Some readers may remember news reports in early 2009 about a raid on Core IP in Dallas. At the time, Matthew Simpson, CEO of Core IP, issued a statement that the raid related to the activities of a former customer. A number of bloggers and civil libertarians responded sympathetically to what they thought was an…
Category: Of Note
Hacking Takes Lead as Top Cause of Data Breaches
Hacking has topped human error as the top cause of reported data breaches for the first time since such tracking began in 2007, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center’s 2009 Breach Report. In its report, titled “Data Breaches: The Insanity Continues,” the non-profit ITRC found that 19.5 percent of reported breaches were due to…
Heartland in $60 mln settlement agreement with Visa
Reuters is reporting: Heartland Payment Systems Inc (HPY.N) said it reached a $60 million settlement agreement with Visa Inc (V.N), under which it will pay issuers of Visa-branded credit and debit cards for data security breach claims. Heartland, the fifth-largest payments processor in the United States, said the settlement was with respect to losses issuers…
Hackers May Have Unearthed Dirt on Stanford
Brian Krebs writes: In early 2008, while federal investigators were busy investigating disgraced financier Robert Allen Stanford for his part in an alleged $8 billion fraudulent investment scheme, Eastern European hackers were quietly hoovering up tens of thousands customer financial records from the Bank of Antigua, an institution formerly owned by the Stanford Group. […]…
Watt may appeal sentence
Todd Wallack reports that Stephen Watt, the former Morgan Stanley coder who provided Albert Gonzalez with a sniffer program used to steal data from TJX customers, may appeal his sentence: Stephen Watt was sentenced Dec. 28 by a federal judge in Boston to two years in prison and three years of supervised release and ordered…
Looking back on 2009
The breach of Heartland Payment Systems grabbed the headlines for much of the year and the entire population of Belize had their birth details stolen when a government employee left a laptop in a car, but what else went on? Your details, my friend, were blowing in the wind Although the number of breaches involving…