The VeriChip Corporation, a Delray Beach, Fla.-based provider of radio frequency identification (RFID) systems for healthcare, is supporting a Pennsylvania bill that would ban the forced implantation of identification devices in people. The bill, introduced by Democratic State Rep. Babette Josephs, was unanimously passed by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on June 24 and will…
Author: Dissent
ID Theft Case in Japan
It’s unusual for me to see an ID theft report coming out of Japan. There was the report last year involving Yahoo! Japan, but other than that, I’m hard-pressed to think of any cases offhand. Today’s Yomiuri Shimbun, however, reports one such case: The Metropolitan Police Department arrested Chizuru Asahi, 21….. She allegedly used other…
eMoney Transfer Accounts Accessed
MoneyGram International has notified the Vermont Attorney General’s Office of a breach affecting some customers using MoneyGram Payment System’s eMoney Transfer system. According to the letter dated June 29, during routine security checks, the company discovered that some customers’ accounts had been accessed by unauthorized individuals. The company insists, however, that there was no security…
Jubilee Found in Breach of DPA
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has found Jubilee Managing Agency Ltd in breach of the Data Protection Act after the insurance company reported the loss of an unencrypted disk containing the personal details of around 2100 individual UK policyholders. Jubilee Managing Agency has signed a formal Undertaking outlining that it will take reasonable measures to…
SSN Relatively Easy to Predict
Over on PogoWasRight.org, I’ve posted about a study released by researchers Alessandro Acquisti and Ralph Gross of Carnegie Mellon University. The study has significant implications for the use of SSN and for protecting against identity theft, even though a government spokesperson responded by seemingly downplaying the findings and their implications. If you would like to…
LOC ID Thief Sentenced to Prison
As an update to a story first reported in December 2008, the Associated Press is reporting that Labiska Gibbs, who enlisted her cousin, William Sinclair Jr., to help steal the identities of 13 Library of Congress employees, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Sinclair was sentenced in May to three years’…