KTRK reports: Houston police are investigating the theft of personal information of more than 7,000 people associated with Rice University. The university says a device containing information involving about 7,250 Rice faculty and staff, along with some students and retirees, was recently stolen. One of the files contained a list of Rice employees and students…
Author: Dissent
CA: ID thief hits state coffers for $200,000
Julie Johnson reports: A mobile blood-testing company is believed to be the source of 500,000 California identities used to create fake drivers licenses and checks, investigators said. A Castro Valley man is at the center of what detectives called a “huge” scheme in which stolen identities were used to create fraudulent unemployment and in-home health…
NY: Romanian National Indicted For ID Theft Scheme
The Westchester County District Attorney’s office announced that a nine count indictment was handed up charging Razvan Apostol, 31, a citizen of Romania staying in Queens, New York, with eight counts of Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument, and one count of Unlawful Possession of a Skimmer Device. On August 17, 2010, in the Town…
ID theft rings coming soon to a town near you
It seems that every day I read about an “ID theft ring.” Most of the cases reported in the mainstream media do not provide the kind of detail that would further analysis, though, so I often omit them, even though they may involve a lot of money or multiple states. Here are just two examples…
Editorial: Drug database access needs tight controls
I recently noted that sheriffs in North Carolina want access to a database containing records of those taking painkillers. Here’s an editorial from a NC paper, the News & Observer: Policing abuse is a growing challenge requiring the cooperation of the medical community and law enforcement, with the state establishing reasonable parameters that will ensure…
Clarifying CT's new Insurance Bulletin reporting requirement
The new bulletin from the Connecticut Insurance Commission, mentioned here, had left me a tad confused, so I wrote to them: Re the definition of a security incident: “The Department considers an information security incident to be any unauthorized acquisition or transfer of, or access to, personal health, financial, or personal information, whether or not…