Tim McCoy & Associates (dba NEAT Management Group) is notifying employees, partnering agents, and insurance carriers that their names, social security numbers, dates of birth, contact information, and in some cases, employer identification number, were on an unencrypted laptop stolen from a software programmer. The laptop theft occurred August 27, but it appears that NEAT did…
Month: September 2014
Home Depot notifies New Hampshire of breach
This just in: Hogan Lovells, attorneys for Home Depot, sent the New Hampshire Attorney General a notification of the breach. Their letter, dated September 9, reiterates that they first learned of a possible breach on September 2 and confirmed it on September 9. Home Depot still doesn’t have exact numbers, it seems. The letter says…
Man sentenced for using U. Hawaii Foundation money to pay gambling debt
The Star-Advertiser reports: A former University of Hawaii Foundation employee is not going to prison for using scholarship money to pay off a gambling debt. A federal judge sentenced Dodge Watson, 34, to three years’ probation Monday for forging the signatures of other foundation employees to get approval for a $2,000 scholarship check made payable…
Va. Shore H&R Block owner pleads guilty to ID theft
Ted Shockley reports: The former owner of four H&R Block tax preparation franchises on the Eastern Shore of Virginia pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday to taking personal information from a customer to obtain a line of credit for herself. Sherry R. Kelley, 41, of Exmore, had been indicted on 20 counts of felony…
Education And Information Sharing: Underutilized Tools In FTC’s Data Security Work
Glenn G. Lammi of the Washington Legal Foundation writes: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has brought 52 enforcement actions involving data breaches. Fifty of those businesses, whose computer systems were illegally accessed by hackers, settled rather than fight FTC’s accusations that they acted “deceptively” or “unfairly” under § 5 of the FTC Act. And yet,…
It’s Time for a Data Breach Warning Label
Adam Levin thinks it’s time for a warning label: Data security, identity-related consumer issues and privacy are all areas screaming for big-picture solutions. This is a situation in search of a paradigm shift—one that produces tools which enable consumers to make informed choices. There is a precedent that could serve as a template. Passed in…