Theodore Decker reports: Diners who frequent a popular Downtown restaurant should review their charge-card statements because hackers broke into its computer system to loot debit- and credit-card numbers, police said today. Between 30 and 50 people have reported fraudulent charges on their accounts, and Columbus detectives said that anyone who used a charge card at…
Author: Dissent
NZ: Skim versus hack: Council still in the dark
Rob O’Neill reports: Auckland City is referring all enquiries about how its carparking systems were compromised, leading to the reissue of thousands of credit cards, to Westpac, which is leading the investigation into the incident. Spokesman Glyn Jones says the council “hasn’t been told conclusively” whether skimming or hacking were used to breach customer security….
Email goof exposes Sea Ray Boats employee data
On October 21, an employee of Sea Ray Boats unintentionally sent an email to 698 dealership personnel that contained the names, contact information, and Social Security numbers of 341 of the 698 employees. The company realized its mistake, and within an hour, sent out another email asking recipients to destroy the first email. Despite the…
Update: Second B.C. employee fired in document security breach
Rob Shaw and Lindsay Kines report: The B.C. government has fired a second employee in connection with a security breach in which the files of 1,400 income assistance clients turned up in a government worker’s home. Citizens’ Services Minister Ben Stewart confirmed today that the second employee was “involved with” the Public Service Agency within…
States, Consumer Advocates Challenge Rx Data Mining
Andrew Zajac reports: When your doctors writes you a prescription, that’s just between you, your doctor, and maybe your health insurance company–right? Wrong. As things stand now, the pharmaceutical companies that make those prescription drugs are also looking over the doctor’s shoulder, keeping track of how many prescriptions for whose drugs the individual physician is…
WA: Ex-charity worker charged with computer crime
Levi Pulkkinen reports that a disgruntled ex-employee is charged with computer sabotage: In charging documents, King County prosecutors contend Ricardo T. Valencia, 35, broke into the World Vision server system in the week preceding July 3. The malicious conduct, prosecutors allege, continued in the following weeks, ultimately costing the international children’s charity $12,500 in repairs….