Paula Reed Ward reports: Two Romanian nationals are in federal custody for allegedly using card skimmers to steal the account numbers from PNC Bank card users and then using those accounts to spend some $200,000. Alexandra Razvan Serb and Mihai Popa are charged with bank fraud, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. The Western…
Author: Dissent
Lawsuits over Arizona tribe blood samples settled
At last, a follow-up on a lawsuit that I initially covered on this blog in November 2008 involving a case that actually started in the 1990s. Amanda Lee Myers of the Associated Press reports that the Havasupai tribe in Arizona has settled its lawsuits against Arizona State University for allegedly misusing blood samples. The tribal…
WI: Hospital reports breach of patient information
Tomah Memorial Hospital has notified 600 patients of a breach of protected health information following the arrest of an emergency room nurse who is charged with fraudulently obtaining controlled substances between April 2008 and March 2010. Dianna L. Peth, 54, of Tomah, was arrested and charged with diversion of narcotics March 29. Peth, who worked…
TJX Adds Again To Its Breach Cost, But It Doesn’t Really Matter
Evan Schuman writes: With TJX having suffered well more than $47 million in out-of-pocket expenses from its infamous data breach (announced in 2006 but beginning as early as 2003), the $20 billion retailer is preparing to write still more checks. It has now set aside another $23.5 million for additional anticipated breach costs, according to…
Police data on copiers causes city to scramble
Brian Meyer and Jay Rey report that the city of Buffalo is scrambling in the aftermath of a CBS report that confidential data was found on copier hard drives that were up for sale at a warehouse: Stored on one of the hard drives were details involving domestic-violence complaints along with a list of wanted…
(follow-up) Ex-university police officer gets probation in UCM identity theft case
As a follow-up to a case previously reported here, James B. Drake, the former University of Central Missouri police officer who pleaded guilty in January to stealing student identification information and conspiracy to commit identity theft, was sentenced by a federal judge in Kansas City to five years of probation. His wife is scheduled to…