Tom Spoth reports: More than 3,800 veterans had their personal information compromised last month in two data breaches that have led to renewed criticism of the Veterans Affairs Department’s data security. On April 22, an unencrypted laptop belonging to VA contractor Heritage Health Solutions was stolen from a vehicle, compromising the records of more than…
Author: Dissent
MasterCard Reaches Settlement With Heartland Payment Systems To Provide Issuers Worldwide Up To $41.4 Million For Data Breach Claims
MasterCard Worldwide today announced it has reached a settlement with Heartland Payment Systems (Heartland) to resolve claims by MasterCard and its issuers in connection with Heartland’s previously announced data security breach. The settlement agreement calls for Heartland to fund up to $41.4 million of “alternative recovery offers” to be made to eligible MasterCard card issuers…
BCBS of Tenn. Breach: Lessons Learned
Howard Anderson writes: In the wake of an information breach affecting nearly 1 million people, executives at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee have many lessons to share and plenty of advice to offer. On Oct. 2, 2009, someone stole 57 unencrypted hard drives from servers at a call center the insurer had recently closed. So far,…
VA IT official defends work on data protection
Alice Lipowicz reports: Roger Baker, assistant secretary for information and technology at the Veterans Affairs Department, today defended the department’s efforts to protect against data theft and unauthorized access at a House hearing where the VA was criticized for two recent breaches of veterans’ personal data in Texas. Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-Ariz.), who chairs the…
(RBS follow-up) Hong Kong man jailed for role in 10-million-US-dollar scam
Another follow-up to previous coverage here: A former policeman in Hong Kong began a four-year jail sentence Tuesday for his part in a global scam in which 10 million US dollars was stolen using cloned credit cards. Cheung Hoi-wing, 40, was recruited as one of five Hong Kong “cashers” in the international plot masterminded by…
Fraud Bazaar Carders.cc Hacked
Brian Krebs reports: Carders.cc, a German online forum dedicated to helping criminals trade and sell financial data stolen through hacking, has itself been hacked. The once-guarded contents of its servers are now being traded on public file-sharing networks, leading to the exposure of potentially identifying information on the forum’s users as well as countless passwords…