Cruise Lines Poor Security Efforts May Put Passengers Identity Info at Risk
CONGRESS MUST ADDRESS
FISCAL SECURITY AS WELL AS PHYSICAL SECURITY FOR CRUISE SHIP PASSENGERS!
We know the Cruise Lines provide inadequate physical security for their millions of passengers. Fiscal security may also be lacking for cruise ship passengers. Read paragraphs 9 through 13 of this entry in the Orlando Sentinel.
We are not surprised that the Cruise Lines have poor or non-enforced or non-monitored security procedures for onboard computers. This supports our fear that the cruise companies do not secure the personal and financial information for millions of past and present passengers and we should have a way of checking that the companies or their employees or contractors do not misuse the data fo identity theft, etc. We should be able to demand that our personal/financial data be deleted.
We are concerned with the security of our personal financial/identity data that is now in the hands of the foreign cruise companies. The data includes our social security numbers, our credit car numbers, dates of birth, addresses, email, emergency numbers of friends and relatives, our spending, drinking, eating, and gambling patterns. And worst of all of the digital photos which may be face scans or they perhaps can be converted to face scans.
It is obvious we cannot trust the statistics or security practices of the cruise companies and we are just as sure that no one has looked at the inadequacy of their systems security. They just don't care. Many times the weakest link in computer security is the physical security around the building and the equipment and the communication network and we know that the cruise lines have sub-par physical security. As reported by MSNBC.com and the Jacksonville Business Journal, Carnival was still sending solicitation mail to those who had disappeared. Some of the families got together to complain. With all of the data mining that can be done by computers both legally and illegally it scares us. What kind of assurances can we get legally that our data is deleted and what audit trail and integrity system is in place with these companies and their contractors to show who had access to our data. Is it possible to copyright our personal data and charge a fee for its use or misuse and should we be able to track and have it corrected or deleted like our credit reports? On the news it was just reported that DirecTV was fined 5.5 million dollars just for misuse of phone numbers under the "Do no call" regulations." Citibank, the Pentagon, and other firms we trust have also been hacked into. The cruise lines employ thousands of low-wage workers from dozens of third world countries. Many of them may well have connections to organized crime, gangs, and perhaps terrorist from their home countries. We should think twice before we take a one-week cruise and provide all of our valuable and sensitive personal information. This information could be accessible to hackers for the rest of our lives and lead to identity theft or worse.
FISCAL SECURITY AS WELL AS PHYSICAL SECURITY FOR CRUISE SHIP PASSENGERS!
We know the Cruise Lines provide inadequate physical security for their millions of passengers. Fiscal security may also be lacking for cruise ship passengers. Read paragraphs 9 through 13 of this entry in the Orlando Sentinel.
We are not surprised that the Cruise Lines have poor or non-enforced or non-monitored security procedures for onboard computers. This supports our fear that the cruise companies do not secure the personal and financial information for millions of past and present passengers and we should have a way of checking that the companies or their employees or contractors do not misuse the data fo identity theft, etc. We should be able to demand that our personal/financial data be deleted.
We are concerned with the security of our personal financial/identity data that is now in the hands of the foreign cruise companies. The data includes our social security numbers, our credit car numbers, dates of birth, addresses, email, emergency numbers of friends and relatives, our spending, drinking, eating, and gambling patterns. And worst of all of the digital photos which may be face scans or they perhaps can be converted to face scans.
It is obvious we cannot trust the statistics or security practices of the cruise companies and we are just as sure that no one has looked at the inadequacy of their systems security. They just don't care. Many times the weakest link in computer security is the physical security around the building and the equipment and the communication network and we know that the cruise lines have sub-par physical security. As reported by MSNBC.com and the Jacksonville Business Journal, Carnival was still sending solicitation mail to those who had disappeared. Some of the families got together to complain. With all of the data mining that can be done by computers both legally and illegally it scares us. What kind of assurances can we get legally that our data is deleted and what audit trail and integrity system is in place with these companies and their contractors to show who had access to our data. Is it possible to copyright our personal data and charge a fee for its use or misuse and should we be able to track and have it corrected or deleted like our credit reports? On the news it was just reported that DirecTV was fined 5.5 million dollars just for misuse of phone numbers under the "Do no call" regulations." Citibank, the Pentagon, and other firms we trust have also been hacked into. The cruise lines employ thousands of low-wage workers from dozens of third world countries. Many of them may well have connections to organized crime, gangs, and perhaps terrorist from their home countries. We should think twice before we take a one-week cruise and provide all of our valuable and sensitive personal information. This information could be accessible to hackers for the rest of our lives and lead to identity theft or worse.
posted by Timalantoo | 5/06/2006 11:36:00 AM
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