Harvey James pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft for his role in a tax refund fraud scheme using stolen inmate information. The plea was announced Assistant Attorney General Kathryn Keneally of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama George…
Category: Government Sector
Brit charged with hacking U.S. military networks
Jonathan Stempel reports: A British man has been arrested in England and charged by the United States and Britain with infiltrating U.S. government computer systems, including those run by the military, to steal confidential data and disrupt operations, authorities said. U.S. prosecutors said the alleged hacker, Lauri Love, infiltrated thousands of computer systems including those…
GA: Sheriff’s deputy accidentally e-mails female deputies’ bra cup sizes to all members of the department
There are e-mail gaffes, and then there are e-mail gaffes that can really be embarrassing. Ben Wright reports: A Muscogee County sheriff’s deputy who emailed personal information of female co-workers using bullet proof vests has been identified. Cpl. Keith Hamilton, the quartermaster in charge of supplies for the Sheriff’s Office, was given a written reprimand…
Credit report lock may hinder ability to sign up for MNsure
Oh good grief… Catherine Richert of Minnesota Public Radio reports: People who have locked their credit reports may have trouble creating an account on the state’s new insurance marketplace, MNsure officials said today. To buy a plan on MNsure, consumers must prove they are who they say they are. To verify an applicant’s information, MNsure…
How Healthcare.gov Could Be Hacked
Dana Liebelson reports: With Healthcare.gov plagued by technical difficulties, the Obama administration is bringing in heavyweight coders and private companies like Verizon to fix the federal health exchange, pronto. But web security experts say the Obamacare tech team should add another pressing cyber issue to its to-do list: eliminating a security flaw that could make sensitive user information, including Social Security…
Update: Dept. of Energy hack affected 7.5x as many individuals as originally reported
Kudos to Mathew J. Schwartz of InformationWeek for following up on the July Dept. of Energy hack. In August, Schwartz reported that the breach involved an outdated version of ColdFusion. In September, he reported that the number affected was not 14,000 – as originally estimated by DOE – but about 53,000. Today, Schwartz calls our…