Domestic Policy

Foreign Data Handling Is A Risk For Your Family

January 12, 2006 ⋅  E-Mail Article ⋅  Print Article ⋅ Post a comment

How safe is your personal data? Not very safe according to most industry professionals, and it may be getting worse as you read on. What is the problem? We are taking our most valuable asset, our personal data, and shipping it to the poorest parts of the world. This is a recipe for disaster and if your bank is involved I would seriously consider moving my money.

How could anyone think it was safe to provide our bank information to overseas outsourcing is beyond me? Many security professionals believe that industrious criminals are already hard at work to exploit these individuals who work for a dollar or two an hour while handling thousands, and millions, of dollars, for individuals that most likely mean very little to these individuals. One small bribe as a payment for a few hundred names and numbers can provide a foreign employee more money than they could make in two years, many of them jump at this opportunity.

Take any community and ask yourself, would you take individuals from the poorest of these areas and trust them to not attempt to utilize their access to this information to further their own interest? If you say no then you really are naïve.

The real kicker in this is that if your identity is stolen abroad, the individuals responsible for this atrocity are not really legally prosecutable by American authorities. The FBI can get involved but do you really think that if you are one of ten thousand, they will really focus on catching the one guy responsible for your case? Meanwhile you are left to fend off collectors, foreign banks, and God knows who else, because your personal data has been sold to devious individuals.

What can you do? Contact your health insurance provider, your bank or credit union, and any other association you utilize that has your personal information. Let them know you want to make sure they are not relying on outsourced employees to process your sensitive documents.

If you are one of the unfortunate individuals that has been affected by this type of occurrence I feel for you, if you have not, trust me you don’t ever want to be. It is a nightmare that will never end.

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