The Facta Law Is a Ticking Timebomb For Businesses That Do Nothing To Prepare.

On June 01, 2005 a new provision of the FACTA Law became effective. This provision gave financial liability to any person or business that employs even "one" person, or, has "one" client who as a result of their action or inaction, allows confidential informatiion to be compromised by thieves, hackers, mistakes or otherwise. The financial liability is for actual damages and also includes Federal fines of up to $2500.00 and State fines up to $1000.00 per person, per incident.

According to John Gardner, co-author of Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneurial Soul, “The damages are devastating to any business." and the FACTA law assigns responsibility directly to you, the business. Under Facta doing nothing today will cost you much tomorrow.

Business Week says that the average damages for Identity Theft victims are $92,000.00 and up, per person. Using this statistic, if you have 10 employees lose their identities, then o­n average, your Facta Law liability could be $920,000.00 not including the federal and state fines. How many employees does your company employ? FACTA Law requires action by decision makers or the liability damages could be financially devastating for a company.

Effective June 1, 2005 under FACTA, the companies listed below could potentially be liable for hundreds of millions in damages for a crime that has too many opportunities to occur. Opportunities exist from such varied sources as high tech hackers, dumpster divers, disgruntled employees (past, current and future employees), mistakes and oversights, or just a few bad apples that slipped under curtain of the interview process.t Advanced Progressive

Go to Yahoo and type in keywords FACTA Liability.

You will find over 150,000 sites that are speaking on just this issue.

It happened to these companies....are you next?

