ChoicePoint Inc. will pay the largest civil penalty over data security in the history of the Federal Trade Commission to settle charges that it failed to protect consumers' personal information, the agency announced Thursday when criminals posed as legitimate businesses to access critical personal data. In addition to a $10 million fine, ChoicePoint will also create a $5 million fund to help consumers who became victims of identity theft. For the three months ending Dec. 31, ChoicePoint said it earned $27.68 million on revenues of over one billion dollars in 2005

As reported by MSNBC banks are losing millions because they are not performing an important security check. This flaw lets phishers print their own ATM cards and withdraw cash. Gartner Inc. reports one bank lost one million dollars last month due to this fraud. I wonder how much they actually saved by not implementing this check when the programs and ATMs were rolled out?

It seems a week can't go by with reports of another large corporation exposing credit card information, personal data information, etc. onto the net. Doesn't anyone go to Black Hat anymore?

This has to make me wonder. How many of these leaks don't we know about? Is there dozens of others, hundreds, thousands? Are there people who know about this but are afraid to speak up? Do we need an anonymous posting place so these things can come into the light?

And lastly, when is someone going to be held responsible for this? There just seem to be much incentive to really restrict access to this stuff.