April 23, 2007

NEWS: CT DMV Sends Letter to TJX Victims

The state of Connecticut’s Department of Motor Vehicles was contacted recently by the beleaguered TJX Company recently, notifying the authorities that the personal information of some 18,000 state residents had been accessed in the course of the now-notorious breach of TJX’s customer records database. TJX released a statement aimed at residents, informing them that they ought to contact their local DMV office, as social security numbers and drivers’ license numbers had been among those bits of information leaked. Connecticut’s DMV, however, reacted by sending out their own statement to consumers in advance of an anticipated April 23 mailing from TJX advising consumers of some preventative measures that could be taken.

First and foremost, the DMV assured consumers that all Connecticut residents need not seek a new license: state drivers’ licenses are unique, and are not encoded in any way according to social security numbers, as they are in other states. The DMV also disclosed that they are maintaining their current high standards of fraud prevention for their residents. One such measured mentioned was keeping previous license photos on file, to assure that the consumer requesting a new license is, in fact, the actual consumer holding the license. The DMV also claims that it has installed “state of the art” software to immediately alert authorities if any one consumer attempts to obtain more than one official identification.

Of course, the DMV’s letters will be of very slight comfort to those who either have already faced identity theft from the misuse of their social security and/or filched debit or credit card numbers, or still face uncertainty over whether it could happen to them – but was a good-faith action on the part of the Connecticut DMV, out of concern for its residents.
 

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