March 5th, 2010
Consumer education key to cybercrime war
Is it better to try to chase down cybercriminals, or educate computer users? That’s the ongoing debate among security experts.
On one hand, there have been some huge victories recently in the battle against the bad guys. This week, three men were arrested in connection with a creating a “botnet” that infected an estimated 13 million computers from 190 countries and stole personal and financial information.
In 2008, the alleged mastermind of the largest cybercrimes in history was arrested. Albert Gonzalez is responsible for the greatest data breaches in history, including Heartland Payment Systems, TJX, Hannaford Brothers, 7-Eleven, Citibank, J.C. Penney, and Dave and Buster’s, according to his indictments.
Gonzalez also supervised an online forum in which more than 160 million credit cards, birth certificates, Social Security cards, PIN numbers and computer login information was exchanged.
So, the good guys must be winning the war, right? Probably not. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Data breach, identity theft protection, LifeLock, LifeLock Command
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February 21st, 2010
LifeLock and Life Quotes team up to protect consumers and help them save money
LifeLock has partnered with Life Quotes to bring more consumers an opportunity for more complete identity theft protection to safeguard their personal finances and their personally identifying information.
It is a perfectly logical marriage of the leaders in their respective industries. LifeLock has long been considered the industry leader in proactive identity theft protection services, and Life Quotes was the first company to provide consumers with comprehensive insurance comparison services.
The collaboration also joins two companies committed to serving consumers looking for the best value in the products that protect their families and finances. That mission has become doubly important at a time when so many families are affected by the economic downturn.
“Through this partnership with LifeLock, we hope to provide our users with a necessary tool for helping to protect against identity theft. Just as life insurance and other forms of insurance are important protection measures, an identity theft service is crucial to keeping a stronger hold on finances.” Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: identity theft protection, Life Quotes, LifeLock, LifeLock Command Center, LifeLock partners
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February 5th, 2010
Data breaches in hotel industry higher than any other sector in 2009, according to Trustwave report
Which is most worrisome: (A) that hackers hit the hotel industry in 38% of data breaches last year; (B) that it took the hotels an average of five months to notice a data breach; (C) that the hackers often got into the data by using software glitches that had patches available 10 years ago; or, (D) all of the above?
A new report from security firm Trustwave indicates that the hotel industry was targeted for data breaches more than any other last year primarily because they were such an easy target and the takings were so rich. The hackers gained access to potentially millions of credit card account details from hotels that did little to protect the data, and never reported the resulting identity theft risk to officials or customers. (Picture a frisky young pit bull gleefully trotting after a fat, blind, three-legged cat while the cat’s owner sleeps in a hammock nearby.) Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Data breach, data breaches, Hilton Hotels, Radisson Hotels, Trustwave, Wyndham Hotels
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January 28th, 2010
Father arrested for using dead son’s identity
It goes against the laws of nature for parents to have to bury their children. But, that’s what David Frank Pflegl had to do in 1987 as the survivor of an auto accident that killed his 19-year-old son, David Frank Pflegl II. It is probably one of the hardest most painful things for any parent to do. However, the senior Pflegl, 63, found a way to keep his son’s memory alive: he committed ID theft, forgery and communication fraud using his dead son’s identity, according to his December indictment.
Pflegl was arrested a week ago in Utah on the identity theft and related charges. Pflegl used his son’s identity to obtain a $140,000 mortgage in Lindon, Utah. He also had driver’s licenses in Oregon and Utah. Additionally, he held a passport in his deceased son’s name—a crime that resulted in a federal investigation by the State Department. Oregon investigators and the Utah Department of Public Safety participated in the identity theft investigation. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: David Frank Pflegle, David Frank Pflelge II, ID theft, Identity Theft
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January 19th, 2010
Identity theft and tax season
It’s tax season. It’s an annual occurrence, happening at the same time of year, every year. And in observance, here’s our annual phishing, scamming and identity theft warning with tips for avoiding getting taken to the cleaners … by anyone but the IRS.
Your mailbox
Tags: avoid identity theft, ID theft, Identity Theft, identity theft protection, Tax season
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January 15th, 2010
Health Net data breach prompts attorney general’s “historic lawsuit”
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said last November that he was “outraged and appalled” upon learning of Health Net’s massive data breach and their keeping it hush-hush for six months. He acted on those feelings this week by filing suit against the insurer and its new owners, United Health Group and Oxford Health Plans.
The data breach occurred May 2009 when a hard drive containing the information of 1.5 million customers went missing. Records were for the period 2002 through 2009. Roughly 446,000 of the members are from Connecticut.
Blumenthal’s lawsuit asserts Health Net gave its employees inadequate supervision and training on appropriate maintenance, use and disclosure of protected health information.
The company explained the six-month lag time between their awareness of the breach and their notifying state officials by saying the time was necessary to complete a “detailed forensic review.” Kroll, a computer forensic consulting firm hired to complete the investigation determined the information wasn’t encrypted or protected in any way from access or viewing. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, Data breach, Health Net, HIPAA, ID theft, Identity Theft, Medical Identity Theft, Oxford Health Plan, United Health Group
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December 26th, 2009
It’s impossible to write about the Red Flag Rules without an apologetic “stop me if you’ve heard this one before” preface. So don’t shoot the messenger, but the deadline for the Feds’ identity-protecting Red Flag Rules has been delayed. The newest deadline—the fifth—replaces the January 1 deadline with one of June 1, 2010.
Congress created the program in 2003 in an attempt to stem the tide of identity theft by forcing creditors to use a common sense approach to identity theft prevention. It was originally slated to take effect in November 2008.
From its inception the rules have met with formidable pushback from the American Medical Association, the American Bar Association and the nation’s bankers, each group taking exception to the FTC’s interpretation of “creditor.” Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: FTC, ID theft, identity theft prevention, identity theft protection, Red Flag Rules
Posted in Uncategorized, identity theft protection | No Comments »
December 16th, 2009
Apparently, hackers stole even more of Express Scripts’ member information than was initially revealed last fall. An additional 1,771 New Hampshire residents are being sent data breach notification letters this week, according to a September 14 letter from Express Scripts.
Express Scripts, one of the world’s largest pharmacy benefits management companies, revealed in November 2008 that hackers demanded ransom in exchange for stolen customer information. Unless the ransom was paid, the hackers threatened to reveal the members’ information.
To strengthen their threat, the hackers sent personal information–including names, birth dates, Social Security numbers and some prescription details–of 75 of the firm’s 50 million customers. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Add new tag, Data breach, Express Scripts
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December 14th, 2009
I just recently upgraded my LifeLock membership to include their new LifeLock Command Center™. I felt good about the services I was already getting from LifeLock, but because I know so many ID theft horror stories—some of them firsthand—I decided to pony up the extra $4 a month for the additional services available with Command Center™.
I’m impressed. Less than 48 hours after my upgrade I received extensive Command Center™reports from LifeLock that summarize the findings of all the efforts they’ve taken to protect me. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: LifeLock, LifeLock Command Center, LifeLock promo code
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December 12th, 2009
LifeLock’s new Command Center service provides an additional level of ID theft protection that’s very good news for their nearly 1.5 million current members and for new LifeLock members.
For current members, LifeLock Command Center is an optional add-on to the already extensive steps LifeLock has been providing. New enrollees can choose between LifeLock’s existing, industry leading suite of service and LifeLock’s Command. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: ID theft protection, LifeLock, LifeLock Command Center, LifeLock promo code
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