Security Breach Week Roundup - 11/03/06

This week’s top stories:

• Fort Monroe laptop stolen; student data at risk
  

  A database on the computer, which had information about applicants for the Army’s four-year ROTC scholarship, included Social Security numbers, birth dates, home addresses, phone numbers, parents’ names and mothers’ maiden names.

• Laptop with student data is stolen
  

  A laptop computer stolen from an insurance brokerage firm contained the names, birth dates and driver’s license numbers of more than 1,200 Villanova University students and staff members, the school said Thursday.

• Missing Manhattan health center computer contains veterans’ data
  

  A computer with 1,600 military veterans’ sensitive data, including Social Security numbers and possible medical diagnoses, has been stolen from a health care facility.

  The computer, used to store the results from a pulmonary testing device, was reported stolen on Sept. 6 from the Veterans Affairs New York Harbor Healthcare System in Manhattan. The U.S. inspector general’s office was investigating.

• Ballard Hospital hit by data theft, check records
  

  Over a thousand recent patients at Swedish Medical Center’s Ballard Campus are being advised to check their credit reports after the personal information of three people was stolen from the hospital.

  According to Swedish Medical Center, the three patients may have been the victims of identity theft by a former employee who stole their names, birth dates and Social Security numbers from hospital files.

• Nurse’s stolen laptop held patient data
  

  The theft of an Allina nurse’s laptop three weeks ago has not yet resulted in any cases of identity fraud, according to a health system spokesman.

  Allina sent written warnings in mid- to late October after learning a laptop was stolen Oct. 8 from a nurse’s locked car. The laptop contained personal information for 33,000 people, including Social Security numbers for 17,000 people.

• Data-rich computer stolen from Fort Monroe
  
  

  A laptop containing personal information about 4,600 high school seniors from across the country was stolen last week from the U.S. Army Cadet Command’s headquarters at Fort Monroe, a spokesman confirmed Tuesday.

• Radio co. employees’ personal data stolen
  

  The radio broadcasting company has sent out letters warning that a laptop holding Social Security numbers of current and former staffers was stolen out of Greater Media’s Philadelphia offices, sources who have received the letter said.

• Stolen laptop had personal data on 1,200 college students and staff
  

  A laptop computer stolen from an insurance brokerage firm contained the names, birth dates and driver’s license numbers of more than 1,200 Villanova University students and staff members, the school said Thursday.

Thanks to Patricia for sending me most of these links!

Written by MCruz on November 2nd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Identity Theft and Roundup.

1.4 million Coloradans At Risk to Identity Theft

A computer was stolen from a Colorado state contractor who works for Affiliated Computer Services. It had data of people who have made child support payments in the state.

It also holds data on up to nearly a (M) million Coloradans newly hired to jobs anywhere in the state. The law requires employers check data on all new employees against a state database to make sure the employee isn’t being sought for child support payments.
…
According to department spokesperson Liz McDonough, the stolen computer contained records of 500,000 people paying or receiving child support in Colorado as well as the records of 900,000 new employees who got jobs in Colorado or elsewhere in the last seven to eight months.

Source: KSWO-TV (via AP) & 9news.com

Written by MCruz on November 2nd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Government and Identity Theft.