CVS Exposed Customers to Identity Theft

The Texas Attorney General has taken legal action against CVS Pharmacy for exposing customers to identity theft the old-fashioned way.

According to a press release issued by Attorney General Greg Abbott's office on Tuesday, employees at a CVS store in Liberty, Texas, chucked hundreds of customer records into a dumpster behind the storefront. Left in the trash were documents including customers' names, addresses, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, prescriptions and doctors, according to the release.

Many of the credit and debit card numbers were still active when found, the release says, as expiration dates were included in the information.

While CVS's actions won't likely end up exposing as many customers' to the risk of identity theft as other recent breaches, such as the colossal , the Attorney General's office is warning customers of that CVS location to monitor their finances for suspicious activity.

Such action on CVS's part violates the 2005 Identity Theft Enforcement and Protection Act, a Texas state law that requires businesses to protect customer records that contain sensitive information, the release says. The law allows for prosecutors to seek up to US$50,000 per violation.