Florida Security Breach Exposes 250,000 Consumer's Social Security Numbers

When a test server was made accessible to the internet for over two
weeks, Google's indexing service inadvertently made available online
the highly sensitive personal data a quarter of a million residents of
the state of Florida.

According to the Agency for Workforce Innovation website's
new release of this past Thursday:

"The security breach occurred on an Agency
test server for 19 days in October 2008 and
resulted in the exposure of the names and
Social Security Numbers of approximately
250,000 customers who received services
through Florida’s One-Stop Career Centers
between January 2002 and November 2007."

Given the worldwide reach of Google's search engine and how
easily would be identity thieves can trade -or- transform a
consumer's social security number (ssn) into revenue, it is
very scary to think about the ramifications of this latest
identity theft security breach coming so close to the major
holiday shopping season.

A time when, due to the sheer volume of billions of transactions,
fraud can easily be obscured within the vast majority of legitimate
commerce.

But, for identity theft fraudsters, having unauthorized access to
a consumer's full name and social security number can make it
all to easy to secure "instant credit" from eager retail store clerks
who get extra incentives during the holidays to open up new lines
of credit to support more impulse shopping.

So, our tip for today is for anyone in Florida that may have utilized
the Florida One-Stop Career Centers between Jan. 2002
and Nov. 2007.

Take immediate action by conducting the following steps:

1) Check if your name's on the list by using the official state
of Florida website.

2) Secure a totally free copy of your credit profile report from the only
source authorized by the (3) major credit bureaus and check for any
suspicious accounts listed under your name and social security number
(ssn)

3) As credit reports will n-o-t show evidence of criminal identity
theft committed against you in the form of medical identity fraud,
property tax fraud, & outstanding arrest warrants all of which
require your social security number, you would be highly
warned to also get an immediate scan of your PIP.

Your personal information profile (pip) is the only way that we
know of to cost effectively and time efficiently scour the
more than 400+ public databases which could contain your
full name, social security number, address, & even in
some instances your authorized signatures.

Finally, be a good friend or family member, give the gift
which keeps on giving beyond this holiday season. Let those
you care about take advantage of these free and
anonymous identity theft prevention tips available
from Id Theft Secrets.