Identity Theft Articles
Privacy and security research company Ponemon Institute, Michigan, has released a report stating up to 60% of people have admitted to stealing company data upon leaving their jobs.
And it may not be for the reasons that you think.
Perhaps most chillingly of all, companies admit to as much as expecting some degree of data breaches within the organization and that it is “just something they have to live with,” spokespeople told BBC News in a report on the Ponemon findings.
Read on to find out how it's no longer the “big guy” you may need to fear—and how everyday workers are ...
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Research company Gartner, Inc., Stamford, CT, released results yesterday of a study that analyzed financial fraud rates in 2008.
The news wasn't good. According to the results of the study, some 7.5% of adults in the U.S. were affected by financial fraud in some way during the past year.
Gartner also said that conviction rates for financial fraud were comparatively low, due in part to about one-third of victims not reporting the crimes—a surprising and discouraging finding.
Unsettling Findings
Gartner surveyed 5000 U.S. adults and, as part of the study, asked about the impact of financial fraud.
Most financial fraud in 2008 occurred in the ...
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Earlier in the week we discussed data breaches, how they might happen and their growing occurrence during the past two to five years.
Now let's dig a little deeper into the common mechanisms criminals use to infiltrate databases,and just how much it costs businesses (and clients) each time this type of theft occurs.
Going Phishing...for Your Identity
As times change, so does technology. And unfortunately, identity thieves have moved right along with the newest updates in computer software.
Individuals or groups looking to commit a data breach typically utilize some form of malware (malicious + software). And it's not as hard to come ...
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You bank at a major financial institution—one that isn't hinting at bankruptcy or going up for sale. You check your credit card and checking statements carefully each month. And you use online passwords so indecipherable, even you can't always remember them.
You're safe. Right?
Not necessarily. By the time 2009 had completed its first month, a disheartening 45 data breaches had already been reported, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. As of Feb. 3 of this year, that was close to 70% more than last year at this time.
But what is an identity breach? Can it be prevented? And are you ...
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When one enters a hospital, he or she expects to be cured.
But dozens of patients at St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver, CO received insult in addition to injury when their records were stolen and stashed away at a local storage unit.
Channel 9 News reporters say Brandon Michael visited his rented storage unit on New Year’s Day, 2009 to sort through what should have been “tools, laptops and furniture,” which the Denver resident was planning to sell at auction on ebay.
But instead, he found hundreds of pieces of identification—including Social Security cards and birth certificates—stashed in cabinets and trash bags.
Hospital ...
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For thirty years he and a group of highly organized thieves distributed circulars throughout the neighborhood - or did they? Clutching brightly colored pieces of paper in one hand, they nonchalantly opened mailbox after mailbox up and down the streets of Baltimore - but they were taking out mail instead of putting it in.
No Cover of Night for These Thieves
Loquann Johnson, a 53-year-old Baltimore man, led a troop of co-conspirators targeting residents of neighborhoods with outdoor mailboxes. They became skilled at carrying out their thefts in broad daylight, reaching in to grab the mail under the shallow pretense of ...
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Despite compliance with security standards, card processing company Heartland Payment Systems announced a record-breaking security breach in a news story that broke Jan. 21. The company services 175,000 merchants amounting to some 100 million cards, according to company records.
Prior to the breach, the Jefferson, IN-based company had accurately followed Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standards, according to representatives, and had employed strong encryption to thwart potential hackers.
Nevertheless, attackers managed to slip past Heartland’s computer security stops, possibly slipping by before the encryption was put in place, reporters say. (A full story can be found here.)
Breaking Records…the Hard Way
Observers say ...
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Master Splynter
Supervisory Special Agent J. Keith Mularski was a spammer - or at least, that’s what his online pals thought. Under the name of Master Splynter, he didn’t run in the best of company - his associates had handles like Theunknown, Matrix 001, and the Iceman, and hung out at a place called DarkMarket.
DarkMarket was what's known as a "carder" site. Identity thieves could buy and sell stolen credit card numbers, online identities and the tools to make fake credit cards. By late 2006, Mularski had just been made administrator of the site and not only had control over the ...
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He lived high on the hog for six years, but never held down a job. He didn’t have a trust fund, or a wealthy lover. He did, however, end up a wanted man. You see, all the credit cards he lived off of weren’t his!
The Hunt for a Con Artist
Jason Brown became known as the kingpin of ID theft, as he slipped from town to town changing his name and searching for new victims. A petty thief turned con man, he racked up at least 13 warrants from six separate agencies, including the New Orleans Police Department, Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s ...
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Businesses, governments and educational institutions reported a nearly 50 percent increase in data breaches last year over 2007. Identity Theft Resource Center of San Diego announced last week that 656 breaches were reported in 2008, up from 446 in the previous year. Nearly 37 percent of the breaches occurred at businesses, schools accounted for roughly 20 percent, and the percentage of breaches attributed to data theft from current and former employees more than doubled from 7 percent to nearly 16 percent.
Crime Rings Use Insiders
"This may be reflective of the economy, or the fact that there are more organized crime rings ...
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