Archives Home | February 2006 »
Blog / January 2006
Data breach at Ford Motor Company--70,000 employees
Jan 2, 2006 by Tom Fragala
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - A computer with files that have the names and Social Security numbers of approximately 70,000 current and former employees of Ford Motor Company was stolen, the company reported. An investigation into the theft -- which is...
H&R Block's Blunders Put Consumers at Risk of ID Theft
Jan 5, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Financial giant H&R Block's TaxCut software is designed to help users avoid nasty surprises when calculating their taxes. But many past and present customers of Block were surprised in a different way recently, as they received unsolicited copies of TaxCut...
Illinois Poised to Become First State to Ban Sale of Phone Records
Jan 9, 2006 by Tom Fragala
January 9, 2006 - On Friday, Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich announced that he wants to ban the unauthorized sale of phone records within his state. The practice, know in the industry as "pretexting", occurs when someone pretending to be the...
Missing data recovered by ABN AMRO Mortgage
Jan 10, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Some Bay Area ABN AMRO Mortgage customers this week are receiving the digital age's dreaded midnight knock on the door: A letter stating a data tape containing their Social Security numbers and other personal information had been lost by...
Boston Man Charged With Ebay Identity Theft Scheme
Jan 10, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Massachusetts authorities have made an arrest in a hacking incident that resulted in dozens of eBay customers having their credit card data stolen More: Boston Man Charged With Ebay Identity Theft Scheme....
Three More States Add Laws on Data Breaches
Jan 10, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Companies struggling to keep up with a patchwork of state laws related to data privacy and information security have three more to contend with, as a result of new security-breach notification laws that went into effect in Illinois, Louisiana and...
Identity theft victim left with $1 million liability
Jan 18, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Identity theft claiming more and more victims For Audra Schmierer, it began last January with a letter from the Internal Revenue Service claiming she owed $15,000 in back taxes on income earned in 2003.Schmierer, 32, thought a mistake had been...
Apartment complex break-in could lead to identity theft
Jan 21, 2006 by Tom Fragala
When someone asks me why can't ID theft be easily prevented, I tell them to think of every rental or mortgage application they've ever filled out. Where is that data? Is it in a file cabinet that is easily accessed?...
All About Credit Reports, Credit Scores and Credit Bureaus
Jan 21, 2006 by Tom Fragala
The most valuable thing we have is our good name. The most common reflection of our reputation as a trustworthy consumer is our credit report, sold to businesses by a credit bureau… More from The State PIRG....
Stolen Briefcase Prompts Identity Theft Warning for California Guardsmen
Jan 21, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Another case of social security numbers being used in a lax manner… Personal information on hundreds of California National Guardsmen may have been compromised after a car thief broke into a vehicle and stole a briefcase loaded with personal data...
55,000 customer IDs stolen from Bahamas hotel
Jan 24, 2006 by Tom Fragala
This article reports that the stolen customer data includes social security numbers and driver’s license numbers. I’m at a loss to understand why a hotel would have SSN’s. I do know from personal experience, that the property mangement systems at...
Bank tape lost with data on 90,000 customers
Jan 24, 2006 by Tom Fragala
People's Bank says tape cannot be used for account tampering Ahh, so it’s good news then? I don’t think so… People's Bank, based in Bridgeport, Connecticut, is sending letters to the affected customers, it said in a press release....
State Issues Identity Theft Alert
Jan 24, 2006 by Tom Fragala
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Ohio Department of Commerce's Division of Unclaimed Funds issued an identity theft alert to Ohio residents on Tuesday after receiving numerous complaints from residents throughout the state.According to a press released issued by the Department of...
Choicepoint to Pay $10 Million in Civil Penalties, $5 Million for Consumer Redress
Jan 26, 2006 by Tom Fragala
ChoicePoint Settles Data Security Breach Charges; to Pay $10 Million in Civil Penalties, $5 Million for Consumer RedressAt Least 800 Cases of Identity Theft Arose From Company’s Data BreachConsumer data broker ChoicePoint, Inc., which last year acknowledged that the personal...
FTC Releases Top 10 Consumer Fraud Complaint Categories
Jan 26, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Identity Theft Again Leads the ListThe Federal Trade Commission today released its annual report detailing consumer complaints about fraud and identity theft in 2005. Complaints about identity theft topped the list, accounting for 255,000 of more than 686,000 complaints...
Ameriprise Says Stolen Laptop Had Data on 230,000 People
Jan 26, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Ameriprise Financial, the investment advisory unit spun off from American Express last year, said yesterday that lists containing the personal information of about 230,000 customers and advisers had been compromised.A security breach occurred in late December, Ameriprise said, after a...
Watch out for identity theft cure-alls
Jan 27, 2006 by Tom Fragala
I read this headline on a press release today: “New Software Utility Makes Identity Theft Virtually Impossible.” Immediately red flags went up for me. Then I read the press release and went to the web site. (See links below). First,...
A different twist on identity theft
Jan 29, 2006 by Tom Fragala
I read an article that talks about an interesting twist on ID theft (see below, registration required). Essentially, a fraudster applies for credit in your name, but purposely mispells the name, or uses a similar but different name; the same...
Providence Home Services Reports Data Theft--365,000 patients effected
Jan 30, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Here we have another case of data backup tapes being stolen. This time they were stolen from an employee’s car. This wasn’t a rogue employee, however—certain employees were supposed to take the tapes home every night as part of a data...
Computer security breach at University of Delaware
Jan 30, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Two recent computer security breaches at the University of Delaware have resulted in the possible exposure of names and Social Security Numbers that were stored on the machines.A computer in the University's School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy was...
Incidences of ID Theft Decline, But Losses per Victim Increase
Jan 31, 2006 by Tom Fragala
The Wall Street Journal did a brief, but good article on ID theft on January 30. The basic premise is that the number of victims is lower but the amount of losses per victim it going up. My take on...
Commetary on Two Proposed Credit Freeze Laws
Jan 31, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Jim Malmberg does a fine job of picking apart two new state bills in Utah and Virginia. A must read. In the new year, a variety of state legislatures continue to debate credit freeze law. Among these are two states...