[Dataloss] rant: Useless Compensation for Data Loss Incidents

[MKEVHILL at aol.com]

Credit monitoring is the cheapest reactive measure, plain and  simple.  And 
without a doubt, its a false sense of security these  "careless organizations" 
are giving the effected individuals. 
 
 
 
 
Mike
 
 
Michael  Hill 
Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist
_www.idtheft101.net_ (http://www.idtheft101.net/)  
404-216-3751




In a message dated 6/11/2008 3:33:05 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
lyger at attrition.org writes:


http://attrition.org/security/rant/dl-compensation.html

Wed  Jun 11 03:38:35 EDT 2008
Apacid, Jericho

If you have been the victim  of a data loss incident, odds are you have 
received a letter from the  careless organization that lost your 
information. These letters always  offer apologies and sincere hope that 
your identity or personal  information isn't abused. The recent BNY Mellon 
incident (which now stands  at 4.5 million potential customers affected) 
resulted in customers  receiving such a letter:

[.]

Notice that in return for having  your personal information lost, they are 
offering free credit monitoring  for 12 whole months! This seemingly 
generous offer has apparently become  the standard business practice for 
acceptable compensation when your  personal information is treated with 
carelessness. BNY opted to go with  ConsumerInfo.com's "Triple Alert" 
credit monitoring product (despite no  mention of that 'product' on the 
consumerinfo.com web page), which watches  for changes to your credit 
reports from the three national credit  reporting agencies in the United 
States (Experian, Equifax, TransUnion).  If you are unlucky and get caught 
up in multiple data loss incidents, you  may receive this "gracious 
compensation" many times over.

First,  why is this type of reactive credit monitoring acceptable 
compensation?  This seems to be another case of one business following 
another and...  voila, we have an industry 'standard' that does little to 
serve the  customer but does everything to serve businesses that want to 
look caring  and "customer-centric" in the  media.

[...]
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