Ildefonso Ortiz reports: A Donna man with ties to the international computer hacking group Anonymous is accused of trying to break into various Web servers, including those of Hidalgo County, La Joya ISD and The Monitor. Thursday morning, a somber-looking Fidel Salinas went before Magistrate Judge Peter Ormsby, who informed him of the new accusations presented…
Category: Education Sector
Whitehat hacker goes too far, gets raided by FBI, tells all
Sean Gallagher reports on an interesting revelation concerning the second data breach at the University of Maryland: A whitehat hacker from the Baltimore suburbs went too far in his effort to drive home a point about a security vulnerability he reported to a client. Now he’s unemployed and telling all on reddit. David Helkowski was working…
Ie: Inquiry into data breach at college
Elaine Keogh reports: The Data Protection Commission is investigating a data breach by a college, which led to applicants being given portfolio assessment marks of other applicants instead of receiving just their own result. As part of the application process, prospective students for the Bachelor of Arts course at Cork Institute of Technology must include…
FL: Social Security Numbers of 530 Polk County School District Employees Exposed
Greg Parlier reports: The Social Security numbers of 530 Polk County School District employees were available to the public online for two years until they were taken down last month, district officials said Thursday. Mike Perrone, the School District’s chief financial officer who oversees human resources, said the numbers were part of a large document…
US charges 25 in Fla. in ID theft, tax fraud case
Curt Anderson of Associated Press reports: Twenty-five people accused of using thousands of stolen identities to claim $36 million in fraudulent tax refunds have been arrested in the latest South Florida sweep, federal authorities said Thursday. Among those charged in 19 separate cases is a middle school food service worker who swiped the identities of…
In split vote, MCCCD extends contract with law firm for data breach-related services (updated)
I usually don’t find news about law firms’ contracts with respect to data breach-related services particularly noteworthy, but in the context of Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD)’s data breach response, there’s been a newsworthy aspect. Last year, MCCCD hired the law firm of Wilson Elser to handle their breach response. As I noted on…