Ouch. Tim Smith reports: A foreign hacker stole a vast database of the South Carolina Department of Revenue and investigators told GreenvilleOnline.com that 387,000 credit card numbers and 3.6 million Social Security numbers have been exposed. Read more on Greenville News. Update 1: The paper also has a later article on the review of state agencies’…
Category: Of Note
174 million records compromised in 855 data breach incidents last year, says report
Out-Law.com has a recap of some of the main findings in the 2012 Verizon DBIR: Verizon’s Data Breach Investigations Report (92-page / 3.47MB PDF) (DBIR) covering the year 2011 found that 174 million records were compromised in a total of 855 data breaches in what it called an “an all time low” for protection against data breaches….
Barnes & Noble discloses breach involving pin pads at dozens of stores (update2)
Remember when Michael’s Stores found that pin pads in some stores had been replaced? It looks like the same thing has happened to bookseller Barnes & Noble’s brick and mortar stores. According to the New York Times, the firm discovered the breach on September 14. As of now, it appears that pads at 63 stores…
Service Sells Access to Fortune 500 Firms
More great investigative reporting from Brian Krebs: An increasing number of services offered in the cybercrime underground allow miscreants to purchase access to hacked computers at specific organizations. For just a few dollars, these services offer the ability to buy your way inside of Fortune 500 company networks. The service I examined for this post…
Data security flaws part of FTC complaint against Compete
The FTC has been active in going after companies that do not provide adequate data security. Today, they announced that Compete, Inc. had settled charges involving unfair or deceptive practices associated with collecting and sharing personal information of users. Of interest here, however, are the charges in the complaint that relate to data security: Compete’s…
PLS Financial/Payday Loan Store settles government charges of improper disposal of customer records
Via Courthouse News: PLS Financial Services/The Payday Loan Store/PLS Check Cashers, which have more than 300 outlets in 9 states, expose customers to ID theft by dumping personal financial information into Dumpsters, the USA says in Federal Court. The lawsuit was brought at the request of the FTC, and I’ve uploaded the complaint and stipulated…