When Alexis Lamb first heard of last week’s break-in at a Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles office, she believed initial claims that her personal information was safe. “I figured, it’s the state. They knew what they were talking about,” Lamb, 44, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. But she soon learned she was among 8,738 people whose Social Security numbers, addresses, signatures and other personal information were, in fact, stolen.
Department director Ginny Lewis explained that no one in her agency knew data was contained in a stolen computer until a vendor said otherwise Thursday. Lamb says the false assurance by the state is being compounded by a lack of help from authorities. She is trying to obtain a copy of the police report DMV filed on the theft to forward to credit reporting companies to get a security alert on her credit activity. But police wouldn’t release the report or take a new report in her name. “They’re not actually victims of a crime until their information is used,” said a police spokesman.
Link: http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Mar-15-Tue-2005/news/26071396.html