Michael Gracie

The word out of the California AG’s Office is to be wary of phishing emails, as your identity may be stolen as a result.

So, what should the everyday citizens of California do about the stolen laptops full of their data, the banks losing the stuff off the backs of UPS trucks, or the data brokers who willingly give it to scammers?

Don’t ask me.

Two new spam/phishing related laws are about to take effect next week in California.

The first makes phishing a crime. Yea yea, your thinking the same thing I was. Was stealing bank account, credit card and other information from people legal before SB355? The second makes spamming under California law a misdemeanor, with penalties up to $1,000 and 6 months in the county jail. Hardly a deterent if you ask me. What was the punishment before this..you have to go to bed without dinner?

State Senator Kevin Murray (D-LA) is about to get a pat on the back, but nothing is going to change.
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How does the US Government reward companies that fail miserably? The same way the rest of corporate America does. CEOs of US companies are notorious for getting huge severance packages after being sacked for doing a bad job. Not much of an incentive to do a good one.

Now Choicepoint (you know, the folks who gather all kinds of error-prone data on you), are getting some of the same. After getting a bunch of their data hoisted, and that leading to a pack of identity thefts, Choicepoint has been rewarded for their screwup with an Internal Revenue Service contract.

It gets better..
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A laptop containing the personal information of roughly 100,000 students, alumni, and past applicants was stolen several weeks ago from a UC Berkeley office. Why did they wait until yesterday to report it? Well that is what the law says they can do. Unfortunately, the harm has already been done.
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