The last of four Minnesotans pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in St. Paul to operating an identity theft ring involving the creation of fraudulent identification cards and checks that were eventually cashed at businesses and banks in three states. Appearing before United States District Court Judge Donovan W. Frank, Christopher Englin, age 28, of…
What’s with the increasing demands to have breached entities fined?
There’s been a growing clamor both here and abroad to have entities who have had data breaches fined. And while the ICO has been promising that such fines are “imminent” and will be announced before the end of this month, I find myself wondering why we, the public, are becoming increasingly strident in our call for…
Capitol Hill credit card fraud wave tied to Broadway Grill
jseattle continues to provide updates to a rash of fraud reports in the area: The investigation into more than 100 reported cases of credit card fraud across Capitol Hill has identified a Broadway restaurant as one “point of interest.” Like the victims who have had their bank and credit accounts hit for fraudulent charges in…
Laptop stolen from Bare Escentual employee puts employee data at risk
Bare Escentuals of San Francisco has been notifying some current and former employees this week that a laptop stolen from an employee contained their names, addresses, Social Security Numbers, and some salary information. By letter dated Nov. 1 to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, the firm said that they had “recently” become aware of…
Privacy advocates fear massive fed health database
Jaikumar Vijayan reports: Several privacy groups have raised alarms over plans by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to build a database that would contain information about the healthcare claims of millions of Americans. The concerns have surfaced because the OPM has provided few details about the new database and because the data collected…
First data fines on the way, says ICO
The ICO, who said in September that the first data fines were “imminent,” now says that they are “on the way.” Kable writes: The information commissioner will announce the first organisations to be fined for failing to protect data later this month. Christopher Graham said that the fines of up to £500,000 “give the ICO…