Recent cases in which people have been charged with online fraud for allegedly making purchases with illegally obtained credit card numbers have shed light on the lack of effective measures taken to frustrate the CreditMaster scam used in these incidents, even though the credit card industry was already aware of its existence. The industry is…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Germany adopts stricter data protection law
On July 3, 2009, the German Federal Parliament passed comprehensive amendments to the Federal Data Protection Act (the “Federal Act”). These amendments also passed the Federal Council on July 10, 2009, and the revised law will enter into force on September 1, 2009. The new amendments cover a range of data protection-related issues, including marketing,…
Details of 10,000 MS workers among stolen data
Last week, this site reported on a story from Times Online about the new Lucid Intelligence database of identity details that had been found up for sale by cybercriminals. The database consists of 120 million records on 40 million people worldwide, compiled by identity theft expert Colin Holder and others. Users can conduct a free…
GAO report: persisting info sec weaknesses
From the Summary of GAO-09-546 July 17, 2009, Information Security: Agencies Continue to Report Progress, but Need to Mitigate Persistent Weaknesses : […] Persistent weaknesses in information security policies and practices continue to threaten the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of critical information and information systems used to support the operations, assets, and personnel of most…
UK data breach incidents on the rise
Seven in ten UK organisations experienced a data breach incident over the last year, up from 60 per cent in the previous year. The third edition of an annual survey by the Ponemon Institute, sponsored by PGP, also found that 12 per cent of 615 public and private sector organisations probed were hit by five…
State Dept lost track of its laptops
The State Department does not have an accurate accounting of its laptop computers, including ones meant for classified use, and has failed to encrypt machines as it is supposed to do to protect sensitive information, according to a new report by the department’s inspector general. Inspectors found that 27 laptops, worth $55,000 were missing out…