Florida cop misused data, ChoicePoint claims

Bob Sullivan Technology correspondent • Profile • E-mail

A Miami-Dade police officer allegedly peeked at thousands of private consumer records in what database giant ChoicePoint described as illegal use of its information. The company also announced three other incidents of improper access, two involving private investigators.

The incidents were discovered in February, said ChoicePoint marketing director James Lee, when the company was investigating a systematic electronic break-in by a crime ring that managed to steal some 145,000 records from the firm’s massive database. The Alpharetta, Ga.-based firm maintains records on nearly every adult in the United States.

ChoicePoint is sending out notice of the privacy breach to all those affected and offering a year of free credit monitoring. The letters state that Social Security numbers, addresses, dates of birth, and other personal information might have been accessed by rogue employees at legitimate agencies, the firm said. The company waited until now to notify consumers at the request of the various law enforcement agencies conducting their own investigations, Lee said.

In the biggest single incident, 4,689 people's records may have been improperly accessed by an officer of the Miami-Dade Police Department in Florida. Department spokeswoman Detective Mary Walters said the officer had been suspended and an investigation was ongoing. She declined to identify the officer and said no charges had been filed.

The three other incidents announced Friday were:

• Two California-based private investigators, Kenneth Beck and Robert Starr, allegedly used ChoicePoint’s data to hunt for possible identity theft victims, Lee said.
• A Texas-based firm named RPM was found to have improperly accessed data.
• An employee of an "accredited insurance” company that ChoicePoint would not name, citing contracts with the firm, was also alleged to have improperly accessed records.

In total, the three incidents resulted in 547 warning notices being sent to victims, Lee said.

ChoicePoint also announced Friday it will send out an additional 4,667 notices to newly-discovered victims of the high-profile data theft revealed in February. Those consumers will also get a year of free credit monitoring.

In the wake of that incident, ChoicePoint began taking a closer look at how its databases were being accessed.

“We identified some unusual search patterns,” Lee said. “We have the ability for certain law enforcement customers to track the usage and report when there are anomalies.”

The firm passed the information on the U.S. Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies, which are conducting their own investigations.

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