DBA is "Weakest Link" at Processing Firm

Corporate buyers of consumer data obtained through illegal acts are leading off the second half of the year when it comes to making consumer data less safe.

Yesterday, it was reported that JAM Marketing, a Seminole-based data broker, had paid "substantial consideration" to one William Sullivan, a former database administrator (DBA) for payments processor Certegy Check Services Inc, a division of Fidelity National Information Services to obtain consumer records held by Sullivan.

Millions of accounts were involved. It is alleged that Sullivan provided JAM with 2.3 million consumer profiles, 2.2 million of which contained bank account information. According to a law suit filed by Certegy against Sullivan, Sullivan sold JAM Marketing the data either through S&S Computer Services, or directly.

JAM then appears to have provided the information to three additional marketing firms - Strategia Marketing in Largo, Data Secure IP LLC in Tampa and Whitehat.com Inc. in Tempe, Ariz.. The suit mentions that Whitehat may have further distributed the consumer information to two other companies, MCList Escrow Inc. in Seminole and Custom Response Teleservices in Elkhorn, Neb., and Quality Resources Inc. in Clearwater.

Several of the firms who obtained the data have since contacted these consumers and made marketing calls to them.

Who deserves what: Certegy's PR team probably deserve some kind of credit for releasing this info the day prior to a national holiday.

Who deserves what: Sullivan deserves more than the boot - he deserves some serious jail time. Unless we start to take this kind of theft seriously, consumers will continue to have their assets placed at risk.

Now that the US Secret Service is involved, hopefully that is what will happen.