CIMIP - Center for Identity Management and Information Protection

Identity Theft News



February 10, 2012

Former IRS Employee Sentenced for Identity Theft



A former IRS employee will spend some time in prison after stealing people’s identities and collecting tax refunds for himself. ...read full article
February 10, 2012

Out on bail, man arrested and hit with 197 counts of ID theft



A man once arrested for offering to sell his own baby on Craigslist has been slapped with a staggering number of identity theft-related charges while sitting in custody at a Manitoba jail. ...read full article
February 10, 2012

Fugitive in 20 Year Old UK Heist Caught in Missouri



A fugitive British security guard suspected of absconding with a van containing $1.5 million in a 1993 heist has been arrested in Missouri after it was discovered that he has been living with his family in the U.S. under an assumed name for 15 years. ...read full article
February 10, 2012

Spartanburg woman sentenced to 15 months in prison for identity theft



A 43-year-old Spartanburg woman was sentenced Thursday to 15 months in prison for identity theft. ...read full article
February 10, 2012

Two Lafayette Hill Women Victims of Identity Theft



The Whitemarsh Police Department received two reports of identity theft on Feb. 3, according to documents the department provided Patch. ...read full article
February 10, 2012

Traffic stop leads to arrest in ID theft operation



LEE COUNTY, FL - Traffic stop leads to arrest in ID theft operation A Lee County deputy patrolling I-75 arrested a woman after discovering items related to an alleged identity theft operation, according to sheriff's office reports. ...read full article
February 10, 2012

Enfield man arrested in identity theft case



ENFIELD - An Enfield man is facing charges related to stealing from his employer, with additional charges coming from throughout North Carolina and other states for similar offenses. ...read full article
February 10, 2012

Witness recounts scam in ID theft trial



Early on, Angela Kay Grigsby was told she'd make $60,000 to $70,000 by participating in an identity theft scam with Oladipo Coker and Julian Okeayainneh. ...read full article
February 10, 2012

Ghosting Identity Theft Scams



There are generally 2 types of financial identity theft. New account fraud and account takeover. ...read full article
February 10, 2012

Citadel banking malware is evolving and spreading rapidly, researchers warn


The open-source development model is helping Citadel's creators patch bugs and add features faster



IDG News Service - A computer Trojan that targets online banking users is evolving and spreading rapidly because its creators have adopted an open-source development model, according to researchers from cyberthreat management firm Seculert. ...read full article
February 10, 2012

Researchers Discover Android Mobile Botnet 100k Strong



A newly discovered malicious application circulating on third party Android markets in China has created a botnet that contains more than 100,000 compromised devices, researchers report. ...read full article
February 9, 2012

A glimpse inside the $234 billion world of medical ID theft



Healthcare fraud is costing American taxpayers up to $234 billion annually, based on estimates from the FBI. It’s no wonder that a stolen medical identity has a $50 street value, according to the World Privacy Forum – whereas a stolen social security number, on the other hand, only sells for $1. ...read full article
February 9, 2012

Trial date to be set for three in alleged identity theft ring



OROVILLE — A trial date will be set for three of four people arrested in November for their alleged involvement in an identity theft ring. ...read full article
February 9, 2012

NYC murder suspect faces check fraud charges



NEW YORK — A New York murder suspect arrested after turning up on a North Carolina sports arena's jumbo screen is now facing new financial crime charges: He was a leader of a 37-person check fraud ring accused of stealing more than $150,000, prosecutors say. ...read full article
February 9, 2012

Man Sentenced after Stealing Brother's Identity



A Staunton man who used his brother’s identity to obtain a passport was sentenced Tuesday. The charges resulted from a cooperative investigation by the Staunton Police Department and the United States Department of State Diplomatic Security Service. ...read full article
February 9, 2012

4 defendants, 4 defenses in $10 million ID theft case



Prosecutors laid out a picture of a vast organized crime conspiracy Wednesday as a trial opened for four alleged identity thieves in federal court in Minneapolis. ...read full article
February 9, 2012

Suspect faces trial for identity theft



A 48-year-old Whittier woman, who allegedly stole more than $100,000 from victims throughout Southern California, was ordered Wednesday to stand trial for identity theft in Glendale. ...read full article
February 9, 2012

