[2980] in WWW Security List Archive
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daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (2forthepriceof1@socialsecurity.com)
Wed Sep 18 14:31:58 1996
From: 2forthepriceof1@socialsecurity.com
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 1996 12:33:12 -0400
Apparently-To: www-security@ns2.rutgers.edu
Errors-To: owner-www-security@ns2.rutgers.edu
Lexis-Nexis burns the midnight oil
By Skinny DuBaud
September 16, 1996
Now and again, my credit card starts to feel like a plate of steel,
for which the only remedy is a blind, uninhibited charge-fest. This
past weekend, my son Vermel and I were tempted by a downright
unrealistic purchase, a down payment on a roll-prone sport utility
vehicle, and a more modest expenditure, an asthmatic iguana.
[INLINE] Although Vermel has a few years before he graduates into the
credit card class, the kid can go ahead and get a card now thanks to
an online service from Lexis-Nexis. Last June, the company said it
yanked the ability to search for social security numbers in its P-TRAK
database, which also contains maiden names, phone numbers, and other
data necessary for getting a new credit card. But Lexis-Nexis was
playing weasel words. True, the online service won't let you search
for a social security number by a person's name. It will, however, let
you enter random social security numbers to call up an individual's
records.
The public outcry to P-TRAK (prompted initially by a CNET article) is
apparently keeping Lexis-Nexis officials up at night. Company workers
have been doing split-shifts of late just to keep up with phone calls
from people demanding to be removed from the database. Pooped out from
the explosion of requests, Lexis-Nexis is now telling people to write
or fax their concerns, and doesn't promise to confirm your removal
from P-TRAK. Have a nice day.
[www.news.com]
