Yesterday, when indictments were announced in an ID theft case involving a former employee of Johns Hopkins Hospital, I contacted the hospital to ask whether this was an incident that we had previous knowledge about in the media or blogosphere or if it was news to us. A spokesperson for the hospital just emailed me the…
Category: Breach Incidents
Staring into the abyss: how many breaches go unreported?
While compiling data breach reports submitted to Maine a few months ago, one of the things I discovered (no pun intended), was that Discover submits batched reports to at least two states. Their reports indicate how many Discover card members are affected by the incidents, but their logs don’t provide much detail about the incidents…
Canada’s pursuit of tax cheats starts with stolen data
AFP reports that Canada is joining the ranks of countries who are using data stolen from HSBC by an employee to pursue tax cheats: Canada will “aggressively” pursue tax evaders, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday after France provided his government a list of hundreds of secret offshore accounts held by Canadians. “This government will…
Five indicted in Johns Hopkins Hospital ID theft ring
A federal grand jury has indicted the following five Maryland defendants on fraud and aggravated identity theft charges in connection with a scheme to use stolen hospital patient identity information to open fraudulent credit accounts and make purchases on “instant credit” at retail stores in Maryland: Michael Allen, age 34, of Baltimore, Jasmine Amber Smith,…
Pirate Bay User Database Exploited By Spammers
Ernesto writes that a recent hack of The Pirate Bay may be linked to some recent spam users have been receiving: Two months ago a group of Argentinian hackers successfully gained access to The Pirate Bay’s admin panel through a security breach. At the time, the hackers stated that they didn’t want to exploit the vulnerability,…
37 Charged in Global Bank Fraud Schemes that Used “Zeus Trojan” and Other Malware to Steal Millions of Dollars from U.S. Bank Accounts
Charges have been filed in New York against 37 defendants, in 21 separate cases, for their roles in global bank fraud schemes that allegedly used hundreds of false-name bank accounts to steal over $3 million from dozens of U.S. accounts that were compromised by malware attacks. According to Complaints unsealed today in Manhattan federal court,…