Data wholesaler LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier, has admitted that personal information concerning 310,000 US citizens has been stolen. In March, the company admitted to losing data related to only 32,000 victims.

It has since transpired that unauthorized users breached the system 59 times using stolen passwords, and grabbed data belonging to an additional 278,000 people.

The disclosure mirrors the ChoicePoint debacle, in which only 35,000 victims were acknowledged initially, a number later rounded up slightly to 100,000.

In less than seven weeks' time it has been revealed that, in addition to privacy invasion outfits ChoicePoint and LexisNexis, payroll handler PayMaxx, Bank of America, health care heavyweight San Jose Medical Group, California State University at Chico, Boston College, the University of California at Berkeley, and a large shoe retailer called DSW, have all lost control of sensitive data concerning millions of victims.

One can only guess at the impact of similar incidents that have yet be reported.®

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