Graham Cluley writes: Hackers have broken into the popular South Korean websites Nate and Cyworld earlier this week, and stolen information about 35 million social networking users. Names, email addresses, phone numbers and resident registration numbers of users are said to have been compromised. The BBC reports that the Korean Communications Commission has pointed the finger…
Author: Dissent
Commentary: Belmont bank must pay fine for data breach, but was a fine too harsh?
Greg Turner reports: Belmont Savings Bank agreed to pay $7,500 in a settlement of a consumer data breach case with the state attorney general’s office. In May, the bank lost an unencrypted computer tape containing the personal information of more than 13,000 customers. A bank employee left the backup tape on a desk instead of…
BET24.com breach highlights needs for greater disclosure in a timely fashion
BET24.com responded to an e-mail inquiry I sent them about their recent breach disclosure. Their response did not actually answer all of my questions (no surprise there), but did confirm that they knew about the breach in December 2009. Here is there statement to DataBreaches.net: Thanks for your mail about the security breach, a case…
Man sentenced in Sacramento for massive ID theft scheme
A Long Beach man accused of conducting a massive identity theft scheme was sentenced today in federal court in Sacramento to more than 12 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. sentenced That Tien Truong Nguyen, 34, to 12 years and seven months in prison for conspiring to commit computer fraud and…
Hard drive with students’ addresses, grades vanishes (updated)
Lisa Gartner reports: An external hard drive containing personal information on as many as 1,234 Prince William County elementary school students has disappeared, prompting investigations by the school system and the police department. The hardware housed names and addresses of Glenkirk Elementary students, as well as the names of their classroom teachers. It also stored…
Senate wades into effort to prevent data breaches
Josh Smith reports: Protecting personal information is all the rage on Capitol Hill these days, with two new data-breach bills introduced on Thursday in the Senate. Sens. Thomas Carper, D-Del., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo., introduced legislation designed to prevent identity theft and account fraud. The bill, tentatively named the Data Security Act of 2011, would…