Jordan Robertson, Michael Riley, and Andrew Willis report: It was just before midnight when Enrique Peña Nieto declared victory as the newly elected president of Mexico. Peña Nieto was a lawyer and a millionaire, from a family of mayors and governors. His wife was a telenovela star. He beamed as he was showered with red,…
Category: Of Note
UK cops tell suspect to hand over crypto keys in US hacking case
J. M. Porup reports: At a court hearing earlier this month, the UK’s National Crime Authority (NCA) demanded that Lauri Love, a British computer scientist who allegedly broke into US government networks and caused “millions of dollars in damage,” decrypt his laptop and other devices impounded by the NCA in 2013, leading some experts to warn that a…
WA: Olympia man suspected of stealing hard drives from federal offices
Amelia Dickson reports: A Thurston County judge has set bail at $10,000 for Nicholas W. Perring, an Olympia man suspected of stealing hard drives containing names and Social Security numbers from a federal office. […] According to court documents, Perring is suspected of breaking into four offices, all at 701 Capitol Way S., on two…
IRS Needs to Further Improve Controls over Financial and Taxpayer Data: GAO
The highlights of a new GAO report on the IRS: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) made progress in implementing information security controls; however, weaknesses in the controls limited their effectiveness in protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of financial and sensitive taxpayer data. During fiscal year 2015, IRS continued to devote attention to securing its…
PH: Voter database leaked by hackers (updated)
Rappler reports: Shortly after Anonymous PH defaced the Commission on Elections (Comelec) website, another group accessed the data of the poll body’s website, posting it publicly online. In a Facebook post before midnight Monday, March 28, a group calling itself LulzSec Pilipinas wrote, “A great lol to Commission on Elections, here’s your whoooooole database.” This appears…
IRS’s Top 10 Identity Theft Prosecutions
From the IRS, Mar. 21: As part of the continued crackdown on refund fraud and identity theft, the Internal Revenue Service today released the Top 10 Identity Theft Prosecutions for Fiscal Year 2015. These prosecutions are part of the wide-ranging strategy to combat refund fraud and assist taxpayers through detection, prevention and resolving identity theft…