The WSJ has a piece on the business of identity protection. Below is a snippet from the article on several companies and their services.
Chubb (chubb.com) Free with its homeowners insurance Covers up to $25,000 of expenses, including lost wages, fees and loan re-application fees, incurred as a result of identity theft.
Equifax (equifax.com) 69.95 per year E-mail alerts when someone checks your credit report. Reimbursement of up to $2,500 for expenses incurred as a result of identity theft.
Farmers Insurance Group (farmers.com) $25 per year with its homeowners insurance Covers up to $15,000 of expenses, such as lost wages and attorney fees, incurred as a result of identity theft.
Identity Fraud (identityfraud.com) $69.95 to $139.95 Credit reports and monitoring, e-mail alerts and 24-hour hotline. Reimbursement coverage ranging from $10,000 to $25,000.
PromiseMark (promiseplans.com) $41.88 per year Firewall software, hacker alerts, and fraud resolution services.
Travelers Property Casualty (www.travelerspc.com) $25 per year with its homeowners insurance Covers up to $15,000 of expenses incurred as a result of identity theft.
TrueLink (truecredit.com) $10.95 per quarter E-mail alerts about new accounts opened in your name. Operates a fraud-resolution call center to help with things like finding an attorney.
posted by mt at 08:16
A major bust. Over 30k victims, losses approaching 3 million dollars.
posted by mt at 14:52
Drudge has four good links up on Ashcroft and the cyber security bill. Take a look.
posted by mt at 14:49
John Markoff of the NYTimes reports on an initiative to "reconfigure" the Internet in order to make tracking criminals easier. The good part comes later - DARPA hired a company to do a feasability study. That company was unpleased with the results produced by its panel of experts, who conluded it was an all around bad idea, and tried to hide the information.
In e-mail messages, several participants said they believed that Dr. Stavridou was hijacking the report and that the group's consensus would not be reported to Darpa.
posted by mt at 13:55 