Mimi Jung reports: An alarming letter was sent to Charles Tomaras from the UW (University of Washington) Medical Center letting him know that someone had stolen his personal information, including his Social Security number, credit card number, birthdate and address….. The hospital says the information of up to 210 people could be compromised and thought…
Author: Dissent
FL: 1 arrested, 3 sought in ATM ‘skimmer’ scheme
Elaine Silvetrini reports: Four Bulgarian men put “skimmers” on ATM machines at SunTrust banks in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties last summer and obtained identifying information on hundreds of bank accounts, according to a federal complaint. The information was used to withdraw nearly $200,000 from the compromised accounts. Federal authorities have arrested one of the suspects…
Cyber-whistleblower stuns Latvia with tax heist
The Associated Press provides more info on a breach previously reported on this site that may have resulted in the acquisition of 7.4 million confidential files by a hacker’s group calling themselves the Fourth Awakening People’s Army (4ATA): One of the group’s members, who uses the name “Neo” — apparently in reference to the hero…
N.Y. Firm Faces Bankruptcy from $164,000 E-Banking Loss
Brian Krebs has a piece reminding us that businesses don’t have the same protection as individuals when bank accounts are hit by fraud and/or when the cause of the breach is that the user’s system was infected by malware: A New York marketing firm that as recently as two weeks ago was preparing to be…
The Cost Of A Breach, Heartland Style: At Least $129 Million; Might Be $229 Million
Evan Schuman comments: In its latest financial report, Heartland Payment Systems reported that it dropped $129 million on data breach costs last year (an incident that briefly placed Heartland on Visa’s Bad Breach Boy list). The company added that it still has a reserve of $100 million for additional expenses. As a processor, Heartland’s pain…
OCR explains why it shielded names on published breach list
This week, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) began posting summaries of breach reports it has received as newly mandated by the HITECH Act. In commenting on the breaches, this site observed that some breaches simply stated “Private Practice” instead of the name of the…