In the justice system: The teenage hacker known as “Dshocker” was sentenced to 11 months in a juvenile detention center. More. In FL, Patrice Thomas is charged with opening a credit card in someone else’s name to obtain cosmetic surgery. More. In NC, Brenda Denise Small was indicted for filing false tax returns and identity…
Author: Dissent
NY: Former tax dept. employee charged with ID theft
Anand Balasar of the Legislative Gazette reports that an employee of the NYS Department of Taxation and Finance has been charged with using taxpayers’ information to apply for and obtain credit cards. The state is notifying 2,000 individuals. Note of June 20, 2009: the original article is no longer available at that url but a…
Lost flash drive contains data on 5,500 Oklahoma employees
Jennifer Pierce of News6 reports that an employee of the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission lost a flash drive with personal information, including Social Security numbers and payroll information, on 5,500 state employees. The employee had transferred the data to a flash drive after his laptop had become infected, and then lost the flash drive at…
Washington Department of Labor and Industries exposes contractors’ SSN on web site
In an article that requires a subscription for full access, Bert Caldwell of The Spokesman Review reports that the Washington Department of Labor and Industries web site was shut down for several hours yesterday after a contractor realized his Social Security number was exposed and contacted them. A spokesperson said that the problem was a…
Largo marketing firm pays $350,000, settles complaints by Florida attorney general
Lorri Helfand of St. Petersburg Times reports: A Largo area marketing firm has agreed to pay $350,000 to settle a complaint by the Florida Attorney General’s Office that the firm obtained stolen consumer information and did not take proper steps to ensure data was acquired legitimately. Although VICI Marketing LLC agreed to the settlement filed…
EU leaders’ passport numbers and medical info found on public computer in Prague
The Helsinki Times reports that a publicly available computer at a Prague hotel contained the passport numbers and itineraries of about 200 leaders from EU member states who gathered there April 5 for an EU-US summit. The breach has been attributed to human error. The breach was discovered by a Finnish tourist who used the…