Another scheme involving insider breaches comes to light in Baltimore. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland reports: Ringleader Derrick Hill, age 52, and his girlfriend Renee Cabell, age 51, both of Woodlawn, Maryland, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. According to their plea agreements, from August to October, 2009,…
OH: Boardman dermatologist reports potential patient ID theft
Because of the number of patients involved, we won’t see this on HHS’s breach tool, but it serves as a useful reminder that the risk of ID theft is everywhere, still: A dermatologist at 755 Boardman Canfield Road told police someone forced open a box that holds lab specimens outside the rear door of his…
Adobe investigates alleged customer data breach (updated)
Jeremy Kirk: Adobe said Wednesday it is investigating the release of 230 names, email addresses and encrypted passwords claimed to have been stolen from a company database. The information was released on Tuesday on Pastebin by a self-proclaimed Egyptian hacker named “ViruS_HimA.” The hacker, who claimed the database accessed holds more than 150,000 records, posted…
Agencywide Message to All NASA Employees: Breach of Personally Identifiable Information
SpaceRef posted a breach notification from NASA, dated today: […] On October 31, 2012, a NASA laptop and official NASA documents issued to a Headquarters employee were stolen from the employee’s locked vehicle. The laptop contained records of sensitive personally identifiable information (PII) for a large number of NASA employees, contractors, and others. Although the…
Chicago election site exposed personal information
John Byrne and Hal Dardick report: Chicago election board officials confirmed Tuesday that sensitive personal information for about 1,200 people was exposed online but denied allegations by a computer security firm that the breach was much broader. The firm, Forensicon, announced it uncovered the problem while researching voting patterns. It alleged that personal information of…
UK Businesses Consider Abusing ICO Data Breach Fine ‘Loophole’
Tom Brewster reports: Organisations have considered using a “loophole” to avoid data breach fines – by asking the privacy regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), to audit them when they already know personal data has been lost or stolen. The UK privacy watchdog has promised not to fine any company for breaches of the Data Protection Act if…