Mechele Cooper reports: Kennebec Savings Bank has informed 1,500 customers their debit card numbers may have been compromised in a security breach. Bank officials blamed the breach on credit card companies’ failure to police the merchants that use their cards. The breach was reported to bank officials by MasterCard. Mark Johnston, bank president and CEO,…
Author: Dissent
Vast Majority Of Americans Still Forego Personal Health Records Despite High Interest – Study
Consumer demand for accessing personal health records (PHR) online is now at more than 70 million Americans, according to Cybercitizen Healthâ„¢ v8.0, the latest consumer study and strategic advisory service from pharmaceutical and healthcare market research company Manhattan Research. Despite significant interest in this type of service, only 7 million U.S. adults actually use…
Electronic health record glitch put VA patients at risk
Peter Buxbaum reports in Federal Computer Week: Glitches in Veterans Affairs Department electronic medical records software led to problems in the treatment of nine patients in three facilities in October and November 2008, drawing the ire of a key congressional overseer. The software problems came about after VA distributed version 27 of its Computerized Patient…
WA: Tobacco shop owner sentenced in debit card scam
A former Redmond tobacco shop owner was sentenced to 33 months in prison Friday for skimming information from hundreds of customers’ credit and debit cards, then siphoning money, federal officials said. U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez also sentenced Redmond resident Hrant “Mike” Aslanyan, 38, to five years of supervised release. He ordered him to pay…
Four defendants sentenced for $15 million tax fraud conspiracy
From the USDOJ press release: KANSAS CITY, Mo. – John F. Wood, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that four more defendants have been sentenced in federal court for their roles in a multi-million dollar conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service. The wire fraud scheme involved stealing the identities…
The missing “how” in media reports
The Associated Press reports that Tasheika Brown pleaded guilty in New Orleans to conspiracy to use stolen credit card numbers to buy cellular telephone equipment and airtime. The story does not indicate how she got the stolen credit card numbers. Unfortunately, we seem to be seeing an increasing number of media reports that refer to…