SENTINEL WATCH May 28, 2007 Issue

IDENTITY THAT CAN'T BE STOLEN

RUTH WALKER

OVER THE PAST MONTHS, the drip-drip-drip of information from the headquarters of the TJX companies, just up the road from me—operators of such stores as TJMaxx, HomeGoods, and Marshalls—has focused my attention on the problem of identity theft. It now appears that in the major security breach that became evident in January, at least 45.7 million credit and debit card numbers in the company's database have been stolen. Security specialists are calling it the biggest breach of personal data ever reported (see The Boston Globe, March 29,2007).

The threat is that thieves can use the stolen card numbers, and the names associated with them, to make fraudulent purchases. Or even worse, to set up whole new accounts that victims will be able to disentangle only with some time and effort—if ever.

Companies that can't figure out how to protect their customers from identity theft may well go under. And a failure by the consumer finance sector to keep credit purchases safe and reliable would have considerable consequences for the economy as a whole, furthering the damage associated with identity theft.