[2981] in WWW Security List Archive
Re: Can you say "fraud"?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Gene Ingram)
Wed Sep 18 16:35:28 1996
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 1996 11:21:18 -0700
From: Gene Ingram <gene@hpfsvr01.cup.hp.com>
Reply-To: www-security@ns2.rutgers.edu
To: www-security@ns2.rutgers.edu
Errors-To: owner-www-security@ns2.rutgers.edu
After spending valuable time looking into this, I am quite annoyed
considering it comes from a security newsgroup. :( A little research
saved me from wasting further time and long distance faxing:
Apparently Lexis-Nexis is getting a bad rap. A quote from their
web page on P-TRAK (referred by some on the Internet as `Ptrax'),
at http://www.lexis-nexis.com/lncc/about/ptrak.html below.
``LEXIS-NEXIS is aware of the sensitivities regarding the potential
misuse of information. While business competitors of LEXIS-NEXIS have
for some time made Social Security numbers available to users of their
services, and continue to do so, LEXIS-NEXIS discontinued the display of
Social Security numbers in the P-TRAK file as of June 11, 1996, eleven
days after the product was introduced.
``There has been much erroneous information distributed on the Internet
regarding the data displayed in the P-TRAK file. The displayed record
may, but not always, include the name of the individual, the
individual's maiden and assumed names, current as well as up to two
previous addresses, month and year of birth and telephone number. That
is the only information displayed in the P-TRAK file.
``Contrary to some messages that have been posted to some Internet
discussion and news groups, the P-TRAK file does not contain any credit
histories, bank account information or other personal financial data, or
medical histories.
``The information displayed in the P-TRAK file is an aggregation readily
available from public information sources such as telephone directories
(in print and CD-ROM format) and public records maintained by government
agencies.
``Through its actions, LEXIS-NEXIS is balancing the privacy concerns of
the public with the legitimate needs of legal, business and government
professionals for access to accurate sources of publicly available
information. By discontinuing the display of Social Security numbers in
P-TRAK and only providing information that is already available to the
public from other sources, LEXIS-NEXIS believes it has responsibly met
the expressed concerns of the public.''
Discussion closed?
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