A site reader alerted DataBreaches.net to a recent breach involving the Department of Chemistry at University of Wisconsin-Madison recently. According to the notification letter, a copy of which was provided to this site, the university notified some faculty and students that their personal information was on 40 departmental computers that had been hacked. In a…
Category: Of Note
Gaping security hole turned 64,000 Time Warner cable modems into hacker prey
Tim Greene reports: A blogger helping to tune a friend’s wi-fi network uncovered a gaping security hole in Wi-Fi cable modem routers installed in 64,000 Time Warner subscribers’ homes, leaving them open to attack. Time Warner says that within the past week it has patched the problem until the manufacturer can provide a permanent fix,…
Hydro customer info used in scam
Chris Kitching reports: Police are investigating after a woman got a job at Manitoba Hydro using a stolen identity and used her position to access the personal information of more than 900 customers and take out fraudulent credit cards. The employee used customers’ names and other information to apply for 45 credit cards without the…
SEC fines broker-dealer $100,000 over computer security failures
Finextra reports: US broker-dealer Commonwealth Financial Network has been fined $100,000 for failing to insist its registered representatives maintain anti-virus software on their computers. The failure led to an intruder gaining access to the firm’s Intranet, accessing customer accounts and entering unauthorised purchase orders worth over $523,000. According to an SEC cease and desist order…
UPDATE: Credit cards also involved in Cheers Liquor breach
Wayne Heilman reports: A security breach in the credit-card processing system at Cheers Liquor Mart involves both credit and debit cards and likely involves customers of dozens, if not hundreds, of financial institutions nationwide, the Colorado Springs-based retailer said today. Cheers has shut down a wireless broadband system that was used to process credit-card transactions…
FTC settles latest charges against ChoicePoint
ChoicePoint, Inc., one of the nation’s largest data brokers, has agreed to strengthened data security requirements to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the company failed to implement a comprehensive information security program protecting consumers’ sensitive information, as required by a previous court order. This failure left the door open to a data breach in…