John Langeler reports: Most people would enjoy getting a $7,000 check in the mail. In the case of one West Seattle man, all the check indicated was his identity had been stolen. “The check had my Social Security Number on it as well as another woman’s name,” he said, asking us not to release his name,…
Security firm report says Target data hack was low tech
Jennifer Bjorhus reports: The U.S. Secret Service has called the criminals behind Target Corp.’s monster security breach well-organized, “highly technical” and “sophisticated.” But cybersecurity firm McAfee Inc. said in a report out Monday that the heist was anything but exotic, describing the attack as a Breach 101 operation. The thieves used easily modified off-the-shelf malware, common methods…
ZA: E-toll site not hacked, claims Sanral
John Tullet reports: The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) has denied it suffered a widely-reported breach, or leaked any personal information. E-mails from Sanral have made this claim in the wake of multiple breaches of its user data, and repeated calls for the agency to alert its customers that their data may have been compromised. Read more on ITWeb,…
EU Healthcare Coalition steps up pressure on data protection
Peter Mansell reports: The multi-stakeholder Healthcare Coalition on Data Protection has stepped up pressure on lawmakers in the EU to preserve, re-instate or clarify research-friendly provisions in the European Commission’s proposal for a General Data Protection Regulation. Among the changes sought by the Coalition, which was set up to “facilitate health-data processing for health purposes,…
Asylum seeker claims she was told to sign waiver after data breach
Paul Farrell reports: A Chinese asylum seeker at Villawood detention centre says an immigration department officer threatened to force her on to a plane for deportation if she did not sign a document waiving the department’s responsibility for harm she may suffer if she was returned to China after a massive data breach. Read more…
OH: Two sentenced for using stolen identities in tax refund fraud scheme
Tawanda Marimbire, 25, of Cincinnati was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 70 months in prison for his role in a scheme to use stolen identities to obtain at least $5 million in fraudulent tax refunds. Co-conspirator Kudzaishe Robert Bungu, 28, was sentenced to 27 months in prison. In early 2012, the Secret Service and…