October 2006
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Two groups are potentially most affected — patients’ families and people who donated money to the hospital.
The patient information accessed by the hackers included billing information from office visits to doctors employed by Children’s Hospital. Those records contained personal information, such as Social Security numbers, but did not contain any medical or financial information, the hospital said.
The donor database included bank-account information and routing numbers, though it did not contain Social Security numbers. Credit card information attached to the donor files was encrypted and unreadable to the hackers.
More information about the security breach can be found on Akron Children’s Hospital website.
Source: Centre Daily
Written by MCruz on October 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Hospitals and Identity Theft and Patients.
Chicago Board of Election officials report that a security vulnerability found on their website would have allowed hackers to access personal data of some voters.
Chicago election officials said Monday they were forced to patch a security flaw on their Web site after a candidate found a programming error that had made private voter information vulnerable to theft for at least five years.
Officials said the glitch never threatened the integrity of election records. But they now have to determine whether anyone exploited the opportunity to steal the Social Security and birth date information from more than 780,000 registered voters in the city.
Source: Chicago Tribune
Written by MCruz on October 24th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Government and Identity Theft.
T-Mobile employees were notified early this week that they were at risk to identity theft. Their personal information was stored in a laptop stolen from employee’s checked luggage.
A laptop containing the Social Security numbers and other personal information of T-Mobile USA Inc. employees recently disappeared, putting as many as 43,000 current and former workers at risk of identity theft.
This incident is similar to other laptop thefts which has occurred over the year.
Source: The Oregonian
Written by MCruz on October 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Businesses and Employees and Identity Theft.
Last Friday, the House Government Reform Committee released a report highlighting government agencies who have experienced data loss incidents along with the number of individuals affected.
The report is staggering. 19 agencies have reported breaches since January 2003 and it is not known if the individuals affected were ever notified of the data loss.
These are the conclusions drawn from the report:
- Data loss is a government-wide occurrence.
- Agencies do not always know what has been lost.
- Physical security of data is essential.
- Contractors are responsible for many of the reported breaches.
(more…)
Written by MCruz on October 16th, 2006 with 1 comment.
Read more articles on Government and Identity Theft.
It’s been a bad week for current and former students. Here are this week’s personal data exposure reports:
- Graduates of Troy Athens HS in the Detroit area are fuming that their personal data were stored on a lost hard drive. It had taken them two months before notifying the affected alumni members.
- Brock University donors’ personal information such as credit card numbers and bank accounts were stolen by hackers.
- A stolen laptop from Adams State College exposes students participating in the Upward Bound program.
- The Census Bureau in Austin is missing 15 handheld devices which contain personal information belonging to several Travis County residents.
- University of Texas at Arlington students are on alert for identity theft after being notified that their information was stored on two computers stolen from a faculty member’s home. UTA has created a website for more information.
Special thanks to Patricia for providing these tips. I’ve been lagging behind on the reports. Now that I’m no longer on vacation, I will update this blog more often. Thanks for your patience folks!
Written by MCruz on October 13th, 2006 with 1 comment.
Read more articles on Identity Theft and Roundup and Universities.
A laptop computer containing names of military personnel has gone missing.
A company which helps manage housing at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base in San Diego, Calif., says the laptop holds personal information on 2,400 base residents.
Source: Star Tribune Thanks for the tip, Patricia!
Written by MCruz on October 9th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Government and Identity Theft.
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