John Langeler reports: Most people would enjoy getting a $7,000 check in the mail. In the case of one West Seattle man, all the check indicated was his identity had been stolen. “The check had my Social Security Number on it as well as another woman’s name,” he said, asking us not to release his name,…
Category: Miscellaneous
Victim of 2012 hack, British Pregnancy Advice Service fined for violating the Data Protection Act (Updated)
Some breaches are potentially much more harmful than others. A March 2012 hack involving the British Pregnancy Advice Service (BPAS) fell into that group, and I was so concerned about the breach and the threatened data dump that on Twitter, I publicly called out members of Anonymous for sitting back and not speaking up to try to dissuade…
AU: Thousands of university academic union members made public
Julie Hare reports: The names and details of thousands of university academic union members have been accidentally made public. Lists of names, contact details and positions of the National Tertiary Education Union‘s members at five universities appear to have been collated with the intention of contacting each person to solicit funds to support a campaign…
KR: Hackers arrested over data leakage
Choi Mo-Ran reports: Authorities said yesterday that they have arrested three hackers suspected of leaking the personal data of 17 million people from 225 websites. The Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency announced yesterday that it had arrested the trio, who stole personal data from Korean websites and sold it to loan lenders and chauffeur service companies…
Ethical hacking organization hacked, website defaced with Edward Snowden’s passport
Rich McCormick reports: The EC-Council, a US professional organization that offers a respected certification in ethical hacking, was itself hacked this weekend. Passport and photo ID details of more than 60,000 security professionals who have obtained or applied for the EC-Council’s Certified Ethical Hacker certification are at risk after the breach, many of whom work in…
Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children notifies vendors after tax information exposed
The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children joins the ranks of those who experience a mailing error that exposes vendors’ Form 1099 to others. The Form 1099 contained vendors’ names, addresses, monies earned, and Social Security numbers. In this case, some vendors received their own Form 1099 as well as a second…