So much for CAPPS II

The Toronto Globe & Mail reported on Tuesday that

[c]riminals have gained access to the detailed, personal credit files of about 1,400 people, in a security breach that raises fears of a major identity theft. ...

By gaining access to the files, criminals have obtained social-insurance numbers, bank-account numbers, credit histories, home addresses, job descriptions, the names of spouses - enough information to take over bank accounts, open new accounts in the names of those whose identities have been stolen, or impersonate individuals to obtain loans or credit cards.

With that kind of information, a criminal could steal someone's identity, set up false accounts, obtain loans and credit cards as well as get passports and other documents, said RCMP Sergeant John Ward.

"It's frightening what they can do. It's a huge issue," he said. "Once you steal somebody's identity, you can set up all kinds of things."

One of those kinds of things, one the article doesn't mention, is defeating security checks that are supposed to prevent terrorists from traveling freely across our borders.

The fact is, the reality of identity theft makes mincemeat of the fantasy of "keeping terrorists out" via invasions of our privacy. And as more information about more of us becomes circulated more widely, the risk of identity theft increases because a vulnerability anywhere in that web of connections can be a pathway to a wealth of information. While we're warned about cheap scams like someone looking over our shoulder at the ATM as if that was the answer, as the article notes, large-scale databases are increasingly a target of choice for sophisticated attacks. And, I'd suggest, outfits like organized crime are not going to be the only customers for that kind of information.

Which raises yet again the same question that has been asked before: Since programs like CAPPS II are such transparent failures at their claimed goals as must be obvious even to their most ardent supporters, what are the real goals for them?

Footnote: The New Bedford (MA) Standard-Times reported on Wednesday that BJs Wholesale Club, a discount warehouse chain with 150 stores in the eastern US, has admitted that the numbers of at least 100 credit cards and 100 debit card numbers of its customers have been stolen. The company said a "possible compromise of its computer system is to blame," while ruling our a system-wide breach.

(Unfortunately, I can't give a link since archived articles are available only to paid subscribers to the print edition.)