Mayor Karl Dean says the city will provide voters free identity theft insurance for a year, in response to the Metro Election Commission break-in before Christmas. Two laptops with the names and social security numbers of every registered voter were stolen.
Dean’s Chief of Staff Rita Roberts Turner says it will cost the city nearly 10-dollars for each voter who takes the offer, potentially more than a three-million dollar commitment. But she says it’s a small price to pay for voter confidence.
“We have a big election year coming up. He wants to be sure that people are confident in the process and that they feel their information is safe and that there’s something of some substance out there they can turn to if they have concerns.”
The city has a contract with Debix Identity Protection Network, which will offer the policies at a 90-percent discount. The company expects between 25 and 35 percent of voters to participate. The city will pay for the coverage out of a multi-million dollar reserve fund meant for insurance purposes.
Nashville voters will receive a letter with instructions on how to enroll with Debix next week.
A statement from the Mayor’s office calls it the ‘final’ step in a series of actions taken following the security breach at the Election Commission. Dean has also called for a data security audit to be conducted by the end of this week.
WEB EXTRA:
The service from Debix includes credit monitoring that notifies the user by email and phone when any line of credit is opened. Declined transactions are reported to the police.
Beyond credit monitoring, the services acts as an insurance policy against identity theft, paying out up to $10,000 with no deductable. Additional information can be found at (888) 332-4963 or www.debix.com/nashville.
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