Linda McClasson reports: Months before announcing the Heartland Payment Systems (HPY) data breach, company CEO Robert Carr told industry analysts that the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) was an insufficient protective measure. This is the contention of a new master complaint filed in the class action suit against Heartland, which in January…
Category: U.S.
Laptop left on plane put pension fund participants at risk
On June 14, when a Verso Paper Corp. employee left a company laptop behind on an airplane, two documents containing names and Social Security Numbers of some former and current participants in the PACE Industry Union-Management Pension Fund were on the laptop. According to a letter (pdf) sent to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office,…
Computer crime case dropped
Here’s a case where it sounds like sloppy security may have led to unwarranted criminal charges. Annmarie Timmins reports: The authorities have dropped their theft and computer crime case against a former Local Government Center employee because the center’s “careless” and “sloppy” security practices would undermine any charges, according to letters obtained from the Merrimack…
Arlington trash bin yields sensitive documents
Jim Douglas reports: A startling discovery in a trash bin has residents in one Arlington neighborhood angry. They want to know who tossed out dozens of sensitive, personal files linked to their homebuilder. [….] They appeared to be sales documents from K. Hovnanian Homes, a major builder. “I grabbed one of the folders and seen…
Soldiers’ Data Still Being Downloaded Overseas, Firm Says
Ellen Nakashima reports: The personal data of tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers — including those in the Special Forces — continue to be downloaded by unauthorized computer users in countries such as China and Pakistan, despite Army assurances that it would try to fix the problem, according to a private firm that monitors cybersecurity….
Better safe than sorry: Express Scripts should notify everyone
Almost a year after it was contacted by an extortionist, pharmacy benefits management company Express Scripts first learned that the extortionist was in possession of at least 700,000 more members’ personal information than they originally knew about. The company has now notified those individuals, but how many other members may also be affected? It’s time…