IBM loses employee data
For the second time in as many years, a corporation possessing digital records containing my name, employment history, and Social Security number has notified me that it lost a tape in transit containing that data.
Friday I received a letter from IBM Human Resources VP Barbara Brickmeier. The data was lost in February, 2007.
We are writing because of an incident that has resulted in the loss of information relating to your IBM employment, and wanted to inform you about what happened and explain steps IBM is taking to help protect you.”
Recently, data tapes were lost while being transported by a vendor.”
As a result, IBM is giving me one free year credit monitoring via third party Kroll, Inc. One year free monitoring because, as the letter states, “We believe one year of credit monitoring is appropriate in connection with this incident.” I disagree. The coverage should extend up to the time of my death, which is how long I’ll be using my Social Security number to function in this economy. And I plan on being around another 50 years or so.
[tags]corporate accountability,identity theft[/tags]
You’re lucky that IBM chose the best IMHO.
If you check out the coverage, I believe that you will find that it also is a UNIQUE restoration coverage, in addition to having a monitoring benefit.
In a data loss of non public information, IBM or any other company or organization , is liable for your losses plus fines under FACT. If a financial fraud is not contested within 60 days of the bill being mailed, then under FTC Regulation E, you owe that amount, even if it was mailed to a fake address.
The average financial identity theft is over $93,000 and under FACTA, the company or organization is liable for that loss if the NPI data loss cause your identity theft.
The few bucks they might save on a cheap MONITORING ONLY coverage, is minor compared to losing almost $100,000 per person. (Otherwise Penny wise, pound foolish)
To large companies they offer a coverage similar to what we offer to individuals. Kroll is the only company which I know of that offers a TRUE “RESTORATION” coverage which does virtually all the work to RESTORE your identity or your spouse or significant other.
The next best thing is a “RESOLUTION” coverage which is often advertised to sound like a “restoration” coverage. The next best thing gives you advise, but the victim does all the work for an average of OVER 600 hours of a trial and error that can turn into a nightmare.
Almost 1/3 (27%) of those who do-it-themselves FAIL and never get their identity fixed, even after 5, 10, or more years.
A restoration coverage has experts do virtually all the work to restore your identity by you just giving them a limited power of attorney to do the WORK FOR YOU, if a ID theft is discovered.
The victim will still need to file a police report and maybe appear in court. If they catch the thief, I think everyone would love to come to court to see him sweating in court and how he reacts to the sentence.
Kroll’s EXPERTS include former FBI and CIA agents, former law officers, forensic accountants, lawyers, etc. They are a 34+ year old publicly traded company with over 4,000 employees worldwide. They have been fighting identity theft for many years before the public became aware of it for the big corporations which are being hit. Then they decided they need to help those on the family side of identity theft.
Most of the Identity theft services out there are only “monitoring” service either owned directly by the three main credit repositories (aka credit bureaus), or an affiliate who is reselling the services of these 3 companies. They may be offering the service under another name.
I can send you more details about why restoration is the ONLY wise choice, and it can cost less than just a simple monitoring service. Ironically, a monitoring service can cost you DOUBLE what you can get the best KROLL coverage for at a discount, if the monitoring service charges full price to monitor each person in a couple.
I can give those who are interested a site to get more details on the coverage and make it easy for you to enroll in any USA state and a few select Canadian Provinces.
Best wishes,
Joe
Joe
June 11, 2007 at 6:54 pm
Joe,
It looks like you work for Pre-Paid Legal Services, is that correct?
The credit monitoring is a joint offering between Kroll and Pre-Paid Legal Services, right?
If so, can you point to some independent reviews/assessments of Kroll, Pre-Paid Legal Services, and the Identity Shield product? Even testimonials would be helpful. Looks like LOTS of current and ex IBMers are in this boat…
Thanks, Paul
Paul
June 13, 2007 at 7:11 am
Has anyone been able to verify the authenticity of this whole thing? It has warning signs: 1) No Dates, 2) No street addresses, 3) “Kroll Fraud Solutions” is not listed with BBB, 4) Kroll.com does not list an ‘office’ in Des Moines, IA, 5) IBM’s websites to not have any information about any of this, 6) Major US news sites (CNN, NBC, ABC) do not have info on this. It all seems very suspicious!
Jennifer
June 30, 2007 at 7:17 am
I emailed the contact in the FAQ. I first got an automated response, but later got a response from someone who actually read my email and answered my specific questions. Also, there were some news articles from May 15 about it. The incident did happen. As to whether any specific person is affected: IBM has not created a good or even acceptable way to confirm that any specific person is affected (or not).
Ultimately the only thing I could think of to confirm legitimacy (or at least limit my further exposure) was to get confirmation of the address to which to send the credit monitoring application.
Paul
July 2, 2007 at 10:43 am
how do i contact kroll to start process. i have lost
all the ibm mailings.
txs
ron bailey
July 20, 2007 at 10:07 am
I show IDTheftSmart’s support number as 1-800-849-4715.
hth,
Mark
ae6rt
July 20, 2007 at 10:13 am
Sorry to hear about your misfortune. I really know how you feel. These data breaches of employee records highlight the fact that a consumer can do everything right to protect his/herself from ID theft, and still become a victim when a prior employer has a data breach. And we all have prior employers. I write a blog about my experience as a former IBM employee affected by IBM’s data breach:
http://ivebeenmugged.typepad.com
George
George
August 1, 2007 at 1:21 pm