Foxconn said to have been hacked by group critical of working conditions


The leaked files are said to include usernames and passwords required to place orders on a Foxconn site



IDG News Service - Hackers claimed to have stolen internal data from Apple supplier Foxconn, and leaked the information online, in response to media reports of poor working conditions at the electronics manufacturer's factories in China. ...read full article
February 8, 2012

Employee charged with identify theft



A Shawano man is facing a felony charge of identity theft for allegedly using a credit card belonging to someone else. ...read full article
February 8, 2012

Cops: Woman stole 3-year-old son's identity



BRIDGEPORT -- A city woman was charged with identity theft Tuesday after she signed up for electrical service under her 3-year-old son's name to avoid having the service shut off for an unpaid balance, police said. ...read full article
February 8, 2012

FTC warns makers of background checking apps


Smartphone apps may violate a consumer credit protection law, the agency says



IDG News Service - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has sent warning letters to the makers of six mobile apps used for background checks, saying the apps may violate a consumer credit protection law. ...read full article
February 8, 2012

Attalla woman charged with identity theft



An Attalla woman and a Birmingham area man have been charged in connection with a forgery and identity theft scheme. ...read full article
February 8, 2012

Men allegedly bought $100 Target gift cards using stolen identities



Two Hollywood men face multiple charges of theft after they allegedly bought $100 gift cards at the Target in Glendale using stolen credit card information, officials said. ...read full article
February 8, 2012

Attackers Using Fake Google Analytics Code to Redirect Users to Black Hole Exploit Kit



Injecting malicious code into the HTML used on legitimate Web sites is a key part of the infection lifecycle for many attack crews, and they often disguise and obfuscate their code to make it more difficult to analyze or so it appears to be legitimate code. The latest instance of this technique has seen attackers employing code that is meant to look like Google Analytics snippets, but instead sends victims off to a remote site that's hosting the Black Hole Exploit Kit. Not the desired result. ...read full article
February 8, 2012

Florida man is arrested at Lexington hotel, charged with 19 counts of identity theft



A 22-year-old man from Vero Beach, Fla., was arrested at a Lexington hotel on Monday and charged with 19 counts of identity theft. ...read full article
February 8, 2012

Police: Thieves Make, Use Credit Card With Victim's Information



POWELL, Ohio -- Powell officers need your help identifying two suspects they believe made their own credit card and went on a shopping spree that cost a Powell man $750. ...read full article
February 8, 2012

Joplin Man Sentenced to Prison for Identity Theft



56-year-old Wilks Sims pleaded guilty to trafficking stolen identities in December. ...read full article
February 8, 2012

Asheville area man charged with identity theft



ASHEVILLE — A Candler man is behind bars on identity theft and fraud charges. ...read full article
February 8, 2012

Officials warn woman's tax fraud arrest is sign of a growing problem



TAMPA - A Tampa woman was arrested for 17 counts of identity theft and tax fraud. ...read full article
February 8, 2012

Phony Temple Run Game For Android Plays On Android-iOS App Gap



Scammers are using the super-popular Temple Run game for iOS as bait to lure Android users into installing a phony version of the game on their phones. The incident comes amid reports of an explosion in traffic to mobile Web pages and application stores. ...read full article
February 8, 2012

Denial-of-service attacks are on the rise, anti-DDoS vendors report


Japan named as primary source of DDoS attack traffic for Q4 2011



IDG News Service - Both the number and volume of distributed denial-of-service attacks are increasing, according to new reports from DDoS mitigation companies Prolexic and Arbor Networks. ...read full article
February 7, 2012

Hundreds of DreamHost websites abused by spammers


Zsclaer identified rogue PHP redirect scripts uploaded on hundreds of websites hosted at DreamHost



IDG News Service - Rogue PHP pages that redirect users to work-at-home scams have been added to hundreds of websites hosted at DreamHost following a security breach suffered by the company in January, researchers from cloud security vendor Zscaler said. ...read full article
February 7, 2012

