Thanks to House of Butter for the text:

DAYTON, OH, March 09, 2005 - Reed Elsevier today announced that LexisNexis, its global legal and business information business, has identified a number of incidents of potentially fraudulent access to information about U.S. individuals at its recently acquired Seisint unit. The incidents arose from the misappropriation by third parties of IDs and passwords from legitimate customers. LexisNexis has notified law enforcement authorities and is proactively assisting in law enforcement investigations of these incidents. LexisNexis is also working with customers to enhance security procedures.

These incidents were identified as part of an ongoing extensive review of the verification, authorization and security procedures and policies across the risk management businesses. LexisNexis has accelerated this review to determine the extent of any other incidents.

Information on approximately 32,000 individuals may have been fraudulently accessed in these incidents. LexisNexis very much regrets this and will be notifying all the individuals concerned and providing them with ongoing credit monitoring and practical support to ensure that any identity theft is quickly detected and addressed. Any further instances that emerge from the ongoing review will likewise be handled as quickly and as sensitively as possible. The information accessed includes names, addresses, social security and drivers' license numbers, but not credit history, medical records or financial information.

LexisNexis has already taken, or will take actions to enhance security to enable it to maintain its position as an industry leader in the responsible use of data and the protection of individual privacy. These actions include: enhancing ID and password administration procedures and requirements for customers; dedicating additional resources to protection of consumer privacy; working with customers to reinforce the importance of consumers' privacy; and working with law enforcement for further insight and assistance on new practices and techniques for thwarting criminal activities.

The financial implications are expected to be manageable within the context of LexisNexis' overall growth. The demand for risk management solutions is expected to remain strong and the outlook for Seisint and the LexisNexis risk management business remains very positive. In relation to this, Reed Elsevier today reaffirmed its 2005 and longer term financial targets of at least 5% organic revenue growth and double digit adjusted earnings per share growth at constant rates of exchange.

LexisNexis products that use U.S. public and non-public records provide critical fraud detection and identity authentication solutions to law enforcement, homeland security, commercial and legal customers that help to safeguard citizens and reduce consumers' financial losses, such as credit card and insurance fraud. In addition, these services provide benefits for consumers in facilitating the conduct of transactions for goods and services.

Labels: data breech, identity theft