Tag archive for ‘data theft’
UPDATE: Breached Data of 3.3 Million Student Loan Borrowers Found…In Police Evidence Room
Here’s an update to a recent Rip of the Week concerning 3.3 million breached records of federal student loan recipients. It turns out that the data, which existed on “CDs and floppy discs,” was recovered shortly after the theft and was only recently discovered in a police evidence room, and connected to the case.
WCCO reports, [...]
Rip of the Week: 3.3 Million Student Loan Borrowers Breached
If you are a college student, or were a college student, and you had a student loan, it’s time to worry. Officials of St. Paul-based Educational Credit Management Corp. revealed that an unencrypted portable device was stolen during the weekend of March 20-21. The Wall Street Journal reports, and thanks to kirniki on DLDB for [...]
Rip of the Week: 969 SSNs Breached by the Social Security Administration Itself
Thanks to kirniki over at DataLoss DB for a tip-off about a rather ironic breach. In this case, the Social Security Numbers of 969 people were breached by the Social Security Administration itself when an employee lost a presumably-unencrypted “computer disc” while traveling to Queens from the Bronx back in October.
The Queens Chronicle reports that [...]
Tip of the Week: Change the Default Password!
I simply cannot help but continue to pull out some golden nuggets from the 2009 Data Breach Investigations Report from Verizon Business. One of the most remarkable findings of the report, based on actual breach investigations, was the “ease” of attack in many cases.
The report found that, as we’ve always said as well, criminals target [...]
Rip of the Week: 2,246 Madoff Victims Now Hit Again…By Laptop Theft
This week’s Rip of the Week was a bit of a shocker. Not only is the story a markedly sad one, but an usual personal twist caused me a double-take.
Newsday.com reports on the theft of 2,246 Bernie Madoff victims’ PII thanks to an unsecured laptop computer belonging to AlixPartners LLP, the consulting firm that had [...]
Tip of the Week: Use a Firewall, and Use it Properly
Most of our tips focus on specifically thwarting laptop theft and loss. But here’s another one that’s related to data theft but not hardware-related.
It’s crucial to use an updated, current, industrial-grade firewall on your computer. Windows, for example, has one built in, but products from Symantec, McAfee, and others can also extend the functionality.
A firewall [...]
More News Coverage of MyLaptopGPS CTO Dan Yost
Today’s Oklahoman ran a pair of articles in followup to the big data security issues here in Oklahoma.
I talked to Ms. Brown (the reporter) yesterday, and she did a nice job concisely drawing out some issues.
Here’s one article, and here’s the companion article.
These are important issues, for certain.
WSJ: When The Going Gets Tough…The Worried Buy Credit-Monitoring Services
An article in the Wall Street Journal highlights the growing cottage industry of identity theft monitoring services. The article notes that though the services help prevent or catch identity theft, they will not prevent a thief from using your stolen credit card number to make fraudulent purchases.
Given the recent Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. breach, such [...]
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