Identity Theft Device Falls Off as Woman Uses ATM at Bleecker St. Bank



GREENWICH VILLAGE — A Bank of America customer got more than cash when she tried to use a Bleecker Street ATM recently — a device designed to steal her card details came off in her hand as she inserted her card, police said. ...read full article
February 7, 2012

Hackers wanted $50,000 to keep Symantec source code private



As part of a sting operation, Symantec told a hacker group that it would pay $50,000 to keep the source code for some of the its flagship security products off the Internet, the company confirmed to CNET this evening. ...read full article
February 7, 2012

Anonymous claims to have released source code of Symantec's pcAnywhere


The hacker group had earlier released emails between a hacker and a person said to be a Symantec representative



IDG News Service - Hacker group Anonymous claimed late Monday that the source code of Symantec's pcAnywhere had been uploaded on The Pirate Bay site. ...read full article
February 7, 2012

Anonymous Hackers Protest against Egyptian Police Violence



The hacker cell of Anonymous has re-newed its DDoS campaign against Egyptian authorities after allegations of police violence against protesters re-emerged. ...read full article
February 7, 2012

Asheville area man charged with identity theft



ASHEVILLE — A Candler man is behind bars on identity theft and fraud charges. ...read full article
February 7, 2012

Cops arrest three for bad checks, ID theft



OROVILLE — A man suspected of identity theft crimes in Butte County and Yuba City and wanted in Washington state, was arrested with two other people recently in Oroville. ...read full article
February 7, 2012

Man arrested for stealing Social Security number of 6-year-old



Orem police arrested Alexsander Fuentes Friday for stealing the Social Security number of a 6-year-old girl. ...read full article
February 6, 2012

Anonymous grabs email from firm that defended Marine in Haditha case


Hacking collective says it has collected 3GB worth of detailed records, transcripts related to case



Computerworld - In what's turning out to be quite a busy Friday for the hacking collective, Anonymous today said it has broken into the website of a law firm that represented a U.S. Marine accused of killing civilians in Haditha, Iraq. ...read full article
February 6, 2012

Job-seeking Marriott hacker gets 30 months' porridge



A job-seeking Hungarian hacker who tried to land work with Marriott by hacking into the hotel chain's network before "offering" to sort out the resulting mess has been found guilty of hacking and attempted extortion and jailed for 30 months. ...read full article
February 6, 2012

Warrant Arrest Leads to Possible ID Theft Ring



ROCKLIN - Rocklin Police Officers arrested three people suspected of running some sort of identity theft ring. ...read full article
February 6, 2012

Computer hackers penetrate database of Netfleet, possibly accessing addresses and credit card numbers



Computer hackers have penetrated the database of Australia's biggest internet domain name auction house, possibly accessing client home addresses and encrypted credit card numbers. ...read full article
February 6, 2012

Number of patient record data breaches nearly doubled last year



The total number of patient records compromised in the US increased by 97% in 2011 compared with 2010, according to a report released this week by the Redspin consulting firm. ...read full article
February 6, 2012

Facebook malware scam takes hold


A link to malware purporting to be CNN coverage of a US attack on Iran is reaching hundreds of thousands of Facebook users



IDG News Service - A "worrying number" of Facebook users are sharing a link to a malware-laden fake CNN news page reporting the U.S. has attacked Iran and Saudi Arabia, security firm Sophos said Friday. ...read full article
February 6, 2012

Debit card fraud can leave you in the lurch



If you think your funds are protected in the event of debit card fraud, you might be surprised to learn that in some circumstances, they really aren't. ...read full article
February 6, 2012

DDoS Attacks Take on Political Motivations as Attackers Evolve



DDoS attacks come in all shapes and sizes, and in a lot of cases, the victims of the attacks don't much care who is executing the attack or why. They just know that their network is being overwhelmed with junk traffic. But the last year has seen a major volume of politically motivated attacks, and new research shows that as much as 35 percent of DDoS are the result of some political or ideological motivation. ...read full article
February 3, 2012

St. Paul Woman Jailed For Identity Theft at Oakdale Best Buy



A 37-year-old St. Paul woman was sentenced to 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of felony identity theft on Jan. 25. ...read full article
February 3, 2012

