Back in December, this site broke the story of a misconfigured database affecting students and faculty at California Virtual Academies. The leaky database had been uncovered by independent researcher Chris Vickery, who estimated the number affected at 59,500. CAVA would subsequently inform this site that an unnamed vendor was responsible for the misconfiguration. Today, CAVA submitted a copy…
Category: U.S.
SCOTUS upholds Musacchio’s convictions for hacking former employer
Dan McCue reports on the Musacchio case: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday affirmed the felony convictions of a former executive with a technology firm who unlawfully hacked his employer’s computers to steal information he then used to start his own company. Michael Musacchio, the former president of Exel Transportation Services, was convicted in May…
TX: Midway students charged after hacking online portal to issue false alarm
Stephanie Butts reports: Two Midway High School students were charged Tuesday with distributing a false report or alarm after posting a screen shot of a false administrative document warning families about potential violence at the school, Hewitt Police Chief Jim Devlin said. Midway Independent School District officials fielded about 200 calls Tuesday after a social…
Florida couple ran tax service and check cashing business to acquire identity info for tax refund fraud scheme
Once again, a reminder that the local business you trust with your tax or bank account information may not be worthy of your trust. A Pembroke Pines, Florida, couple pleaded guilty for conspiring to use stolen identities to file fraudulent tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service. According to court documents, between July 2009 and…
NY: Hudson City School District employees hit by phishing scheme
Teachers in Lawrence Public Schools in Massachusetts weren’t the only school personnel hit by a phishing scheme this past week. Jillian Nadiack reports that Hudson City School District personnel were also hit. And although the Superintendent didn’t answer a direct question about whether anyone fell for the two emails, it sounds like at least some did: In…
MA: Lawrence teachers’ info compromised by phishing email
While some of us are spending this weekend digging out from snow, some Lawrence Public Schools teachers in Massachusetts are having to deal with protecting themselves from identity theft after an unspecified number of employees fell for a phishing scheme. Garrin Marchetti reports that personnel were notified of the breach of the online database by…