David Henry reports: The Justice Department says it has busted an identity theft operation that cost a lot of people a lot of money. Investigators say 44-year-old Anthony Williams was the ring leader. A federal indictment charges him and 15 others with a massive identity theft operation that victimized hundreds of people over three years,…
Category: U.S.
Texas fires two tech chiefs over breach
Jaikumar Vijayan reports: The Texas State Comptroller’s office has fired its heads of information security and of innovation and technology following an inadvertent data leak that exposed Social Security numbers and other personal information on over 3.2 million people in the state. Two other employees have also been fired over the incident, a statement posted…
IEEE members notified of second breach in as many months
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) describes itself as the world’s largest technical professional organization with over 365,000 members worldwide, but some of its members may be feeling a bit beleaguered after receiving what may be their second breach notice in as many months. In February, the association notified 828 members that an…
CA: “Embarrassing” Files Found Outside Blockbuster
Bob Hansen reports: The Blockbuster store in Mission Valley was being cleaned out for the last time. The video store chain is in bankruptcy and one worker was finishing up at the store. That’s when privacy rights expert Beth Givens happened to walk by and she was shocked by what she found. “A box called…
Hackers may have accessed more than 25,000 South Carolina students’ personal info
The identity of thousands of students and teachers has potentially been compromised after officials with the Lancaster County School District say a hacker was able to access their system. According to school officials, the hackers were able to hack into the district’s system by monitoring district computers and capturing keystrokes to get passwords. Those passwords…
GA: Gwinnett ID Theft Case Could Have 5,800 Victims
I wonder how many people using check-cashing services or walk-in tax preparer services ever consider whether the person they’re doing business with might be an ID thief who’s using the business as a lucrative source of identity information. Consider this case in Georgia: Duluth police arrested a woman who they said could be a link…