Person of interest in Mt. Pleasant slaying charged with unrelated ID theft



A person of interest in connection with the December deaths of a Mount Pleasant couple was recently charged in Salt Lake County for identity theft crimes that prosecutors say he committed in September — but no charges have yet been filed related to the double homicide. ...read full article
February 3, 2012

New identity theft scam aimed at Medicare recipients



MONTROSE – The Lee County Sheriff’s Office and the Better Business Bureau of Kansas are warning consumers about a new identity theft scam aimed at Medicare recipients. ...read full article
February 3, 2012

Police seek woman for identity theft, 'financial destruction'



CENTERVILLE — Police are asking for the public's help in locating a woman accused of a string of property crimes and identity thefts that have left a trail of "financial destruction." ...read full article
February 3, 2012

Eatontown Police Arrest Woman on Identity Theft Charges



Eatontown Police arrested a woman Thursday and charged her with identity theft and fraudulently obtaining credit cards in someone else's name. ...read full article
February 3, 2012

Ex-AZ man indicted on ID theft, tax fraud charges



PHOENIX (CBS5) - A 29-year-old former Buckeye man was arrested in Pittsburgh Jan. 24 on identity theft and tax fraud charges, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix. ...read full article
February 3, 2012

Florida Man Indicted for Tax Fraud and Identity Theft



A federal grand jury in Fort Pierce, Fla., returned an indictment charging Ernst Pierre with filing false federal income tax returns and identity theft, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. The indictment was unsealed today following Pierre’s arrest. Pierre is charged with 11 counts of filing a false tax return for clients of his business, one count of filing a false tax return for himself, three counts of wire fraud and three counts of aggravated identity theft. ...read full article
February 3, 2012

Police ID Two Men Involved in String of Thefts in Montco and Bucks



On Jan. 20, a complainant reported her 2012 Lexus was broken into while parked at B & R Fitness Club in Feasterville. Her purse, identification and several credit cards were stolen from her vehicle. An investigation revealed these cards were used to purchase merchandise at several local retail establishments. ...read full article
February 3, 2012

70-Inch TV Bought With ID Theft



David Evans, 47, of South Winchester Ave., Chicago, was charaged with felony identity theft, felony forgery and obstruction of justice on Tuesday just after 6 p.m. when a security agent for a store at Golf Mill Shopping Center stated Evans had just bought a TV by applying for a credit card with a fraudulent driver's license, according to police. ...read full article
February 3, 2012

Anonymous Listens in on FBI, Scotland Yard Hacking Call



The hacking collective Anonymous managed to listen in on a conference call between the FBI and Scotland Yard as the law enforcement officers were discussing anti-hacking operations, the FBI admitted today. ...read full article
February 3, 2012

Some U.S. banks awash in ID theft tax-fraud proceeds as IRS cracks down



NEW YORK, Feb. 3 (Thomson Reuters Accelus) - Despite a new federal crackdown announced this week aimed at combating tax refund fraud involving the use of stolen identities, current law enforcement efforts are not enough and fraudsters are still pumping massive sums of tax fraud proceeds through U.S. banks, sources told Thomson Reuters. ...read full article
February 3, 2012

Syracuse Police website hacked by Anonymous



Syracuse — The Syracuse Police department website, syracusepolice.org, was the latest target of global hacking group Anonymous. ...read full article
February 3, 2012

#OpPiggyBank US Police Stations under anonymous attack



Anonymous hacked into Salt Lake City Police slcpd.com website last night and stolen login information along with passwords of the website as a part of the operation Piggy Bank #OpPiggyBank. As soon as the site admins found out the leak they brought down the whole site and the site is still offline with the message “We are working on replacing content for the website.” The attacks however did not stop last night, two more attacks took place a couple of minutes ago. ...read full article
February 2, 2012

Ala woman sentenced to prison in ID theft



BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - A Shelby County woman is going to prison for more than three years after pleading guilty to stealing personal information on more than 4,000 patients at a Birmingham hospital. ...read full article
February 2, 2012

