Press release from the National Academies: Though digital technologies and high-speed communications have significantly expanded the capabilities of scientists — allowing them to analyze and share vast amounts of data — these technologies are also raising difficult questions for researchers, institutions, and journals. Because digital data can be manipulated more easily than other forms, they…
Author: Dissent
AmEx employee stole 300 card numbers
One by one, three of the five suspects involved in a major credit card and identity theft scheme were arraigned Wednesday night before Judge Scott Hunter in Canfield. The suspects include the mother-daughter duo of Christine Alkire, 49, and Danielle Lancia, 27, along with 22-year-old Lamar Phenizy, all accused of purchasing approximately $25,000 with more…
NY Life Insurance hit by ID thief
Stephanie Fahlgren is under arrest for allegedly stealing personal information from dozens of New York Life Insurance policy holders and using the data for shopping sprees, according to federal authorities. Federal investigators say she acquired the username and password of a Sacramento insurance agent, which she used to get access to client information from her…
FL man pleads guilty to credit card fraud
Jeffrey H. Sloman, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Michael K. Fithen, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Secret Service, announced that Maikel Soto, 29, of Homestead, Florida, has pled guilty to conspiring to commit more than $1 million in credit card fraud throughout Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, in violation of…
Stolen hospital laptop contained patient info
Another news story on a stolen laptop — this one from NorthShore University HealthSystem: The laptop was connected to equipment used by staff to treat patients. Just who took the laptop from the Evanston, IL-based facility—an employee, patient, or visitor—was not known. What was known was that 250 patients had personal information stored on the…
Records of Virginia Tech Gunman Discovered
Virginia Tech gunman Seung Hui Cho had been treated at the college’s counseling center before the shooting rampage in which he killed 32 students, contradicting earlier accounts of his psychiatric history, according to newly discovered mental health records located in the home of the center’s former director. According to a memo written by a university…