Andrea Noble reports: Information technology shortcomings within the Secret Service mean the potential still exists for employees to improperly access the agency’s restricted database, as agents did last year when they leaked unflattering information about House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz, according to a new inspector general’s report. The Department of Homeland Security Inspector General has found that even after last…
Month: October 2016
NullCrew hacker had FBI’s attention by the time he was 17
Jon Seidel reports: Nine years ago, Timothy French began his hacking career, the feds say. By 2011, he had the FBI’s attention. Today, he is 22 years old. Now federal prosecutors want to send the NullCrew hacker to prison for as many as seven years after he helped expose 12,000 Bell Canada customer usernames and…
Vendor’s employee stole W-4 forms for SIRF scheme
A case involving identity theft reported by the USAO for the Middle District of Alabama this week: A Phenix City, Alabama man was sentenced to 24 months in prison today for his role in a stolen identity refund fraud (SIRF) scheme. According to documents filed with the court, Kenneth Fearson, 31, worked at a warehouse that…
Iranian Citizen Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Identity Theft and Access Device Fraud
Gulfport, Miss –Milad Kalantari, 31, an Iranian citizen, pleaded guilty on October 6, 2016 before U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola, Jr. to conspiracy to commit identity theft and access device fraud, as well as substantive access device fraud, announced Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell, U.S. Attorney Gregory K. Davis of the Southern District of…
6th Circuit denies en banc on data breach standing issue. Prelude to SCOTUS?
Alison Frankel reports: … The 6th Circuit denied a petition by Nationwide Insurance to rehear a three-judge panel’s Sept. 2016 decision to allow a negligence class action stemming from a 2012 data breach to proceed. Nationwide’s lawyers at Morgan Lewis & Bockius argued in the en banc petition (as the insurer argued in federal district court in Columbus, Ohio, and before…
Subcontractor error exposed Vermont Health Connect customers’ SSNs
AP reports: A security lapse earlier this summer has jeopardized the Social Security information of nearly 700 users of Vermont’s online health insurance marketplace. Vermont Public Radio reports officials learned of the security breach when one Vermont Health Connect customer found her name and Social Security number on an online document while conducting an internet search….