Ellen Nakashima reports: A major U.S. contractor that conducts background checks for the Department of Homeland Security has suffered a computer breach that likely resulted in the theft of employees’ personal information, officials said Wednesday. The company, USIS, said in a statement that the intrusion “has all the markings of a state-sponsored attack.” The breach,…
Category: Government Sector
Anonymous Says It Hacked the US Government Personnel Database Before China
FRUZSINA EÖRDÖGH reports: Chinese hackers made headlines last month for hacking into United States government servers in March, but they weren’t the only ones poking around on those servers: Anonymous claims it was too. In fact, a high-level member of Anonymous says the group hacked the same government servers targeted by the Chinese, except months beforehand, through a…
Erie feds: IDs stolen from NYC welfare records
Lisa Thompson reports: More than 400 of the identities stolen in a massive Erie federal wire fraud case appear to have been lifted from the case records of New York City public assistance clients, a federal prosecutor said. Federal investigators believe one of the Nigerian defendants recently indicted in Erie in a $10 million identity…
Probe ordered as garda laptop found in a Dutch brothel
Claire Murphy reports: Gardai are investigating after a laptop and documents belonging to a garda were discovered in a brothel in Amsterdam. […] The bag reportedly contained a laptop and documents as well as an “insignia” that allegedly identified the owner as being a member of an Garda Siochana. Read more on Independent.ie. It’s not yet clear what…
Four Arizona residents sentenced in tax refund fraud scheme that used prisoners’ information
On July 28, 2014, Kristi Marie Egger, 34, of Mesa, Ariz., and Michael Wayne Egger, 47, of Mesa, Ariz., were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Susan R. Bolton after each pleaded guilty to two felony counts for conspiring to defraud the United States by filing false federal income tax returns. Kristi Egger was sentenced to…
Ottawa reports 101 privacy breaches since April
Alex Boutilier reports: The federal government has quietly logged 101 breaches of Canadians’ private information over the last four months, the Star has learned. Numbers released by Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien’s office reveal his office was informed of a privacy breach an average of almost once a day since April 1. The majority of these…