[2994] in WWW Security List Archive
Re: your mail
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (FEMA System Administrator)
Thu Sep 19 12:40:15 1996
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 1996 10:13:24 -0400 (EDT)
From: FEMA System Administrator <sysadmin@fema.gov>
To: exceptionalvalue@socialsecurity.com
cc: www-security@ns2.rutgers.edu
In-Reply-To: <199609181621.MAA11698@shell1.cybercom.net>
Errors-To: owner-www-security@ns2.rutgers.edu
I'm not at all happy about this list being used to spam me. Where's the
moderator when you need one?
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D
Bill Casti, CQA=09=09=09=09Email: SysAdmin@fema.gov
System Administrator, FEMA.GOV=09=09 Pager: (800) 604-6149
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D
On Wed, 18 Sep 1996 exceptionalvalue@socialsecurity.com wrote:
> Date: Wed, 18 Sep 1996 12:21:29 -0400
> From: exceptionalvalue@socialsecurity.com
>=20
> Lexis-Nexis burns the midnight oil
> By Skinny DuBaud
> September 16, 1996
>=20
> 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.
>=20
> [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.
>=20
> 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.
>=20
> While I search for your social security number, Yahoo and InfoSeek are
> searching for their identities. Has anyone else noticed how strikingly
> similar these two Web sites are? The search engines must have been
> twins separated at birth; they're the spitting image of each other
> down to their interface and database categories. But like a former
> therapist of mine once said, what is special is on the inside. We'll
> see.
> =FF=F4=FF=FD=06
> [yesterday's www.news.com]
>=20
