Passport applicants warned of breach

WASHINGTON - The State Department said yesterday that it has notified nearly 400 passport applicants of a security breach in its records system that may have left them open to identity theft.

The department has so far told 383 people - most of them in the Washington, D.C., area - that their passport applications containing personal information, including Social Security numbers, may have been illegally reviewed and used to open fraudulent credit card accounts, spokesman Sean McCormack said.(Boston.com-Full Story)