Identity Finder Releases Details On Threats Posed By Latest Anonymous Hack In Texas

PRESS RELEASE

New York, NY September 6, 2011 - Identity Finder, LLC (www.identityfinder.com) today released a detailed analysis of the information posted by the hacking group Anonymous after an apparently successful attack on 26 Texas law enforcement agencies. Identity Finders DLP software automatically analyzes files and emails to determine whether sensitive information exists and found that the hackers exposed thousands of personal data records.

The hackers posted confidential internal emails and documents containing social security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, email addresses, and passwords. The hackers claim the breach is the culmination of "more than a month" of "lurking" in email and file systems. The Identity Finder DLP software was used to analyze 30,579 files and emails and discovered 19,206 contained at least one piece of personal information. Based upon Identity Finder's automated analysis, the posted data contains the following personally identifiable information:

647 Social Security Numbers, of which 418 were unique; 42 Credit Card and Bank Account Numbers, of which 26 were unique; 174 Passwords; 83 Driver License Numbers; 6,182 Dates of Birth; 78,869 Phone Numbers, of which 14,701 were unique; 10,175 Personal Postal Addresses, of which 4,631 were unique; and 325,596 e-mail addresses, of which 39,419 were unique.

Organizations targeted by hackers can minimize personal information exposures by using data leakage prevention software to search data at rest on its desktops, laptops, and servers and securely delete or encrypt sensitive data, said Todd Feinman, CEO of Identity Finder. He added, The only way to ensure that even the most successful hackers do not post your confidential information, is to proactively search and secure your storage devices.

Unprotected personal information is becoming more ubiquitous and can be found in many types of files and e-mails often forgotten about by the data owner. The automated analysis of the types of locations that contained personal information in this attack reveals e-mail messages were most common, followed by PDF files and Word documents.

Aaron Titus, chief privacy officer of Identity Finder, warned, Individuals wanting to protect their personal computers against similar attacks can download a free copy of Identity Finder by visiting www.identityfinder.com/free. He also warned, If you think you were affected by this breach, you should at the minimum get a free credit report by visiting annualcreditreport.com, and consider freezing your credit.

About Identity Finder's technology provides users the ability to prevent identity theft and data leakage by searching and securing sensitive data that could be used to commit identity fraud. They have quickly grown to become a leader in identity protection and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) by helping millions of consumers, small businesses, and enterprises across the world. You may download the free version of Identity Finder DLP Software here: http://www.identityfinder.com/free