Curt Anderson of Associated Press reports: Twenty-five people accused of using thousands of stolen identities to claim $36 million in fraudulent tax refunds have been arrested in the latest South Florida sweep, federal authorities said Thursday. Among those charged in 19 separate cases is a middle school food service worker who swiped the identities of…
Category: Government Sector
Expert Hacks Healthcare.gov in 4 Minutes
Well, no, they didn’t hack it. They didn’t even have to, it seems. Keith Koffler reports: Security consultant David Kennedy, who has testified before Congress about the flaws in Healthcare.gov that have made people’s information unsafe, revealed Monday he was able to gain access to the personal records of 70,000 Obamacare enrollees in four minutes….
Hacked Japanese Building Research Institute responds to hack
A hacker who identifies him/herself as BH_Hacker has dumped data on Pastebin that allegedly comes from a kenken.go.jp database. The National Institute of Building Research identifies itself as an incorporated administrative agency of Japan. The data dump contains 330 records with first and last names, usernames, email addresses, and telephone numbers. With one exception, there were…
UK: Family’s safety ‘put at risk’ by council’s blunder
Stef Lach reports: A father says his family’s safety was put at risk by a council blunder which saw his personal details sent to thousands of people. Renfrewshire Council wrote to the 5354 people on its approved landlords list inviting them to a Landlord Accreditation training course, but also attached a list with personal details…
UK: Northamptonshire Police worker breached data law
A woman has admitted using police systems to access information on her ex-partner while employed by the Northamptonshire force. Julie Crust, 42, of Northfield Road, Northampton, admitted six counts of breaching data protection laws at Northampton Magistrates’ Court. The court heard she was employed as an administrative worker when the offences took place. Crust was…
MO: Former IRS Employee Indicted For Taxpayer ID Theft, Tax Fraud Conspiracy
A former employee of the Internal Revenue Service is among three defendants who have been indicted for stealing taxpayers’ identity information in order to receive fraudulent tax refunds. Taylor S. Knight, 32, and Michael J. Moore, 27, both of Kansas City, Mo., and Michael Stalcup, 42, of Farley, Mo., were charged in a six-count indictment…