Jaikumar Vijayan Despite growing pushback from companies and powerful industry groups, the Federal Trade Commission continues to insist that it wants to be the nation’s enforcer of data security standards. The FTC, over the past years, has gone after companies that have suffered data breaches, citing the authority granted to it under a section of…
University of North Carolina investigates data breach, notifies affected people
Carolina officials are investigating a data breach that risked unauthorized online access to personal information concerning some current and former employees, vendors and students. It is believed that more than 6,000 people are affected. On Nov. 11, an information technology manager in the Division of Finance and Administration was informed that some electronic files managed…
IG: Personal Information Stolen from 104,179 after Energy Department Cyber Attack
Elizabeth Harrington reports on a newly-released Inspector General’s report on the hack at the Department of Energy previously covered on this blog. Some of the highlights: The Energy department was aware of “early warning signs” that personally identifiable information (PII) of its employees was at risk. The attackers used exploits commonly available on the internet…
VA: Hacker Sentenced For Breaking Into Medical School Application Computers
Bosung Shim, 24, of Rockville, MD, was sentenced today to three months in prison, followed by seven months in community confinement and three years of supervised release, for unauthorized access of a protected computer. In addition, Shim was required to pay $31,653.24 in restitution to the victim and forfeit the computer equipment used in the…
GA: Emory University law students and medical students targeted in ID theft scheme
Schools need to remain cognizant that “directory information,” not protected by FERPA, can be used for ID theft. Maario Coleman and Angela Russell have been arraigned for operating a scheme to obtain thousands of dollars by stealing the identities of Emory University law and medical students and using them to apply for loans. According to…
EZ Yield notifying customers of hack involving online hotel reservation system
EZ Yield, a third party hotel reservation service provider, has started notifying customers that their credit card information may have been compromised by hackers. You can read the notification here (pdf). Update: idRADAR.com has delved into this breach report more. See their comments here.