Companies To Be Liable For Deals With Online Criminals

Slashdot has a backgrounder on new rules issued by the FTC that require any business that handles private consumer data to check both customers and suppliers against databases of known online criminals. The rules take effect in November and will subject companies that do not comply with the requirement to large fines or jail time.

"The final rules require each financial institution and creditor that holds any consumer account, or other account for which there is a reasonably foreseeable risk of identity theft, to develop and implement an Identity Theft Prevention Program for combating identity theft in connection with new and existing accounts," the FTC says in the rules, which were passed last year.

For details, see darkREADING.