Car theft report leads to home of fugitive in fake ID scheme



LAWRENCE — Two men arrested in a stolen car case were found to be using stolen identities, and one of them was living at the last known address of Carmen Amada Beltre, a federal fugitive sought in a nationwide fraudulent identity scheme. ...read full article
February 2, 2012

Florida woman, Illinois man indicted for identity theft, attempted bank fraud in metro Birmingham



BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- A Florida woman and a man from Illinois who were indicted by a federal grand jury in Birmingham today for conspiracy, attempted bank fraud and identity theft had tried to attach a secret device on a Regions Bank ATM, authorities said. ...read full article
February 2, 2012

Companies now must divulge security breach details



SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Every year, millions of people have personal information stolen in a data breach. Often it's of no consequence, but you're left to wonder if someone's going to steal your whole identity. Well, California now has a new law and 7 On Your Side can explain it. ...read full article
February 2, 2012

Update: Verisign Admits To Security Breaches in 2010



Verisign, the Internet security company responsible for management of the .COM domain, told federal regulators that it was the victim of several successful attacks in 2010, but that those incidents were not reported to the company's management until September, 2011. The news was first reported by Reuters. ...read full article
February 2, 2012

Ice IX banking Trojan steals info that enables fraudsters to hijack phone calls


Trusteer discovered Ice IX configurations that extract telephone account numbers from victims



IDG News Service - New variants of the Ice IX online banking Trojan program are tricking victims into exposing their telephone account numbers so that fraudsters can divert post-transaction verification phone calls made by banks to phone numbers under their control, researchers from security vendor Trusteer warned. ...read full article
February 2, 2012

Facebook warns investors of potential SPAM DELUGE



Facebook has been the first internet company to baldly state the risks it faces from hacking and spam to the markets since the SEC issued guidance on the issue. ...read full article
February 2, 2012

Woman convicted of identity theft learns fate



LOUISVILLE, KY. (WDRB) -- A woman convicted of stealing the identities of several people and impersonating them on Facebook has been sentenced to five years of probation. ...read full article
February 2, 2012

Keep friends close but identity closer



When English writing sophomore Erin Knowles left for T.J. Quill's one night last week, she had no idea her identity would be at risk when the night was over. ...read full article
February 1, 2012

IRS says 105 targeted in identity theft sweep



WASHINGTON—The federal government has swooped down on 105 people in 23 states in the past week as part of a nationwide crackdown on identity theft and tax refund fraud that was timed to warn cheats to beware this tax season, the Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday. ...read full article
February 1, 2012

Nearly 200 Baton Rouge high school students fall victim to identity theft



BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - The Baton Rouge Police Department is conducting an identity theft investigation involving at least 187 potential victims, all students at a Baton Rouge high school, and the suspect in the case is a 17-year-old student from the school. ...read full article
February 1, 2012

Superior woman facing prison time for identity theft ring killed in car accident



SUPERIOR, Wis. — One of the two people killed on a slippery road in Superior was facing prison time after pleading guilty in federal court to charges in a widespread identity theft ring. ...read full article
February 1, 2012

Houston man convicted of identity theft



HOUSTON - One day after going on trial, a Houston man has pleaded guilty to identity theft. ...read full article
February 1, 2012

South Carolina woman charged with identity theft



ASHEVILLE — A South Carolina woman was charged with financial card theft, identity theft, uttering a forged instrument and two counts of possession of stolen property. ...read full article
February 1, 2012

Brainerd/Baxter stores part of 14-state federal identity theft ring



A federal indictment was recently filed charging 12 people in connection with an identity theft ring allegedly responsble for the theft of more than $2 million from financial insititutions and retail businesses in at least 14 states, including from stores in the Brainerd lakes area, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Minneapolis reported. ...read full article
February 1, 2012

Utah launches program to protect children's ID



SALT LAKE CITY - (ABC 4 News) Thousands of Utah children have had their identity stolen. However, on Tuesday the state of Utah and a private company announced a program to stop that from happening by protecting and basically freezing Social Security numbers. ...read full article
February 1, 2012

Lawmakers question proposed change to video privacy law


Netflix wants one-time permission from customers to share their streaming video choices, but lawmakers balk



