FTC hits ChoicePoint with $10 million fine over breach

<p>The Federal Trade Commission socked ChoicePoint Inc. with a $10 million fine Thursday related to a major data breach at the company, hours after the data warehouser reported that its fourth-quarter profit fell more than 29 percent.</p><p>The FTC also said that Alpharetta, Ga.-based ChoicePoint has agreed to pay $5 million in consumer redress to settle charges that its security and record-handling procedures violated consumers' privacy rights and federal laws.</p><p>"The message to ChoicePoint and others should be clear: Consumers' private data must be protected from thieves," Deborah Platt Majoras, chairman of the FTC, said in a statement.</p>