Daria Litvinova reports: Following years of hacking attacks on the online accounts of various Russian opposition figures, a man suspected of being the notorious hacker known as “Hell” — who is believed to have ties to Russian officialdom — is currently standing trial in Germany. The man in the dock of a Bonn court is Sergei Maximov, 41, a German national of Russian descent. He is charged with the theft and deletion of data,…
OPM Temporarily Shuts Down Personnel Information Database as Protective Step
AP reports: The federal personnel agency whose records were plundered by hackers linked to China announced on Monday the temporary shutdown of a massive database used to update and store background investigation records after newly discovering a flaw that left the system vulnerable to additional breaches. There is no evidence the vulnerability has been exploited…
NYC man arrested and indicted in identity theft scheme
Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced the arrest of Sharif King, 29, of Manhattan, for allegedly perpetrating an identity theft scheme in which he held himself out as a record company executive, hired employees and then stole their identities in order to open credit cards, apply for a loan, steal a vehicle and collect on…
One man emailed 97,931 people to tell them their passwords had been stolen
What happens when a do-gooder/altruistic person decides to try to warn people that their password has been stolen and posted on the Internet? Not much, it seems. Mark Stockley reports the results of “Atechdad’s” efforts: Whatever the reason, Atechdad’s 97,931 good intentions were just no match for the yawning, black hole of apathy and cynicism…
Ca: Cop loses 3 days pay after breaching privacy rules
Corey Larocque reports: Snooping through confidential police records and relating their contents to a friend will cost Ottawa Police Const. Jennifer Finniss three days’ pay and force her to stay home for 20 days. Even though her motivation was to help a friend, Finniss, an 18-year veteran cop, “should have known better” than to make…
UK: Norfolk County Council sells filing cabinet with confidential information still inside
Dan Grimmer reports: New figures have revealed the number of data breaches at local authorities in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire over the past year, with more than 200 incidents where information councils are entrusted with was not handled properly. One of the most shocking blunders came in Norfolk where confidential files containing details of adults…