David Henry reports: The Justice Department says it has busted an identity theft operation that cost a lot of people a lot of money. Investigators say 44-year-old Anthony Williams was the ring leader. A federal indictment charges him and 15 others with a massive identity theft operation that victimized hundreds of people over three years,…
Category: Breach Incidents
UK: School in Oldham breaches Data Protection Act
Freehold Community School in Oldham has been found in breach of the Data Protection Act after the theft of an unencrypted laptop from a teacher’s car, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said today. The laptop contained personal information relating to 90 pupils at the school. The school reported the breach to the ICO in January…
Texas fires two tech chiefs over breach
Jaikumar Vijayan reports: The Texas State Comptroller’s office has fired its heads of information security and of innovation and technology following an inadvertent data leak that exposed Social Security numbers and other personal information on over 3.2 million people in the state. Two other employees have also been fired over the incident, a statement posted…
IEEE members notified of second breach in as many months
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) describes itself as the world’s largest technical professional organization with over 365,000 members worldwide, but some of its members may be feeling a bit beleaguered after receiving what may be their second breach notice in as many months. In February, the association notified 828 members that an…
The Children’s Place breach due to compromise of their login credentials; CheetahMail not breached – spokesperson
When I saw a press release yesterday from The Children’s Place indicating that their unnamed email service provider had been hacked, I thought it was a reference to the Epsilon breach. It wasn’t. The Children’s Place is a customer of Experian’s Cheetahmail service. A notice from The Children’s Place on ebm.cheetahmail.com says: Dear Customer, Yesterday…
CA: “Embarrassing” Files Found Outside Blockbuster
Bob Hansen reports: The Blockbuster store in Mission Valley was being cleaned out for the last time. The video store chain is in bankruptcy and one worker was finishing up at the store. That’s when privacy rights expert Beth Givens happened to walk by and she was shocked by what she found. “A box called…