Jacob Bogage reports: Drone have been used to drop bombs, spy on foreign countries and monitor how farmers work their fields. Now they could help hack into personal computers. According to e-mails posted by WikiLeaks, military contractors may want to do just that. Boeing and Hacking Team — a Milan-based company criticized for selling surveillance software to repressive governments — were in talks…
Category: U.S.
SterlingBackcheck reports stolen laptop contained background check information on job applicants (updated)
On May 29, a laptop with a spread sheet containing an undisclosed number of job applicants’ names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers was stolen from a SterlingBackcheck employee’s car. SterlingBackcheck (a trademark of Sterling Infosystems) learned of the theft on May 30, and notified law enforcement. The personal information in the spreadsheet came from two sources: the…
Higher Education Institutions Increasingly Falling Victim to Cyberattacks
Anna C. Watterson and Sean B. Hoar write: Higher education institutions are treasure troves for hackers. Colleges and universities are huge repositories of research data, sensitive information for large populations of applicants and enrolled students (personal, academic, financial and health data), as well as sensitive personal and tax information for all faculty and staff. Higher education…
Prima CARE notifying patients after binders with protected health information found in bushes
According to its web site, Prima CARE, P.C. is a large, multi-specialty medical group serving southeastern New England. Also according to their web site, a former employee improperly discarded binders with protected health information. A notice linked from their home page explains: Prima CARE has Recovered Documents Containing Patient Information On June 4, 2015, Prima CARE…
WA: Labor Department vulnerable to data breach
Sean Higgins reports: The Labor Department has several gaps in its cybersecurity protections that could be exploited by hackers, according to a report publicly released Tuesday by its inspector general’s office. Several of the gaps were identified three years ago, the report noted, but the department has done very little to prevent potential data theft. Read more…
Former correctional officer sentenced to prison for stealing identities of Troy jail inmates
Erin Edgemon reports: A former correctional officer at the Troy Police Department City Jail was sentenced to 32 months in prison for his involvement in a stolen identity tax refund fraud scheme. Devon Tucker, 31, pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of aggravated…