More grief and anguish for parents of dead babies. David McCann reports: Sensitive documents linked to the babies’ ashes scandal at Mortonhall Crematorium have been stolen in a raid on offices of the bereavement charity which exposed the malpractice. Thieves stole a laptop containing the personal details of families affected by the controversy unearthed in…
Category: Government Sector
SCDOR breach: Judge dismisses Governor and former DOR director as defendants
Meg Kinnard of Associated Press reports that Circuit Judge G. Thomas Cooper has dismissed Governor Haley and South Carolina’s former revenue director as defendants in a lawsuit over the state’s massive security breach last year in the Department of Revenue. But… and this will be interesting to watch, the judge said he needed more time…
Alabama Employee Indicted for Providing Names to a Million Dollar Identity Theft Scheme
A federal grand jury in Montgomery, Ala., returned an indictment charging Lea’Tice Phillips for conspiring to file false tax returns using stolen identities, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today. The 37 count indictment charges Phillips with conspiracy to file false claims, wire fraud, computer fraud and aggravated identity theft. According to…
LA DPPS employee pleads guilty to stealing clients’ info for tax refund fraud scheme
“It’s déjà vu all over again” — noted infosecurity expert Yogi Berra. Veronico Niko, a former Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services employee, has pleaded guilty to stealing names and Social Security numbers for use in a tax refund fraud scheme. Niko, her husband Thomas Marshall, Michael Williams, Mao Niko, and Mike Niko…
Minnesota resident sues state agency and employee over breach involving driver’s license database
A Minnesota resident, Jeffrey Ness, has filed a potential class action lawsuit against the state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Department of Public Safety after a DNR employee exceeded authorized access and accessed about 5,000 residents’ driver’s license information. The employee was terminated but the motive for the improper access was not disclosed. In the lawsuit filed…
More details emerge on DoDDS-EU breach
A previously reported breach that affected students at the Ramstein Intermediate School also affected students and sponsors at three other schools under the U.S. Department of Defense Education Activity– Europe (DoDDS-Europe). Until now, I didn’t know which other schools were involved, until a small item on Military.com provided their names. On January 7, DoDDS-Europe issued the…