ID theft fears as VA loses another hard disc
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Security breach veterans do it again A hard drive containing the personal data of up to 48,000 veterans is missing, presumed stolen, the Department of Veterans Affairs admitted last week.â¦
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Microsoft is pointing to a server error that caused a weekend snafu in which legitimate customers were accused of stealing software. Thousands of legit copies of Windows XP and Vista were identified by Microsoft&#39;s Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation system as pirated.
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As consumers increasingly rely on digital media to secure their important documents and valuable personal content, they often fear that changes in technology may render their data inaccessible. Western Digital Corp.
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Wellpoint Inc., a managed care firm, has begun notifying 75,000 members of its Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield unit in New York that a compact disc holding their vital medical and other personal information had disappeared, The New York Times reported.
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The Veterans Affairs worker faulted for losing veterans&#039; personal information had permission to access millions of Social Security numbers on a laptop from home, agency documents obtained by The Associated Press show.
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The Department of Veterans Affairs is once again chasing a missing hard drive, this one containing the records of 48,000 military veterans. Approxiately 20,000 of those records were not encrypted according to agency spokespersons.
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Intruder gained access to database holding personal information for up to 600,000 elderly and disabled Californians.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is investigating a missing hard drive containing the personal records of 48,000 military veterans, the agency said. The external hard drive contained about 20,000 personal records that were not encrypted, according to information from U.S. Representative Spencer Bachus, an Alabama Republican. A VA employee reported the hard drive missing from an agency Birmingham, Alabama, facility on Jan. 22, according to a VA press release. The VA and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation are investigating the missing hard drive, the VA said in its Friday press release. The VA's Office of Information and Technology is conducting a separate investigation, Jim Nicholson, VA's secretary, said in a statement. "We intend to get to the bottom of this, and we will take aggressive steps to protect and assist anyone whose information may have been involved," Nicholson added. In May, the VA reported a laptop and hard drive containing the personal records of 26.5 million military veterans and their families had beenÂ stolen from an employee's home. Police laterÂ recovered the hardware, and the VA said computer forensics tests indicated thieves had not accessed the data, but the theft set off criticism from several members of Congress about theÂ VA's cybersecurity practices. The hard drive in Alabama was used to back up information contained on an employeeâs office computer, and may have contained data from research projects the employee was involved in, as well as personal information, the VA said. The VA Office of Inspector General has seized the employeeâs computer and is analyzing its contents, the VA said. The VA is prepared to notify affected people and provide free credit monitoring, the agency said. The VA will continue to aim to be a leader in protecting personal information, Nicholson said in his statement. In August, the VA also reported that a desktop computer containing the personal information of 38,000 veterans was missing from the office of Unisys Corp., the subcontractor assisting at the agency's medical centers in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. The lost VA hardware prompted a congressional review of other U.S. government agencies, and agencies reported thousands of laptops missing in the last five years.
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Days after getting busted for attempting to get tech support on a printer he allegedly stole in an incident believed to have exposed the personal info of 500 driver's-license applicants, the Missouri man may have had his personal data inadvertently exposed in a data breach. Timothy Scott Short was previously a suspect in an ID-theft incident.
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For Boeing, laptop thefts are beginning to become somewhat of an epidemic. For the third time in 13 months, one of the company's notebook computers has gone missing, this one containing the names and social security numbers of about 382,000 workers and retirees.
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The theft of a laptop containing Social Security numbers of Nashville, Tennessee, area voters is expected to cost local officials about US$1 million as they roll out identity-theft protection to those affected.
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Users are finding lots of inventive ways to lose precious files, say data recovery experts.
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Weeks after the government admitted that it had lost computer discs containing the names and bank account details of 25 million people, exposing nearly half the population to possible fraud and identity theft, the U.K. said a contractor has lost personal data on 3 million learner drivers.
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DRM restrictions may have caused Microsoft's Vista virtualization flip-flop.
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Of all the comments on the hard drive, and there have been hundreds, this one explains it best. I'm sorry to hear about your experience at the Apple Store. I was a "genius" for a year and can assure you that the policy regarding HDs was frustrating to us as well. In warranty it wasn't so hard to justify, but out of warranty customers often had a problem with it. My recommendation to them (and to you) is the same. AASPs often do not have the same contractual obligations with HD manufacturers that Apple does, so they may very well let you keep it. If you still wanted to have it done through an Apple store, take a magnet to it before you hand it over. The techs have better things to do than trawl through your personal data (there are exceptions, of course), but if it sets your mind at ease- go for it. Honestly, I would do this in your position because I have read of people getting reman drives with other people's data still on them. But that would have nothing to do with Apple and everything to do with the companies contracted to remanufacture the HDs.Not much more to say after that. I will probably write a summary tomorrow.
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Robert Vamosi talks with data loss expert Dan Geer about identity theft.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. Commerce Department reported that 1,137 laptops have been lost or stolen since 2001, with 249 of them containing some degree of personal data. The department couldn't determine whose data may have been on the machines, of which 672 belonged to the Census Bureau. It wasn't aware of any data having being used improperly, it said Thursday. The findings are from a Commerce Department review covering 15 agencies that use a total of 30,000 laptops. It comes as businesses and governments try to tighten their control over mobile devices after several high-profile incidents concerning theÂ loss of sensitive data. The Census Bureau's laptops -- used for collecting census data in the field -- rarely contain data on more than 100 households, and the data can't be accessed by the surveyors, many of whom are temporary, hourly employees. the department said. However, the Census Bureau also lost 15 handheld computers used to gather survey data. As a result, the department is contacting 558 households. The risk of the data being misused was "extremely low," it said, since the data is encrypted and two passwords are required for access. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which falls under the Commerce Department, lost 325 laptops, three of which had personal data. One of the laptops was stolen after a fire at one of its buildings in Seattle, Washington. The machine contained addresses, birth dates and Social Security numbers for 146 employees, the department said. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez said the agency plans toÂ strengthen accountability standards, encrypt data on all department laptops and implement two-factor authentication. U.S. government agencies have been stung by hardware losses in recent months. In May, aÂ laptop and external hard drive was stolenÂ from the home of a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs employee containingÂ data on 26.5 million veteransÂ and active-duty military personnel. The laptop was recovered, and two teenagers were arrested in June. Â