ChoicePoint to Pay $15 million for Security Breach

ChoicePoint, whose big security breach in 2004, and announced in early 2005, got the ball rolling on the state security breach notification laws, has agreed with the FTC to a record fine and to pay compensation.

Choicepoint will pay a $10 million fine, which the FTC says is the largest civil penalty it has ever imposed, and pay $5 million
$5 million into a fund to compensate people who may have experienced damages because of the exposure of their personal information.

The penalty is technically for violating the company's privacy policy.

"It sends a big signal. All major companies that handle personal information will see that the bar is being raised," said Peter Swire, a law professor at Ohio State University, and America's first privacy czar in the Clinton White House.

"The message to ChoicePoint and others should be clear: consumers' private
data must be protected from thieves," said FTC Chair Deborah Platt Majoras.