IDG News Service - Let's say you like to watch heady documentaries over Netflix's streaming service and would like to share recommendations with your friends on Facebook. Netflix would like to offer that service, but the company says a 24-year-old U.S. law is in the way. ...read full article
February 1, 2012

Ongoing Targeted Attack Campaign Going After Defense, Aerospace Industries



Researchers have identified a strain of malware that's being used in a string of targeted attacks against defense contractors, government agencies and other organizations by leveraging exploits against zero-day vulnerabilities. The attacks may have been going on since 2009 in some form and the emails containing the malicious attachments are specifically targeted at executives and officials in various industries using fake conference invitations. ...read full article
February 1, 2012

Romanian cops cuff suspected serial hacker TinKode


Alleged Royal Navy, Pentagon invader gets keelhauled



Romanian police have arrested a man suspected of breaking into the websites of NASA and the Pentagon in a series of high-profile hack attacks. ...read full article
February 1, 2012

105 people busted in massive identity theft crackdown by US taxmen



The Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice teamed up for a coast-to-coast crackdown on identity thieves this week. ...read full article
February 1, 2012

Sarah Palin hacker loses appeal against evidence deletion



The former college student imprisoned for hacking the email account of Sarah Palin has had his appeal against the charge on which he was convicted rejected by a US court. ...read full article
January 31, 2012

Accused Kelihos botmaster proclaims innocence


'I did not commit this crime,' says Andrey Sabelnikov, named last week by Microsoft as botnet maker



Computerworld - The Russian man accused by Microsoft of creating and operating the Kelihos spam botnet said on Friday he's innocent. ...read full article
January 31, 2012

Malvertising Or Just Advertising? The Curious Case Of Counterclank



Security firm Symantec is sounding the alarm about a mobile device threat they call 'Counterclank,' a Trojan horse program that they say may have infected as many as five million devices through downloads on the Official Android Market. However, other security researchers aren't so sure, and wonder whether Counterclank isn't anything more than an aggressive advertising campaign. ...read full article
January 31, 2012

The IRS fails victims of identity theft, fraud



Jay Burgess is making my column for the second time in two weeks. I wrote about the south Fort Myers man before when someone used his identity for a student loan — a fairly infrequent type of identity theft. The second way Burgess’ stolen identity was used is not so rare. Burgess was one of 404,000 victims of income tax filing fraud the IRS has identified since 2008. ...read full article
January 31, 2012

Woman pleads guilty to role in senator's ID theft



DECATUR, Ga. — A 21-year-old woman has admitted her role in an identity theft ring where a United States senator was a victim. ...read full article
January 31, 2012

Police bust potential identity theft ring



LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — Police say an investigation into stolen vehicles led them to a potential ring of identity thieves. ...read full article
January 31, 2012

Trojan caught on camera shows CAPTCHA is still a security issue



In a series of blogs a few years back, we covered how malware could abuse and circumvent online services that use CAPTCHA tests as part of their security (1 2). In this blog, we take a look at a recent malware variant from the wild caught on camera that shows CAPTCHA tests used by some online services may still be weak. ...read full article
January 31, 2012

Armenian gets 6-year sentence in Medicare fraud



PanARMENIAN.Net - An Armenian man will spend six years in federal prison for his part in a Charleston-based Medicare fraud scheme that threatened to cost the government more than $4 million in false health-care claims. ...read full article
January 31, 2012

Asset Acceptance, a debt-buying agency, to pay $2.5 million in FTC settlement



One of the nation’s largest consumer debt-collection agencies has agreed to pay $2.5 million as part of a proposed settlement with the federal government, which accused the firm of using deceptive methods to collect old debts. ...read full article
January 31, 2012

Stolen Lexington Clinic laptop contained patient information



Six weeks after a medical clinic laptop was stolen, the Lexington Clinic is notifying the public of a privacy breach involving 1,018 patients. ...read full article
January 31, 2012

Man Gets Life In Murder of Angel Investor



In the sad conclusion of the trial in the murder of a local angel investor, a man was sentenced to life in prison Friday without the possibility of parole, in the murder of angel investor John G. Watson two years ago ...read full article
January 30, 2012

