ChoicePoint told to pay after data breach

2009-10-21

One of the biggest data brokers in the US, ChoicePoint, has been told to pay $275,000 (£167,755) after it failed to implement a thorough information security initiative to protect consumers' sensitive details.

They had been required to do this by a previous court order, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reported, and this left the company open for a data breach last year which compromised the personal data of 13,750 people.

ChoicePoint was found to have turned off a key electronic security tool used to monitor access to one of its databases, the FTC revealed.

It failed to detect that the security tool was off for four months and during this time unauthorised searches of the database were carried out by an unknown party.

The company contacted the FTC after discovering the data breach.

ChoicePoint stated that it is dedicated to protecting the personal information it keeps so that it cannot be accessed without authorisation.

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