data breaches: 70 Million Veterans at Possible Risk For Identity Theft
- 10/04/09 12:31 PM
Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
Wired reports the inspector general of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is investigating a potential data breach affecting 70 million records of U.S. military veterans. The issue involves a defective hard drive the agency sent back to its vendor for repair without first destroying the data. Once the drive was diagnosed and found to be faulty, it was sent out for recycling. With millions of records still on it.
A NARA IT manager says 70 million veterans are at risk for identity theft, and that NARA’s practice of returning hard drives unsanitized was symptomatic … (1 comments)
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data breaches: Couples Online Bank Account Hacked Leads to Identity Theft
- 09/15/09 02:10 PM
Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
In 2007, a U.S. couple fell victim to identity theft when a criminal accessed their online bank account and stole $26,500 from a home equity credit line. The money was transferred to an Austrian bank that refused to return the funds to Citizens Financial Bank. So Citizens Financial informed the couple that they were liable for the loss. When the couple refused to pay, the bank notified the credit bureaus that their account was delinquent and threatened to foreclose on their home. So the couple sued the bank, claiming violations of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act … (0 comments)
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data breaches: Big Time Identity Theft Hackers Indicted
- 08/31/09 03:16 PM
Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
ABC news and a bazillion other outlets report that a former informant for the Secret Service was one of three men charged with stealing credit and debit card information from 170 million accounts in the largest data breach in history. The former informant, Albert Gonzalez of Florida, A.K.A “Segvec”, “SoupNazi,” and “j4guar17,” whose motto was ”Get Rich or Die Tryin’” was alleged to have been the ringleader of the criminal hacking operation of a prolific network that spans over five years of serious criminal activity. Once a criminal, always a criminal.
Gonzalez and two other unidentified hackers believed to … (1 comments)
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data breaches: Identity Theft Is Easy Over P2P
- 08/27/09 03:54 PM
Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
Peer to peer file sharing is a great technology used to share data over peer networks. It’s also great software to get hacked and have your identity stolen.
Installing P2P software allows anyone, including criminal hackers, to access your data. This can result in data breaches, credit card fraud and identity theft. This is the easiest and, frankly, the most fun kind of hacking. I’ve seen numerous reports of government agencies, drug companies, mortgage brokers and others discovering P2P software on their networks after personal data was leaked.
The Register reports that a Washington state man has … (29 comments)
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data breaches: A Glorious Week of Identity Theft
- 08/22/09 10:23 AM
Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
If there was ever a week to get high, totally drunk, on information security and identity theft scammers and hackers, then this is it! Media outlets everywhere have been pumping out story after story of data breaches, identity theft, criminal hackers and indictments! Yeah team! For a criminal hacker groupie, this is Woodstock!
Dark reading reports Eight defendants were arraigned in a Brooklyn court for allegedly using the stolen identities of AT&T, T-Mobile, and Asurion customers to steal some $22 million worth of wireless equipment and services. An indictment was unsealed in Brooklyn federal court yesterday … (1 comments)
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data breaches: Criminal Hackers Clean Out Bank Accounts Using Spear Phishing
- 08/19/09 01:59 PM
Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
It wasn’t long ago that most phishing emails were from a supposed Nigerian General Matumbi Mabumboo Watumboo. And you and I were flattered that we were the chosen ones to help the general transfer 35 million out of the country, because the Nigerian government was a bunch of jerks and wouldn’t let him keep the inheritance his wife had inherited from her deceased uncle Bamboo.
Phishing continues to become more sophisticated, more effective, and more prevalent. According to a recent study, a 52% increase in phishing scams occurred in July alone. Computerworld reports that basic phishing … (2 comments)
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data breaches: Debit Cards at Risk for Identity Theft
- 08/05/09 02:15 PM
Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
There are 437,000,000 debit cards in circulation, and their use is on the rise. Criminal hackers are paying attention. Credit cards offer some measure of protection, but when a debit card is compromised, the stolen money is taken directly from the victim’s bank account.
Federal laws limit cardholder liability to $50.00 in the case of credit card fraud, as long as the cardholder disputes the charge within 60 days. Debit card fraud victims must notify the bank within two days in order to maintain this $50.00 limit. After that, the maximum liability jumps to $500.00. And … (0 comments)
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data breaches: Child Identity Theft Victims
- 07/28/09 09:52 AM
Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
Jason Truxel was denied a mortgage because of bad credit. He had no idea that his credit scores were low, so he pulled his credit reports. He discovered a tremendous amount of debt, and accounts he had never opened. One such account showed that a credit card had been opened in his name when he was 13 years old. Jason found out the hard way that he was a victim of child identity theft. When Jason was a child, his father was convicted of credit card fraud. So he went to his father’s house and found … (36 comments)
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data breaches: A ‘Whac-A-Mole’ Approach to Preventing Identity Theft
- 07/27/09 07:51 AM
Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
Computerworld does a great job of aligning the childhood arcade game of Whac-A-Mole and information security. “If you’ve ever played the silly, maddening game known as “Whac-A-Mole,” you know what futility feels like. As you smack one mole with the mallet, up pops another one. Their speed and number escalates as you flail away, trying to keep up. At some point, you realize there’s no hope of winning.”
That’s why I hated that game. What attracted me to it was the same instinct that Barney Rubbles’ son Bam Bam had, I liked hitting stuff with blunt … (0 comments)
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data breaches: Social Media Privacy and Personal Security Issues
- 07/25/09 10:15 AM
Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
Privacy issues and identity theft in social media are a growing concern. Most people who post their personal information about themselves do not recognize the potential consequences of their actions, or maybe they simply don’t care if their entire life is an open book.
Ask yourself, should the director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency, which is responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior U.S. policymakers, including the President, and who manages the operations, personnel, and budget of the CIA, have a Facebook page? Should his wife? Sir John Sawers is the incoming head … (0 comments)
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Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert
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