Internet Security and Programming

ChoicePoint Inc., one of the nation’s consumer data brokers, agreed to pay $275,000 to federal regulators as a result of a data breach last year that exposed Social Security numbers and other personal information on 13,750 people. The agreement comes in response to claims by the Federal Trade Commission that ChoicePoint violated the terms of a settlement reached following a separate data breach at the company in 2005 that led to hundreds of cases of identity theft. In 2006, ChoicePoint – now a subsidiary of Reed Elsevier Inc – paid $15 million to settle charges that it violated federal consumer protection laws when it allowed criminals to purchase sensitive financial and personal data on at least 163,000 Americans. The FTC had sued ChoicePoint, charging that the incident led to at least 800 confirmed identity theft crimes. ChoicePoint was supposed to take steps to protect consumer data. But the FTC alleged

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