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Radio Shack Fined $630,000 for Security Breach

The Texas Attorney General’s office has fined Radio Shack $630,000 for a security breach that could have lead to identity theft:
“…RadioShack was investigated after the attorney general learned a retail location had dumped thousands of sensitive records into a trash can. The records contained confidential client data, Social Security numbers, debit and credit information and […]

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Identity Theft Legislation Criticized

Legislation in Iowa mandates the prompt notification of a security breach. Delays in notification place victims at financial risk:
“…”I’m a little bit upset about the Montgomery Ward ordeal taking six months to disclose that there was a problem,” said Rep. Dave Jacoby, a Coralville Democrat who pushed for the Iowa law, which requires companies […]

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Data Breach at Williamson County Schools

In what will be a costly error, more than five thousand students of Williamson County Schools had their personal information posted online. This included their social security numbers, along with their names:
“…Now the county could lose some federal funding because of the mistake. The school district had to notify the Department of Education […]

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DMV Puts 3.4 Million People at Risk of Identity Theft

The problem of identity theft should be well known by now. There is a long history of security breaches by government agencies, educational institutions and businesses. The cost of a data breach can be millions of dollars, in providing credit monitoring and protection for those who have had their personal information exposed. […]

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Security Breach at the Daily Mail

The Daily Mail has had scathing headlines when government agencies have had security breaches. Now the Daily Mail itself has become a victim and has exposed thousands of confidential files:
“Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers has admitted that a laptop containing financial and personal details of thousands of staff, suppliers and contributors has been stolen.”
link: […]

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U.S. Passport Information Easily Breached

It seems that the personal, confidential passport information of celebrities, politicians and other well known Americans are breached routinely. The electronic records do not have the purported safeguards to prevent people in the government from having a look at these data:
“…The report documented a widespread lack of controls on the personal data of the […]

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Montgomery Ward Kept Data Breach As a Secret

Montgomery Ward had a data breach. Hackers accessed the company’s data base and over fifty thousand (50,000) customers had their personal, confidential information compromised. Montgomery Ward compounded the problem by not informing their customers of this breach of security:
“NEW YORK (AP) — An old name in retail was hit by a modern scourge […]

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Identity Theft Response Units Needed

The nightmare scenario is a data breach that involves sensitive, confidential data. This could be a government agency, an educational institution, private business… the list is extensive. None of these people are prepared to respond to a security breach. It is not something that an agency or a business trains to […]

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When Data Breaches Are No Longer News

There is an old adage that newspaper editors use as a guideline. That ‘rule of thumb’ is that, if something is happening every day, it is no longer an important news item. In newspaper terms, it is “buried”. The item becomes filler on the back pages.
This is what is happening […]

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Walter Reed Army Medical Center Data Breach

One would think that a premier military treatment center would have the highest possible data security. That would be a wrong assumption. There is a reported data breach at Walter Reed Army Medical Center:

“WASHINGTON - Sensitive information on about 1,000 patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other military hospitals was exposed […]