Written by Benjamin Woods on February 23, 2011.
Around 13,000 current and former students of Chapman University and its affiliate, Brandman University had their personal information exposed last week. The university said an electronic document containing sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, student identification numbers and financial aid information was discovered by a Chapman student on February 15th.
Chapman University discovered that the document had accidentally been placed in a nonsecure location.
Shari Waters, Chapman’s chief information officer, said in a statement released Tuesday that the university has found “no evidence that any personal data was appropriated or misused” and that the slip-up appeared to be an “isolated incident.”
Chapman University has contacted all of the students listed in the document and is offering identity protection service to the students
Written by Hugo Pethebridge on February 22, 2011.
The Department of Defense proclaims, “The national security depends on our defense installations and facilities being in the right place, at the right time, with the right qualities and capacities to protect our national resources.” But by relying on Social Security numbers as primary identifiers, this same organization puts the identities of soldiers and their families at risk.
Last month, four West Point professors released a journal article arguing, “Despite the Defense Department’s recent advances in protecting personally identifiable information such as Social Security numbers, the military continues to have a ‘cultural disregard’ for PII.” The professors also pointed out that since the first digits of a Social Security number can be deduced based on birth year and location, restricting use to the last four digits does not adequately preclude identity theft.
In 2007, an Office of Management and Budget memo ordered agencies to eliminate all nonessential uses of Social Security numbers, and the Department of Defense is currently working on limiting its use of the numbers.
If you are a soldier or have a family member away on leave, there are two ways to protect yourself or your family member:
1. Place an “act
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Written by Hugo Pethebridge on February 18, 2011.
According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, there were at least 662 data breaches in 2010, which exposed more than 16 million records. Nearly two-thirds of breaches exposed Social Security numbers, and 26% involved credit or debit card data.
The ITRC elaborated, “Other than breaches reported by the media and a few progressive state websites, there is little or no information available on many data breach events that occur. It is clear that without a mandatory national reporting requirement, many data breaches will continue to be unreported, or under-reported.”
The majority of these attacks were malicious hacks or insider theft, rather than the result of employee errors. InformationWeek reports, “Some states, but not all, have data breach notification laws, which require any organization that suffers a breach to notify that state’s affected residents. Interes
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Written by Benjamin Woods on February 17, 2011.
The personal health data for about 1.7 million New York City patients and hospital workers was stolen from an unlocked van in Manhattan. The van belonged to the city’s medical vendor, GRM Information Management Services.
The 20 years worth of electronic files were stored on magnetic tapes that contained personal information and protected health information of patients, contractors and vendors. The personal information included names, addresses and Social Security numbers. Thos
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Written by Benjamin Woods on February 12, 2011.
Joseph Kidd, 56 was arrested in California on Tuesday for identity theft. He had allegedly been using another man’s name for 17-year years to commit crime and fraud.
According to the police, Kidd had been arrested numerous times, sent to prison, and even obtained welfare and medical benefits using Larry Smith’s identity.
Joseph Kidd even got married using the Larry Smith’s name and identity.
The real Larry Smith, 67 who has no criminal record has been trying to clear his name for close to two decades.
Due to the fraud and crimes committed in his name he has been denied medical care and had his driving license suspended. He h
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Written by Hugo Pethebridge on February 12, 2011.
We are approaching tax time. Scammers are ramped up and looking for your money. Learn these tax season scam tips and watch your back.
1. Text messaging scams or smishing a.k.a Phexting. Like phishing but texting. Criminal hackers have access to technology that generates cell phone numbers and access to mass text messaging services. They send texts that install keyloggers or direct you to websites that steal your data.
2. Tax preparer scams. Reports of tax preparers who tell their clients they have to pay back their stimulus checks, then pocket the money.
3. Basic phone scams. Using the telephone for scams is back. Scammers call your home posing as local fire dept collecting your personal information for their records in case there is an emergency.
4. Caller ID spoof. New technologies that allow anyone any time to mask what shows on your caller ID and pose as an official, lottery or authority to get you to reveal data or write checks.
5.
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Written by Hugo Pethebridge on February 12, 2011.
Account takeover happens when your existing bank or credit card accounts are infiltrated and money is siphoned out. A hacked account or stolen credit card is often to blame.
The drop in account takeover may be due in part to a few different things.
Less breaches. There was a drop in data breaches from 221 million records in 604 breaches during 2009 to 26 million records breached in 404 reported breaches during 2010. Criminal hacker Albert Gonzalez and his gang were responsible for many of those hacked records and he and many of his cohorts are now in jail.
PCI standards. All those responsible for accepting credit cards are now under strict Payment Card Industry Standards rules and regulations that require a level of security that took about 5 years to implement. Today many of those merchants are doing a much better job of protecting data.
Device reputation management.
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