With Security Guards Like This, Who Needs Insecurity?

The abuse of personal information in the Internet Age isn’t uncommon, but only the most naive among us ignore the precautions we can take against it. What happens, though, when the abuse comes from within a trusted source - say, an employer’s personnel files? Tom Krisher of the Associated Press (via The Seattle Post-Intelligencer) writes:

A former security guard at General Motors Corp.’s Warren technical center is accused of taking employee Social Security numbers and using them to hack into the company’s employee vehicle database.

James S. Green II, 35, of Washington Township, found out what company cars the employees drove and sent them bogus e-mails asking them their thoughts on the vehicles, Macomb County sheriff’s Capt. Anthony Wickersham said Tuesday.

Green was arraigned Monday on eight counts of obtaining, possessing or transferring personal identity information, one count of using a computer to commit a crime and one count of stalking that was unrelated to the GM cases. He was released after posting 10 percent of a $50,000 bond…