How Secure is Your Personal Information?

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Forty-million credit-card holders were exposed to possible fraud when a single company was attacked by identity thieves. CardSystems is part of the chain of computers involved in every transaction between credit-card holders, merchants and banks. It has acknowledged it should not have retained the records and promises not to do that again, but the incident has raised new questions about the security of the electronic economy. Cyber-crime is an international industry, much of it centered in the former Soviet Union. The Internet is home to a multi-billion dollar black market in names, addresses, Social Security numbers and mothers' maiden names. We hear about the challenges facing law enforcement and the long-term threat to America's financial industry--and your bank account, from experts in technology and electronic security, privacy advocates and the Federal Trace Commission.
  • Making News: Vietnamese Premier's Visit Marks New Era, Human Rights Issues
    President Bush said today that next year he'll visit Vietnam. He made the announcement after meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, the highest ranking official to visit the White House since the Vietnam War. Outside, noisy protesters carried signs saying "Stop Religious Repression" and "Vietnamese Communist Party Nazi Party." Dena Bunis is Washington Bureau Chief for the Register in Orange County, California, home to one of the world's biggest Vietnamese communities.
  • Reporters Notebook: Why Didn't Republican Senators Sign Lynching Apology?
    In 1967, Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen was acquitted of masterminding the murders of civil rights leaders James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Today, a jury in that same town found him guilty of manslaughter on all three counts, evidence of four decades of political change in the South. So, why didn't several US Senators sign on to last week's resolution apologizing for lynchings? Wayne Slater is Austin Bureau Chief for the Dallas Morning News.

President Bush welcomes Vietnamese Prime Minister to the White House

Orange Country Register article on Vietnam premier's visit

OC Register article on human rights as issue with Vietnam

CardSystems on security breach

ChoicePoint

FTC v Staples, et al (including BJ's Warehouse)

California Financial Information Privacy Act (July, 2004)

CNN article on exposure of 40 million credit card holders

Associated Press article on Killen verdict

Apology to lynching victims, their descendants for Senate's failure to enact anti-lynching legislation. (SR 39)

Credits

Host:

Warren Olney