To follow up on my curiosity about what kind of year 2010 is turning out to be, I decided to use a primary source. Thanks to the cooperation of officials in Maine who responded promptly to my requests under Freedom of Information, I was able to obtain data on all breaches reported to them for…
Category: Business Sector
Hackers find a new target in payroll processing
Oh ho…. this explains the confusion created by a recent breach report by Regeneron to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office. I had been wondering why Regeneron was claiming that they had first found out about a breach involving Ceridian in June when Ceridian had claimed back in February that everyone was notified. I had…
Recruiter in Cheesecake Factory Card-Skimming Case Pleads Guilty
Note: this is a follow-up to a case previously covered on this site. Nicole Lakesha Ward, 28, of Washington D.C., pled guilty today to conspiring to commit bank fraud relating to a card-skimming scheme that targeted customers of The Cheesecake Factory in Washington, D.C. Ward faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison when…
A costly layover: laptop with over 32,000 SSN lost
Through its lawyers, Indianapolis-based First Advantage Tax Consulting Services (TCS) has notified the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office that on June 10, a laptop containing sensitive personal information was lost during an airport layover. The documents on the laptop included information provided by employers who were receiving TCS’s professional services in determining their eligibility for…
VA: Ex-owner of Smithfield farm store pleads guilty to $1.7M fraud
Tim McGlone reports: A Smithfield woman pleaded guilty today to three federal charges, admitting that she stole the identities of customers from her farm equipment store to obtain more than 80 loans worth $1.7 million. Linda T. Rowland, 60, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges. Read more…
Lax document disposal leaves privacy in shreds
Mary Mitchell reports: Imagine the anxiety of discovering that the information you divulged to one of the city’s leading bankruptcy firms was not kept confidential. Last month, hundreds of pieces of sensitive documents that were provided to the law firm of Robert J. Semrad & Associates, also known as DebtStoppers USA, ended up in a…