Four people in Kessler's office received letters from Guidance saying credit card information had been stolen, letters they got after they had already received their American Express bills.

'I got the letter Monday, Dec. 19 but Friday, [Dec. 16], I got the American Express bill and cancelled the cards. We were all scratching our heads trying to figure out how we could have had someone get our American Express Cards and we couldn't figure it out. And then Monday we got the [Guidance] letter, which they claim was sent Dec. 13. But they said they discovered [the breach] on Dec. 7.

'My question is ' and this is what I fault them on ' they should have notified everyone by e-mail immediately so we could have put a stop on our cards.'

Kessler has talked with Guidance but said the company hasn't been very cooperative.

'I've been in touch with them and I must say they were not as cooperative as I would have expected,' Kessler said. 'Initially, I asked them what information was taken. I told them we had to make the necessary security arrangements so we wanted to know what information was taken specifically, how they got it and so on and so forth. I've been doing investigations for 35 years and I can tell you they were evasive in their answers.'