WASHINGTON, D.C. – This year alone over 50 million Americans have had their personal data lost, misused, or stolen. As U.S. legislators and companies work to protect consumers against data theft and fraud that occurs in the United States, what protections
exist for the increasing quantity of American data sent overseas for processing? Representative Edward J. Markey, (D-MA) a senior Democratic Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Co-Chair of the Congressional Privacy Caucus, today released a report detailing the lack of protection for Americans when their private data leaves U.S. shores and is outsourced to other countries.

WASHINGTON, DC – Representative Edward Markey (D-MA), a senior member of the Homeland Security Committee and Co-Chairman of the Bi-Partisan Congressional Privacy Caucus, today sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff and Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Robert S. Mueller to seek information on whether terrorists are using stolen personal information such as credit card records to fund or plan terrorist activities. Dennis Lormel, the former chief of the FBI’s terrorist financial review group, previously identified the connection between data breaches, identity fraud and terrorism stating, “I don’t think people have really gotten the message. We have known terrorists out there who are exploiting identity theft and identity fraud vulnerabilities.”

WASHINGTON, DC-- LexisNexis and associated data broker Reed Elsevier Group PLC announced today that up to 10 times as many people as originally thought may have had their profiles stolen from one of its U.S. databases. A month after LexisNexis announced that identity thieves accessed personal information for 32,000 of its customers, the company revised its calculations announcing that nearly 310,000 customers may have been affected by the security breach.

WASHINGTON, DC-- Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), a senior Member of the Homeland Security Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the panel which oversees the regulation of nuclear reactors, today released a letter sent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regarding reports that as many as seven illegal aliens using false social security numbers were able to enter and work as contract painters for Progress Energy, which runs the Crystal River Energy Complex in Florida, including work near one nuclear reactor. According to some reports, NRC personnel evidently stated that Progress Energy did nothing wrong because it was Brock Specialty Services, a contractor to Progress Energy, which provided the employees.