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Newsbriefs
New Bill Will Protect Texans Against Identity Theft
Several lawmakers in Austin, both Republican and Democrat, promoted legislation on March 11th to protect Texans from identity loss, following the recent theft of more than 55,000 Social Security numbers from the University of Texas.
Privacy advocacy groups agreed the issue needs to be addressed. More than 14,000 Texans filed complaints with the Federal Trade Commission last year saying their identities were stolen.
�As technology advances, there will always be new ways to steal,� said Sen. Rodney Ellis, D- Houston, who has filed Senate Bill 473 to allow victims to freeze their credit records. �What we can do is lessen the impact that each crime has on our lives.�
Ellis said his bill could have helped the victims of identity theft at UT.
�The incident at the University of Texas this past week was distressing, but if we had a law like this one in place, we could at least give victims some power to control their information,� Ellis said.
There have been no arrests or charges in the ongoing criminal investigation of the identity theft at UT, said Daryl Fields, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney�s office.
Other legislation has also been filed that would restrict the use of Social Security numbers by colleges and would prohibit businesses from selling personal information without permission.
Rep. Chuck Hopson, D-Jacksonville, said he became interested in filing legislation on identity theft when he got someone else�s receipt and credit card information after paying for gasoline with his own credit card.
Hopson�s House Bill 277 would allow only the last four digits of a credit card number on a receipt. The bill would also restrict putting a card�s expiration date on the receipt. House Bill 176 and Senate Bill 235, also promoted by the group, would not allow credit card numbers on cash receipts.
�It seems like today that technology is catching up with us. We�re eyeing these bills so as technology improves, so can we improve,� Hopson said.
Representatives from a diverse selection of groups, including Consumers Union, Texas Public Interest Research Group, Texas Eagle Forum and Texas American Civil Liberties Union, were also present to show their support for the legislation. The information obtained by the hackers from UT was not used to harm the persons whose Social Security numbers were obtained, according to the U.S. Attorney�s office.
Between Feb 26 and March 2, cyber-thieves stole e-mail addresses, job titles and phone numbers from the UT faculty and staff, UT officials said. No academic records or health information was obtained, the university said.
On March 10, the House Higher Education Committee considered, but did not act on, House Bill 1026, which would require all Texas colleges and universities to stop using Social Security numbers as a primary means of student identification by Sept. 1.
Dan Updegrove, UT Vice President for Information Technology, said he has not reviewed the legislation but the university aggress that using Social Security numbers as an ID number is not safe. UT launched a task force to evaluate its identification system last year.
�I believe that right thinking institutions are doing this anyway,� Updegrove said.
Rockstar Sues Security Company
System of a Down bass player Shavo Odadjian sued a Grand Rapids, Mich., security company, saying its employees assaulted him during a concert. The 28-year-old rocker claims the guards elbowed him in the face and dragged him out of the arena when he tried to go backstage with two girls while another band was playing. He filed a lawsuit in Kent County District Court against DK Security. Grand Rapids police investigated the situation, but did not seek any charges. In the lawsuit, Odadjian accuses the guards of assault, ethnic intimidation, and humiliation, the Grand Rapids Press reported. Odadjian is Armenian-American. Also named as defendants are the three guards who had contact with Odadjian at the Oct. 20, 2001 concert.
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