Hackers have compromised databases belonging to LexisNexis and stolen information on at least 32,000 people, according to a statement Wednesday from LexisNexis' parent company, Reed Elsevier PLC.

The hackers stole passwords, names, addresses, Social Security and drivers license numbers of legitimate customers of the company's Seisint division. Seisint collects data on individuals that is used by law enforcement and private companies for debt recovery, fraud detection and other services.

LexisNexis identified the incidents in a review of security procedures and warned that there may be more incidents of data theft, Reed Elsevier said. The incident is eerily familiar to recent revelations about similar compromises at Seisint competitor ChoicePoint, which acknowledged in February that hackers had access to data on 145,000 people.

Reed Elsevier did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

LexisNexis, which acquired Seisint of Boca Raton, Fla., in September for $775 million, expressed regret for the incident and said it is notifying the individuals whose information may have been accessed and will provide them with credit monitoring services.

The U.S. Secret Service is actively involved in an investigation of the incident, but declined to give any details about the case through spokesman Jonathan Cherry.

Like ChoicePoint, Seisint maintains a massive database of public and private information on individuals, including Social Security numbers, credit histories and criminal records. Seisint made the news in recent years as the data source behind the "Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange," or MATRIX, system, a program to bring together criminal and public records from participating U.S. states.

Bill Shrewsbury, a vice president at Seisint, said that identity thieves used a different approach to breach the company's database than what was used to get ChoicePoint's data, but declined to elaborate.

LexisNexis is taking actions to improve its ID and password administration security, and customer screening, the company said in its statement.

In an e-mail statement, Kurt Sanford, president and CEO of LexisNexis Corporate and Federal Markets, said that the company will improve the user ID and password administration procedures that its customers use and will devote more resources to protecting user's privacy and reinforcing the importance of privacy.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.