Around 53 West Virginia University students’ personal information was available to others following an “operational error” during a routine update of tax information Jan. 15. The students’ 1098-T forms, which include their Social Security number and tax identification numbers, among others, were uploaded to the University’s 1098-T Web site. The forms are distributed to WVU…
Category: Exposure
UK: Skipton faces fine for serious data breach
Jeff Prestridge reports: Skipton Building Society faces a heavy fine from the Financial Services Authority after a serious breach of data security procedures that resulted in more than 3,000 savers receiving financial details about other customers of the mutual. […] When Skipton mailed 108,000 account statements to savers last weekend, 3,115 went out with the…
IL: Social Security numbers found lying in street
Lisa Black and John Keilman report: When Elida Cruz worked in the banking industry, she assured clients that their personal information would remain confidential. So, imagine her horror when she learned that much of her own information, including her Social Security number, birth date, phone number and job history, had become astonishingly public, floating down…
Apology over confidential files in Bristol litter bin
A Bristol lawyer has apologised after rubbish he was seen throwing into a city centre litter bin turned out to be a colleague’s confidential case notes. A cafe worker saw Stephen Davies QC put the papers into a bin on 21 January close to the city’s legal centre. Mr Davies said he had been helping…
FL: Medical files in Port St. Lucie trash bin could have led to ID fraud, police say
Will Greenlee reports: Police on Tuesday turned up medical files containing information that could be used to commit identity theft in a trash bin near University Medical Clinics, a police spokesman said Wednesday. Police determined the files, which contained information including patient names, Social Security numbers, phone numbers and addresses, had been discarded from University…
Commerce Dept. slow to notify employees of security breach
Joe Davidson reports on a Commerce Dept. breach that involved the transmission of unencrypted PII: Why did it take the Commerce Department so long to notify employees that their personal information, including Social Security numbers, had been let loose on the Internet? On Monday, employees were informed by letters mailed to their homes about “a…