Chad Skelton reports: A tax collector in B.C. used the Canada Revenue Agency’s computers to look up the private tax files of hundreds of high-income individuals, apparently in the hopes of hitting them up for a business she ran on the side, according to internal government documents. The CRA’s internal investigation report, obtained by the…
Author: Dissent
UK: Tesco Bank fraud risk after data lost in post
Ed Monk reports: Tesco Bank has lost the personal details of dozens of customers, leaving them exposed to the risk of fraud, after staff sent unprotected personal data in the post. It is thought the customers affected were already in angry dispute with Tesco Bank over charges for controversial payment protection insurance on Tesco credit…
Dare we hope?
From HHS’s web site: The Interim Final Rule for Breach Notification for Unsecured Protected Health Information, issued pursuant to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, was published in the Federal Register on August 24, 2009, and became effective on September 23, 2009. During the 60-day public comment period on the…
VA: Ex-owner of Smithfield farm store pleads guilty to $1.7M fraud
Tim McGlone reports: A Smithfield woman pleaded guilty today to three federal charges, admitting that she stole the identities of customers from her farm equipment store to obtain more than 80 loans worth $1.7 million. Linda T. Rowland, 60, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges. Read more…
Lax document disposal leaves privacy in shreds
Mary Mitchell reports: Imagine the anxiety of discovering that the information you divulged to one of the city’s leading bankruptcy firms was not kept confidential. Last month, hundreds of pieces of sensitive documents that were provided to the law firm of Robert J. Semrad & Associates, also known as DebtStoppers USA, ended up in a…
Man who stole credit cards, electronics at UVa avoids prison
Brian McNeill reports: A 27-year-old man who stole credit cards and electronics at the University of Virginia will avoid prison time and instead be enrolled in a diversion program in Harrisonburg. Joshua Alan Lafferty pleaded guilty in June 2009 to five counts of breaking and entering, five counts of grand larceny, four counts of credit…