Bob Barr comments on legislation proposed in Georgia: Federal and state drug agencies want Georgia to create a database of doctors who prescribe pain medications, pharmacists who fill prescriptions for pain medications, and patients who receive prescription pain medications. And law enforcement agencies are employing a full-court press in the General Assembly to get what…
Author: Dissent
(follow-up) Moscow gets tough on cybercrime as ID theft escalates
Joseph Menn reports: Russia has quietly arrested several suspects in one of the world’s biggest cyberbank thefts, raising hopes of a previously unseen level of official co-operation in a country that has been a haven for criminals. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB)has detained suspects including Viktor Pleshchuk, an alleged mastermind behind a £6m (€6.6m,…
Airport Worker Accused Of “Skimming” Credit Cards
CBS4 reports that an Orlando International Airport parking garage worker was skimming customers’ credit cards and then giving the info over to her boyfriend: On Friday police moved in an arrested 43-year-old Susanna Harutyunya. She now faces three counts of fraud. The thefts were discovered in December when a CitiBank investigator found that 17 separate…
Firm denies hacking, stock manipulation charges
Elinor Mills reports: A Cyprus-based company accused of manipulating stocks on U.S. exchanges via compromised trading accounts denied the allegations on Friday, placing blame on “Russian swindlers.” A U.S. federal judge in New York agreed to freeze the assets of BroCo Investments on Tuesday, after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint alleging…
IRS security faults leave taxpayer information at risk
Michael Cooney reports: In this the heavy tax season where billions of dollars and tons of personal information is relayed to and from the government, it’s more disconcerting to hear that the Internal Revenue Service is still struggling to keep private information secure. A report out today from watchdogs at the Government Accountability Office says…
Prosecution expert: Hacker Albert Gonzalez does not have Asperger’s
Albert Gonzalez has less than one week to find out how many years he will spend in prison, and if the government has its way, it will be 25 years. And as to the defense’s claims that Gonzalez should be shown some consideration in the sentencing guidelines due to Asperger’s Disorder, well, the prosecution expert…