happen?
It's very simple. From the inside, someone that works within the organization or is friends with somebody in the organization gets access to the the database. Breaches from the inside attune to about 70% of all identity theft. So if they're not protected from the inside, there's a good chance that the information is going to be pilfered.
From a law enforcement standpoint, will it be easy to solve if in fact it's from the inside?
Well, forensic specialists usually can trace back to where the breach is from. But if in fact it was from the outside and there's been some type of a virus, malware, or spyware installed into the system, then it might be very difficult to trace.
You know, I noticed on my mother's, uh, one of her GHI cards or whatever, they stopped using her Social Security number. Now there's some ID number. Uh, what are we learning about Social Security numbers and the abandon with which we publish them?
The Social Security number is the key to the kingdom. Uh, it is our primary identifier. It's what every, uh, major retailer uses to check your credit for instant credit. Every bank, every financial institution. Uh, it's on our social— it's on our, uh, driver's licenses, on our Insurance cards, and again, it's the key to the kingdom.
All right, so where does biometric security come into play here, either fingerprint or iris scanner, that kind of thing?
There are a number of companies that are poised for explosive growth because they are incorporating identity management biometric security into the way in which they produce IDs. And until we properly identify and authenticate who's who and stop using the Social Security number as a primary identifier, this will continue to spin out of control. Biometrics really is our best hope up in the future.
Mr. Siciliano, thanks for joining us. Appreciate your time and your expertise. Robert Siciliano with IDTheftSecurity.com, joining us from Watertown, Mass.
Excellent information. You know, when you say that the Social Security number is the key to the kingdom—
as I said, they stopped doing that. I noticed on my mother's cards, uh, now Blue Cross and GHI, no more. It's an ID number but not the Social.
