Elites TV, a news source I've never heard of before, has a lengthy and negative article on offshoring of personal data processing.

U.S. Offshoring of Personal Data Grows - Elites TV - Your Elite News Source:

"According to the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego, CA there have been close to 60 reported security breaches of customer financial information from United States corporations thus far in 2005, involving 13.5 million customers’ identities. The companies include Choicepoint, Inc., Bank of America Corp., Wachovia Corp., Ameritrade Holding Corp., DSW Shoe Warehouse, Time Warner Inc., LexisNexis and most recently Citbank Financial Group. While most lost data has involved data storage tapes lost in transit by courier services or UPS, others involved computer security breaches. And as corporate America looks for ways to shore up its security problems rather than face the wrath of Congress, an even more unwieldy problem is brewing abroad.

As holes still exist in protecting the personal information of both customers and employees of corporations in the United States, many of these same corporations, which include the largest financial institutions and two of the three credit reporting agencies, have offshored information technology units which include-back office functions from customer service to software development and engineering.

Yet American customers or consumers are never informed whether or not their personal information and credit history is being offshored, as it is not required by U.S. corporations to do so. Coming to light is that various U.S. government programs and states are utilizing more and more offshore subcontractors in addition to those corporate entities which indirectly do business with the U.S. government. But unknown to the American consumer or taxpayer is the threat of theft of an individual’s identity and financial resources which remain largely unprotected without the ability to enforce U.S. law on foreign land...."

Labels: choicepoint, identity theft, information breaches