Darren Pauli reports: Desperate companies are buying off data thieves and extortionists to recover stolen data, according to experts. They claim it is “common” for some businesses operating in Australia to pay ransoms to hackers and disgruntled employees to re-secure sensitive information or prevent illicit corporate activities from becoming public. Law firm MMLC Group managing…
Shell employee contact data breach affects over 100,000
The following was posted by John Donavan and attributed to Royal Dutch Shell (“Shell”) Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer Richard Wiseman: Colleagues, I am writing to inform you of an incident involving misuse of company data. It has become clear recently that the Global Address List, containing contact information of everyone in Shell and some…
UK: Fears of ID fraud after Revenue data error
Nicola Hodges reports: Revenue & Customs has sent the names, addresses and National Insurance numbers of 2,200 claimants to the wrong people in the latest Government data bungle. The blunder involves child benefit letters to families whose children are 16, asking them to confirm that the youngsters are still studying. But some letters have contained…
UTEP: Students Social Security Numbers May Have Been Visible In Mail
Jessica Molinar reports: If you’re a University of Texas at El Paso student, you’ve probably gotten a letter in the mail from the university saying your Social Security number was visible when your tax form was sent out. UTEP said they notified 15,000 students but they don’t know exactly how many students were affected. UTEP…
Stolen Abbott Medical Optic backup tapes put employees and consumers at risk
Employees and customers of Abbott Medical Optics in Santa Ana, California are being notified that their personal information was on backup tapes that were stolen. On December 29, locked metal boxes containing the backup tapes were stolen from AMO’s Milipitas facility in California. The company informed the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office of the theft…
Ceridian breach disclosure provides clear timeline
Ceridian’s notification to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office is now available online (pdf). By letter from its attorney dated February 1, it summarizes the time line beginning with it first becoming aware on December 23 of a possible breach when its personnel spotted unusual activity that might indicate a problem. Further investigation indicated unauthorized…