By Danny Yadron
Attorneys general in Connecticut and Illinois are investigating
Experian PLC, after a Vietnamese man accessed millions of personal
records on Americans through one of its affiliates.
It is the first action taken against the data broker and credit
bureau since the man, Hieu Minh Ngo, pleaded guilty to running a
secret business for fraudsters. Mr. Ngo had access to database of
records on some 200 million Americans, according to court filings,
though Experian said, in a blog post last month, he likely accessed
much fewer.
Representatives for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and
Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen confirmed the
investigation, which was previously reported by Reuters.
Between 2007 and his arrest in Guam in 2013, Mr. Ngo sold
credit-card data, social security numbers and other personal
information. At some point, he posed as a Singapore private
investigator to become a customer of Court Ventures Inc., a
California court records firm. The company, acquired by Experian in
2012, allowed its customers to access a large database of
information on Americans.
In the blog post last month, Experian said it had no control
over the affected database. Rather, it was managed by U.S. Info
Search, an Ohio company that had a partnership with Court Ventures.
Because of the setup, U.S. Info Search had no knowledge its
information was being illegally accessed, said Marc Martin, the
company's CEO. Additionally, Experian hasn't provided U.S. Info
Search with data on who was affected, Mr. Martin said.
Experian declined to comment on the investigation.
That database was queried more than 3 million times on behalf of
Mr. Ngo's customers, according to court records that were first
reported by Brian Krebs, a cybersecurity blogger.
The government doesn't know yet how many people were
affected.
Ngo faces a sentencing hearing in New Hampshire federal court in
June. He is cooperating with the government on at least one other
hacking case, according to court records.
Write to Danny Yadron at danny.yadron@wsj.com
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