Reply #6: LexisNexis Reports Theft of Personal Data (WaPo)

[MGKrebs]

dentity thieves have compromised another company that collects and sells personal information on millions of U.S. consumers, the latest in a series of breaches that is throwing a spotlight on the practices and safeguards of a booming data-collection industry.

The breaches occurred at the company's recently acquired Seisint subsidiary, a Florida firm that sells data amassed from extensive public-records searches to law-enforcement agencies, businesses, private investigators and others.

LexisNexis Group acquired Seisint last summer for $775 million in cash. At the time, Seisint was best known as the company behind a counter-terrorism supercomputer called the Matrix, which enabled law enforcement and intelligence authorities to blend investigative files with 20 billion public records.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19982-2005Mar9.html