Top brass at data information companies, ChoicePoint and LexisNevis have admitted covering up losing sensitive private information. The disclosures came during Senate hearings on Identity theft.

The Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony from ChoicePoint president and COO Doug Curling and LexisNevis division CEO Kurt Sanford.

Only a Californian law forcing companies to disclose details of security breaches. However the legislation only applies to notifying Californian citizens.

According to Curling numerous breaches in the past had gone without notification. His justification was that after notifying law enforcement, "no one was made aware; law enforcement didn't tell us anything." He claimed that the liaison person with the law did not realise the importance of the situation.

Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (Rep, Penn.) led the questioning. He queried how a company which has authority to act as a law enforcement liaison, could fail to appreciate its importance.

Curling said "I can't explain it". He backed his answer up by adding that there have only been 45 or 50 breaches in all.

LexisNevis, CEO Sanford claimed that all but 4 or 5 their breaches had been password related.

The testimony comes in the wake of a potentially massive breach in the security at LexisNevis. In the past few days, the company has increased the number of people potentially affected to 310,000 from 30,000. Sanford could not explain to Specter why it had taken over a year to notify people.

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