Matthew Goldstein and Nicole Perlroth report: When it comes to defending a large company against an online attack, sometimes luck and timing can mean as much as spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year on computer security. The broad attack this summer on JPMorgan Chase, which compromised information for 76 million households and seven…
Vodacom exposed some subscriber details after software update; issue fixed
On October 27, Business Tech reported: Vodacom is providing information which uniquely identifies you as a subscriber to websites you visit while on its data network. This was revealed by an online tool created by security researcher, Kenneth White. Among the data, Vodacom subscribers are inadvertently providing to web servers their phone number and a…
Update: Tutor in Corona del Mar High grade-hacking scandal arrested at LAX
There’s a follow-up to a breach previously noted on this blog. On October 6, Sean Emery reported: A tutor at the center of an alleged grade-changing scandal at Corona del Mar High School was arrested Monday when police say he returned to Southern California after fleeing the country. Timothy Lance Lai, 29, was taken into…
UK: EMAS will "learn from its mistakes" in wake of breach
In the wake of a data protection breach impacting 40,000 patients, East Midlands Ambulance Service is working to prevent future problems. The Lincolnshire Echo reports: A strategy was developed at the Trust meeting on October 28 which resulted in new computerised systems and improving IT security. The investigation found the computer system the information was stored on was…
TX: Ex-Parkland employee to plead guilty to Medicare fraud
Kevin Krause reports: Federal authorities say a former Parkland Memorial Hospital employee illegally used information from thousands of patients to defraud Medicare and Medicaid. Viju Mathew, 49, of Garland has agreed to plead guilty to a federal fraud charge and is scheduled to go before a judge later this month to formally enter the plea….
USIS’s late notification? (updated)
Readers may recall that US Investigations Services, LLC, the contractor who conducted personnel background checks for the Department of Homeland Security, detected a hack in June. The breach affected 27,000 DHS employees. For some reason, USIS is now first sending a copy of a notification letter to the California Attorney General’s web site and to the New…