:: Deepquest ::

The FTC said it was investigating this latest lapse. The agency’s assistant director for financial practices, Jessica Rich, said Thursday that each vulnerable account could constitute a separate violation – raising the maximum fine that could be assessed against Microsoft to $2.2 trillion.

Microsoft acknowledged the flaw affected all its 200 million Passport accounts but said it fixed the problem early Thursday, after details were published on the Internet. Product Manager Adam Sohn said the company was unaware of hackers actually hijacking anyone’s Passport account, but several experts said they successfully tested the procedure overnight.
In theory, Microsoft could face a staggering fine by U.S. regulators of up to $2.2 trillion. Under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission last year over lapsed Passport security, Microsoft pledged to take reasonable safeguards to protect personal consumer information during the next two decades or risk fines up to $11,000 per violation.

from [url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30330-2003May8.html] The Washington Post[/url]