Williams College in Williamstown reports a recent laptop theft. The laptop, which was stolen when an employee left it in a parked car in Boston on October 3, contained the names and Social Security numbers of 750 individuals from 39 states and several foreign countries. The college notified the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office and…
Facebook and MySpace Flash Vulnerability Exposes User Data
Jason Kincaid writes: A Facebook developer named Yvo Schaap has uncovered a massive security flaw present on both Facebook and MySpace that would give hackers the ability to steal all of your account data, including your photos, personal messages, and basically everything else you’ve ever put on the social networks, without you ever realizing it….
Men allegedly broke into computers of former employer
Dan Goodin reports on a case where former employees were allegedly able to continue to access databases, despite the company terminating old passwords: Scott R. Burgess, 45, of Jasper, Indiana, and Walter D. Puckett, 39, of Williamstown, Kentucky, both worked as managers for Indiana-based Stens Corporation until taking jobs with a competing company in Ohio,…
Health Care Reform in the Breach
Carol Peracchio, a registered nurse, writes: Two weeks ago, I received a letter from the radiology department at a large university medical center in my state. The return address specified their mammography registry. Assuming that it was a reminder to get my yearly exam, I started to toss it out. Then I remembered that I’d…
Sacked employees triple malicious data deletions
Marie Boran reports: Recent findings from Irish online backup firm keepITsafe have revealed there is a correlation between the increase in unemployment as a result of the global recession and the tripling of malicious data attacks on companies. Companies reported they experienced a threefold increase in the number of malicious data deletions as a result…
Doors shut as psychologist testifies at German murder trial
A psychologist briefed German judges behind closed doors Thursday on the mental state of Alex W, the xenophobic unemployed man who killed an Egyptian woman and wounded her husband with a knife in a Dresden courtroom in July. The stabbing death of pharmacist Marwa al-Shirbini, 31, pregnant with her second child, caused outrage in Egypt….