From HHS’s web site: The Interim Final Rule for Breach Notification for Unsecured Protected Health Information, issued pursuant to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, was published in the Federal Register on August 24, 2009, and became effective on September 23, 2009. During the 60-day public comment period on the…
VA: Ex-owner of Smithfield farm store pleads guilty to $1.7M fraud
Tim McGlone reports: A Smithfield woman pleaded guilty today to three federal charges, admitting that she stole the identities of customers from her farm equipment store to obtain more than 80 loans worth $1.7 million. Linda T. Rowland, 60, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges. Read more…
Lax document disposal leaves privacy in shreds
Mary Mitchell reports: Imagine the anxiety of discovering that the information you divulged to one of the city’s leading bankruptcy firms was not kept confidential. Last month, hundreds of pieces of sensitive documents that were provided to the law firm of Robert J. Semrad & Associates, also known as DebtStoppers USA, ended up in a…
Man who stole credit cards, electronics at UVa avoids prison
Brian McNeill reports: A 27-year-old man who stole credit cards and electronics at the University of Virginia will avoid prison time and instead be enrolled in a diversion program in Harrisonburg. Joshua Alan Lafferty pleaded guilty in June 2009 to five counts of breaking and entering, five counts of grand larceny, four counts of credit…
WA: Fast food customers’ identities stolen by worker, say police
Three people are charged in an alleged identity theft ring, skimming credit and debit card information from fast food customers at a Tukwila Wendy’s restaurant. Maria Elena DeHoyos-Ortiz, 33, Linzy Jerome Hopkins, 27, and Ricardo Ricky Ramacho, II, 28, are charged with multiple counts of conspiracy to commit identity theft. King County Sheriff’s Detectives say…
15 released pending trial in massive ID theft in Turkey
Fifteen people charged with selling computer programs offering illegally acquired identity information on nearly the country’s entire population were released Wednesday pending trial in Istanbul. Police announced Tuesday the cracking of the ring that had been stealing Turks’ identity information, including their names, addresses and telephone numbers. […] The Hürriyet reporter wrote that had he…