Declarations – Midwest

Breach and Response

“As soon as there was an inkling that there was a breach, they should have been all over this.”

—Laura DiDio, a technology analyst with a consulting firm known as ITIC, comments on the response to a security breach of the social media website, LinkedIn. Dido said the company did not respond fast enough. Customers whose passwords were among those stolen were still getting notified days after news of the breach was first discovered.

Vast Profit Collection

“Lenders usually use forced insurance as an opportunity to collect vast profits by charging outrageously high rates.”

—J. Robert Hunter, insurance director at Consumer Federation of America, on force-placed insurance for financially distressed homeowners. He was one of the consumer advocates who testified at a public hearing on the matter in New York. Hunter urged regulators to put an end to what he described as “insider dealing by insurers and lenders” and “the unjustifiably high home insurance rates charged to some consumers.”

Backbone of Steel

“I have realized through this that I have a backbone of steel. … I have a toughness I never knew I had.”

—Cindy Griffith, whose Minot, N.D., home was inundated in historic Souris River flooding in 2011. Cindy Griffith and her husband, Dan, say that cleaning out their flooded home, trying to find contractors, dealing with price-gouging, wondering if they will get a government buyout have taken their toll. The Souris River flooding forced more than 11,000 people to evacuate the city last summer.