Washington, DC – Up to 32,000 people are at risk of identity theft after intruders illegally obtained access to their names, addresses, Social Security numbers, driver’s licenses from the a data brokering service known as Seisint, owned by Reed Elsevier. This is the second major database incursion announced in the past month and the third case involving a wide-scale breach of personal information. It demonstrates the urgent need for federal regulation. The following is a statement by U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.):

“This new database breach clearly demonstrates that the effort to consolidate consumer information into huge databases and the lack of adequate protections for that information has made it possible for identity theft to be perpetrated on a massive scale.

In this latest case, up to 32,000 people may fall prey to identity thieves who have illegally obtained access to their names, addresses, Social Security numbers, driver’s licenses from the Seisint database, which stores personal records of millions of Americans.

Seisint’s corporate parent, Reed Elsevier, has announced that these individuals are being notified about the breach and are being offered credit monitoring services, which is an important step.

In the database breach last month, when the personal information of 145,000 Americans may have been compromised, ChoicePoint initially only alerted individuals in California where state law requires such notification.

And in another case of Americans finding their personal financial information at risk, the Bank of America recently announced that some computer tapes containing federal government charge card account information were lost during shipment. The bank said 1.2 million people could be affected.

Congress needs to move forward quickly on legislation to strengthen privacy protections and show the American people that we take the crime of identity theft seriously.I’ve introduced three bills that I think would give Americans more control over their personal data and help them restore their good name when their information has been stolen:

• First is legislation that would require ChoicePoint and companies like it to notify affected individuals if there is a breach in their data system. This is an expansion of California law. I’ve called for an investigation and a hearing into this incident in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and I understand hearings will be in early April.

• Second is legislation that would set a national standard for the protection of personal information. It would essentially require companies to ask consumers whether they would allow their most sensitive personal information to be sold (opt-in). And for less critical data, consumers could tell companies that they don’t want their data sold (opt-out).

• Third, is legislation that would prohibit the sale or display of Social Security numbers to the general public without individuals’ knowledge and consent. It would also prohibit government entities from displaying these numbers on public records that are posted on the Internet after the legislation’s effective date, as well as, prohibit the printing of Social Security numbers on government checks.

Identity theft is a vast and growing crime. We have close to 10 million victims a year now and approximately one million of them are from California . The average victim has to spend a great deal of time to re-establish their identity, and the disruption of their life is enormous.

The only way to fix the situation is with Federal legislation that would set a national standard for notification and privacy protection. It is my hope that this incident will accelerate action and lead to greater protection of personal data.”