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LexisNexis Increases Customer Security Requirements and Further Restricts Display of Social Security and Drivers License Numbers
Company Also Supports Legislation to Increase Penalties for Cybercriminals, A National Standard for Consumer Notification and Security Safeguards Modeled After Gramm-Leach-Bliley
DAYTON, OH, March 15, 2005 - Kurt Sanford, President and CEO of LexisNexis Corporate and Public Markets, today told the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, that LexisNexis is enhancing security procedures and requirements for customers across all businesses and will further restrict full display of Social Security Numbers (SSN) in non-public records and Drivers License Numbers (DLN).
"LexisNexis plans to further restrict access to such sensitive information as SSNs and DLNs, by extending the more restrictive SSN truncation policy currently in place for LexisNexis to its recently acquired Seisint business and by adding a policy to include the masking of DLNs. These steps are part of the on-going review that LexisNexis has been conducting on security practices, authorization and verification procedures and privacy policies across its businesses," Sanford informed the Committee.
Additionally, Sanford told the committee that the company would support recommendations made by the FTC regarding consumer notification and legislation that would provide data security safeguards modeled after the safeguards rule under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, as well as increased penalties for identity theft and other cybercrimes. Sanford said that LexisNexis would support requiring notification in the event of a security breach where there is substantial risk of harm to consumers, but that there needed to be a national standard for notification to ensure that companies can quickly and effectively notify consumers and not struggle with multiple and potentially conflicting state laws that could also confuse consumers.
"It is critical that any legislation being considered ensure that legitimate businesses, government agencies and other organizations continue to have access to identifying information that they depend on for important purposes, including fraud detection and prevention, law enforcement and other critical applications. Moreover, legislation must strike the right balance between protecting privacy and ensuring continued access to critically important information that is provided through information service providers," Sanford concluded.
LexisNexis has created a Web site with helpful information regarding data privacy at http://privacyfacts.lexisnexis.com.
About LexisNexis
LexisNexis® (www.lexisnexis.com) is a leader in comprehensive and authoritative legal, news and business information and tailored applications. A member of Reed Elsevier Group plc [NYSE: ENL; NYSE: RUK] (www.reedelsevier.com), the company does business in 100 countries with 13,000 employees worldwide. In addition to its flagship Web-based Lexis® and Nexis® research services, the company includes some of the world’s most respected legal publishers such as Martindale-Hubbell, Matthew Bender, Butterworths, JurisClasseur, Abeledo-Perrot and Orac.
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