U.S. contradicts itself over its ID theft advice

This really has already been reported, and you can read my original post here. However, here is another story and some other examples of how Identity Theft is a big problem, even for the government.

• Story from Associated press, but ling is on msnbc.com, posted on July 2 – http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25504302/

At least 44 million Medicare insurance cards include the beneficiary’s full Social Security number. The number also appears on 8 million Defense Department identity cards used by active duty and reserve forces and their dependents, and on identification cards issued to military retirees. The Pentagon, however, plans to remove the numbers but won’t complete the effort until 2014.

Hackers steal PINs from Citibank ATMs

According to recent court filings, hackers were able to break into the network of ATM’s branded by Citibank, inside 7-Eleven stores. What is more disturbing is that they were able to get the PIN Codes, which is supposed to be the most secure!

• Story is from the Associate Press, however this link is from SeattleTimes.com, posted on July 2, 2008 – http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008028857_atm02.html

Hackers broke into Citibank’s network of ATMs inside 7-Eleven stores and stole customers’ PIN codes…

But more importantly for consumers, it indicates criminals were able to access PINs — the numeric passwords that theoretically are among the most closely guarded elements of banking transactions — by attacking the back-end computers responsible for approving the cash withdrawals.

It’s unclear how many Citibank customers were affected by the breach, which extended at least from October to March