Lest You Think Private Companies Are Not Prone to Exposing You to Identity Theft

NPR reports that computer security is lacking all over:

GE Money, a unit of General Electric that handles credit card operations for J.C. Penney and other retailers, says a computer tape has gone missing, and it has the personal information of about 650,000 customers. The loss includes social security card numbers for about 150,000 people.

I am fairly sure that we had a GE Money account in the past through Wolf Camera. Oh boy. Exposed once again.


UPDATE: Yep. We did have a GE Money Bank credit account, and I found this ironic warning emblazoned in large bold print across an old bill we got from them:

IN ORDER TO PROTECT YOUR ACCOUNT PRIVACY, WE ARE UNABLE TO PROVIDE ACCOUNT INFORMATION TO ANYONE OTHER THAN THE CARDHOLDER(S) OR AN AUTHORIZED PARTY.

Unable? Au contraire. GE Money seems more than able to provide up to 650,000 cases of account info to anyone but the cardholders.