DATE MADE PUBLIC	NAME	TYPE OF BREACH	NUMBER
Feb. 15, 2005	ChoicePoint	ID thieves accessed	145,000
Feb. 25 , 2005	Bank of America	Lost backup tape	1,200,000
Feb. 25, 2005	PayMaxx	Exposed online	25,000
March 8, 2005	DSW/Retail Ventures	Hacking	100,000
March 10, 2005	LexisNexis	Passwords compromised	32,000
March 11, 2005	Univ. of CA, Berkeley	Stolen laptop	98,400
March 11, 2005	Boston College	Hacking	120,000
March 12, 2005	NV Dept. of Motor Vehicle	Stolen computer	8,900
March 20, 2005	Northwestern Univ.	Hacking	21,000
March 20, 2005	Univ. of NV., Las Vegas	Hacking	5,000
March 22, 2005	Calif. State Univ., Chico	Hacking	59,000
March 23, 2005	Univ. of CA, San Francisco	Hacking	7,000
March 28, 2005	Univ. of Chicago Hospital	Dishonest insider	unknown
April ?, 2005	Georgia DMV	Dishonest insider	"hundreds of thousands"
April 5, 2005	MCI	Stolen laptop	16,500
April 8, 2005	Eastern National	Hacker	15,000
April 8, 2005	San Jose Med. Group	Stolen computer	185,000
April 11, 2005	Tufts University	Hacking	106,000
April 12, 2005	LexisNexis	Passwords compromised	Additional 280,000
April 14, 2005	Polo Ralph Lauren/HSBC	Hacking	180,000
April 14, 2005	Calif. Fastrack	Dishonest Insider	4,500
April 15, 2005	CA Dept. of Health Services	Stolen laptop	21,600
April 18, 2005	DSW/ Retail Ventures	Hacking	Additional 1,300,000
April 20, 2005	Ameritrade	Lost backup tape	200,000
April 21, 2005	Carnegie Mellon Univ.	Hacking	19,000
April 26, 2005	Mich. State Univ's Wharton Center	Hacking	40,000
April 26, 2005	Christus St. Joseph's Hospital	Stolen computer	19,000
April 28, 2005	Georgia Southern Univ.	Hacking	"tens of thousands"
April 28, 2005	Wachovia, Bank of America, PNC Financial Services Group and Commerce Bancorp	Dishonest insiders	676,000
April 29, 2005	Oklahoma State Univ.	Missing laptop	37,000
May 2, 2005	Time Warner	Lost backup tapes	600,000
May 4, 2005	CO. Health Dept.	Stolen laptop	1,600 (families)
May 5, 2005	Purdue Univ.	Hacking	11,360
May 7, 2005	Dept. of Justice	Stolen laptop	80,000
May 11, 2005	Stanford Univ.	Hacking	9,900
May 12, 2005	High ScHinsdale Central hool	Hacking	2,400
May 16, 2005	Westborough Bank	Dishonest insider	750
May 18, 2005	Jackson Comm. College, Michigan	Hacking	8,000
May 18, 2005	Univ. of Iowa	Hacking	30,000
May 19, 2005	Valdosta State Univ., GA	Hacking	40,000
May 20, 2005	Purdue Univ.	Hacking	11,000
May 26, 2005	Duke Univ.	Hacking	5,500
May 27, 2005	Cleveland State Univ.	Stolen laptop	44,420
May 28, 2005	Merlin Data Services	Bogus acct. set up	9,000
May 30, 2005	Motorola	Computers stolen	unknown
June 6, 2005	CitiFinancial	Lost backup tapes	3,900,000
June 10, 2005	Fed. Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC)	Not disclosed	6,000
June 16, 2005	CardSystems	Hacking	40,000,000
June 17, 2005	Kent State Univ.	Stolen laptop	1,400
June 18, 2005	Univ. of Hawaii	Dishonest Insider	150,000
June 22, 2005	Eastman Kodak	Stolen laptop	5,800
June 22, 2005	East Carolina Univ.	Hacking	250
June 25, 2005	Univ. of CT (UCONN)	Hacking	72,000
June 28, 2005	Lucas Cty. Children Services (OH)	Exposed by email	900
June 29, 2005	Bank of America	Stolen laptop	18,000
June 30, 2005	Ohio State Univ. Med. Ctr.	Stolen laptop	15,000
July 1, 2005	Univ. of CA, San Diego	Hacking	3,300
July 6, 2005	City National Bank	Lost backup tapes	unknown
July 7, 2005	Mich. State Univ.	Hacking	27,000
July 19, 2005	Univ. of Southern Calif. (USC)	Hacking	270,000 possibly accessed "dozens"exposed
July 21, 2005	Univ. of Colorado-Boulder	Hacking	42,000
July 30, 2005	San Diego Co. Employees Retirement Assoc.	Hacking	33,000
July 30, 2005	Calif. State Univ., Dominguez Hills	Hacking	9,613
July 31, 2005	Cal Poly-Pomona	Hacking	31,077
Aug. 2, 2005	Univ. of Colorado	Hacking	36,000
Aug. 9, 2005	Sonoma State Univ.	Hacking	61,709
Aug. 10, 2005	Univ. of North Texas	Hacking	39,000
Aug. 19, 2005	Univ. of Colorado	Hacking	49,000
Aug. 22, 2005	Air Force	Hacking	33,300
TOTAL			50,579,179

.........and the list continues to grow.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure", is definitely the case when it comes to securing personal information. However, no matter what prevention steps you take, there is no 100% effective way to be sure that employee’s information won't be compromised. Even if the information doesn't get out from your company, an employee can claim that it did. Find out what you should do to protect yourself. Go to Yahoo or MSN and type in keywords FACTA LAW or FACTA LIABILITY.

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Comments on this article:

» left by Louise Vaughn from Pennsylvania, USA (3 years 100 days ago.)

I am so thankful that this information has been put out there. It almost happened to us, but we had the foresight to work with Advanced Progressive Solutions and Mr. Harvard , before our situation occured. We totally contained our damages.
Respond to this comment

» left by Apex CorP from Chicago Ill. USA (3 years 98 days ago.)

I would have never thought that I needed this. I am glad that I called just to get more information. The program saved my business. I did all of the disposal requirements and information still got out. If you own or manage a business, call today
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» left by Mary Purnell from Willow Grove PA (3 years 88 days ago.)

Sometimes we complicate a process that is simple in nature. Unfortunately I waited, had numerous meetings, commitees, and before I had the chance to get this service, someone accessed our data. I wish we would have moved sooner. Learn from me.
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