U.S. Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA), Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) introduced a bill Wednesday to require the Internal Revenue Service to notify potential victims of identity theft, something the agency has not always done in the past. The Social Security Identity Defense Act of 2015 would require the IRS to notify an individual…
Category: U.S.
The CFAA meets the “cannibal cop” in the Second Circuit — and maybe beyond
Orin Kerr writes: The Second Circuit held oral argument Tuesday in United States v. Valle, widely known as the “Cannibal Cop” case. There was a ton of media attention about this case at trial, including the trial judge’s decision to overturn the jury verdict for conspiracy to commit kidnapping on the ground that it was all a fantasy. HBO has already…
Alabama woman charged in $7.5 million stolen identity tax refund fraud ring
Kent Faulk reports: A Phenix City woman was arrested Tuesday based on an April 28 federal grand jury indictment charging her with conspiracy to defraud the United States, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, federal authorities announced. Talashia Hinton, also known as LayLay and LaLa, was charged in the indictment with one count of conspiracy…
NJ: Personal tax records found in Edison trash
Another case where records in a storage unit wind up in the wild when the owner falls behind on storage rent. News12 New Jersey reports: Hundreds of old tax documents with personal information on them were found left out in the trash Tuesday in Edison. The boxes, about 12 in all, were from Tax DRX,…
Longwood Management notifies employees of stolen laptop
Now this is refreshingly transparent: A password-protected laptop was stolen from a Longwood Management employee’s vehicle on February 11, 2015 (no, that’s not the refreshing part, obviously). Investigation revealed that encryption was deployed on the laptop, but “the encryption may not have been sufficient to prevent access by someone with the knowledge or skills to…
Healthy Living possibly targeted for data breach
Burlington Free Press reports: Healthy Living informed its customers Friday afternoon of a potential security breach after some customers of the store found unauthorized charges to their credit cards in November and December of 2014. Read more on Burlington Free Press. The firm learned of the breach on March 25, and has been investigating since…