ChoicePoint CEO Addresses Stock Sale Issue; Protect Yourself
In an Interview published in the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution today, ChoicePoint
CEO Derek Smith addresses the
question of the sale of his stock in between the time when they found out
about the theft of consumer data and notification of potential victims.
According to ChoicePoint, the sales are part
of a prearranged stock trading plan allowed under SEC rules.
If this is held to be true, it would be very hard to say that the sale
of the stock was based on insider trading. However, the appearance is out
there and the average consumer does not know or necessarily care about
SEC trading rules. They will just feel violated and angry. If this situation
is not resolved quickly and efficiently, ChoicePoint's competitors will
reap the benefits and the company may face irreparable harm.
An interesting take on this topic is
that in some ways, the business controls used by ChoicePoint worked, but
they did not work consistently and in a timely manner. Employee suspicions
triggered an investigation and audit, and the audit found the problem.
Unfortunately, there were no compensating controls in place at the time
of the fraud to catch it before it was too late.
Another interesting note is that the individual arrested and convicted
is a Nigerian national who is refusing to cooperate with authorities. So
I wonder if the Nigerians are realizing that the 419 e-mails are losing
steam and they needed a better way to steal the data directly. Perhaps
it is part of a larger multinational crime scheme? There are many important
questions that come out of this corporate embarrassment, and as a person
who had their identity stolen two years ago, I am not likely to side with
the ChoicePoint position on this debacle unless there is clear and convincing
evidence that they did everything they could to prevent it. Oops, I forgot,
Smith is now saying mistakes were made.
Protect Yourself Against Identity Theft
The recommendation I make to everyone is to put a fraud alert in place
with all of the three major credit reporting agencies. It does not matter
if it happened or not, this just gives you a little bit of extra mind and
control over the use of your credit history. For example, no credit can
be issued in my name until the requesting company calls me at my personal
phone number to verify that I have indeed applied for the credit. To do
this, and you must renew it every two (2) years, contact the three major
credit reporting agencies to request a copy of your credit reports and
to put fraud alerts in place:
Equifax - www.equifax.com
To order your report, call: 800-685-1111 or write:
P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
For Fraud Alerts, call: 800-525-6285
and write:
P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
Hearing impaired call 1-800-255-0056 and ask the operator to call the Auto
Disclosure Line at 1-800-685-1111 to request a copy of your report.
Experian - www.experian.com
To order your report, call: 888-EXPERIAN (397-3742) or write:
P.O. Box 2002, Allen TX 75013
For Fraud Alerts, call: 888-EXPERIAN
(397-3742) and write:
P.O. Box 9530, Allen TX 75013
TDD: 1-800-972-0322
Trans Union - www.transunion.com
To order your report, call: 800-888-4213 or write:
P.O. Box 1000, Chester, PA 19022
For Fraud Alerts, call: 800-680-7289
and write:
Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92634
TDD: 1-877-553-7803
I also encourage you to visit the identity theft webpage hosted by the
Federal
Trade Commission and share
it with your friends, family, and colleagues. In the case of my identity
being stolen, I was lucky because I received a call from the Sears Fraud
Department the day it started and I was able to get fraud alerts placed
before serious damage could occur. It was still a pain to deal with, but
not nearly as painful as it would have been if I had not been notified.
Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) are too often used as marketing tools. And too many mainstream publications are citing reports that have no validity. So if you know anybody who is citing these publications and reports to make business decisions, please point them to one or more of these links. You can also point them to the "Fighting FUD" index of stories and/or add the "Fighting FUD" graphic link to your web site.

About Me
About the Blog
Accounting Software
Admin2005
Articles
Auditing Standards
Best Practices
Best Practices - Coding
Blogging Risks
Blogging Templates
Blogsphere
Book Downloads
Book Reviews
Bookstore
Business Continuity
Business Continuity/Disa...
Business Controls
Business Controls Humor
Business Process Re-Engi...
Caddyshack
Case Studies
Collaboration Tools
College Football
College Hoops
Commentary
Community News
Compliance
Compliance Tools
Compliance Tools - Lotus...
Conference Presentations
Control Frameworks
Control Self Assessment ...
Copyright, Fair Use and ...
Corporate Governance
Data Protection
Daylight Savings Time
Dimensions of Leadership
Disaster Recovery
E-Commerce
E-Mail Compliance
E-Mail Etiquette
Employee Policies
Ethics
Exposure Drafts
Eye on Sports Media
Fighting FUD
Fraud Prevention
General
Going Green
Golf
Governance Cup
Government Compliance
HIPAA
Humour/Satire
IBM Pensions
IM Controls
Internet Safety
Interviews
Ireland 2007
IS Governance
IS Governance At Home
IT Audit Tools
IT Governance
IT Governance Insight
ITIL
Just for Fun
Licensing
Live Blogging Tools
Lotus AdvisorLive
Lotus Notes 8
Lotus Quickr
Lotusphere 2005
Lotusphere 2006
Lotusphere 2007
Lotusphere 2008
Lotusphere 2009
Movie Reviews
News Links
Newspaper Columns
Niagara Basketball
None
Notes 8 Beta
Notes/Domino Administrat...
Notes/Domino Development
Notes/Domino Mail
Notes/Domino Security
Observations
Outsourcing
Patent Issues
Presentations
Press Releases
Privacy
Procurement Controls
Product Advocacy
Records Retention
Reflections
Risk Assessment
Sarbanes-Oxley
Sarbanes-Oxley Tools
Secure Messaging
Security Awareness
Security Controls
Site Update
Smoking Kills
Social Engineering
Social Software
Social Software Risks
Software Development Con...
Software Tools
Spreadsheet Controls
Telecommuting Risks
The Disposable Society
Training Series
Travel Tips/Observations
Trivia
TV/Radio Sports
Understanding COBIT
User Education
User Interface
Vocabulary
Way Off Topic
WebSphere
XBRL
XML Feeds