Man Pleads In Sec. Of State ID Theft Case



DES MOINES, Iowa -- A Democratic operative charged with stealing the identity of Iowa's Republican secretary of state as part of a plot to link him to corruption has pleaded not guilty. ...read full article
January 30, 2012

Enid man charged with identity theft and filing false tax returns



ENID — An Enid man has been charged in federal court with six felony counts of identity theft and filing false tax returns. ...read full article
January 30, 2012

University of Maryland student information vulnerable to ID theft, audit finds



The University of Maryland stored sensitive personal and financial information of prospective students on publicly accessible servers, data that could make students easy prey to identity thieves, according to a recent audit. ...read full article
January 30, 2012

Stolen ID used for 30 years nets Covington man 5 years' prison



A Covington man who lived under a stolen identity for more than 30 years — committing an assortment of crimes and even racking up prison sentences under his false name — was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Seattle Friday to nearly five years in prison. ...read full article
January 30, 2012

Two suspected of ID theft, burglary



VICTORVILLE - Two people were arrested Friday on suspicion of mutlitple burglaries and identity theft. ...read full article
January 30, 2012

3 charged in identity-theft scheme



Two Detroit-area tax preparers were arrested today on charges they stole the identities of dead people from around the country and used their information to fill out more than 300 phony tax returns and bilk the government out of $800,000 in bogus refunds, the U.S. Attorneys office announced. ...read full article
January 30, 2012

Woman Charged With Identity Theft in Greenwich



GREENWICH, Conn. – A Brooklyn, N.Y., woman was charged Thursday with stealing an identity in an attempt to withdraw more than $8,000 from a bank account in Greenwich, police said. ...read full article
January 30, 2012

Former Windstream worker accused of trafficking stolen identities



SALISBURY — The former Windstream employee accused of stealing customers’ account information and using it to buy goods is also accused of trafficking those identities. ...read full article
January 30, 2012

Jewellery theft: Cops clueless about identity



BHOPAL: A day after the theft of gold ornaments weighing two-and-a-half kg from a jewellery shop in Sarafa market, the police continue to be clueless about the identity of thieves on Sunday. ...read full article
January 30, 2012

Stolen identities bought cycling gear



SALISBURY — When investigators entered Walter Darnell Austin’s office to see what the former Windstream employee had been buying with financial information allegedly stolen from customers, Det. Carl Dangerfield said he expected the worst. ...read full article
January 27, 2012

Pennsylvania woman who said she was abducted gets 8 years for ID theft, fraud



(CNN) -- A Pennsylvania woman who called 911 to report that she and her daughter had been abducted -- only to be found later at a Disney resort -- was sentenced Thursday to more than eight years in prison for identity theft and fraud. ...read full article
January 27, 2012

GOP Lawyer to Defend Democratic Aide in ID Theft



IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A prominent Republican attorney said Thursday he is representing a Democratic operative charged with stealing the identity of Iowa's Republican secretary of state as part of a plot to link him to corruption in office. ...read full article
January 27, 2012

NY ID theft scam has victims in 30 states



GARDEN CITY, N.Y. — Two New York women are accused of scamming $75,000 from victims in 30 states by posting phony Craigslist ads for nonexistent jobs and apartments. ...read full article
January 27, 2012

McAllen area insurance agent indicted on charges of mail fraud, ID theft



The Monitor - From a Jan. 26 news release issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas: McALLEN, Texas – A McAllen area insurance agent has been indicted on multiple counts of mail fraud and aggravated identity theft arising from a scheme to defraud several private insurance companies offering Medicare Advantage plans and other insurance products, United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced today. ...read full article
January 27, 2012

Upstate Woman Arrested, Charged In Identity Theft Bust



An upstate woman was arrested and charged after authorities say she attempted to cash stolen checks at local banks in the Asheville area. ...read full article
January 27, 2012

Irvine Police Arrest ID Theft Suspect



Irvine police arrested a 28-year-old Anaheim woman on suspicion of grand theft and identity theft for allegedly ordering high-end merchandise using someone else's credit card. ...read full article
January 27, 2012

Wetumpka woman sentenced for identity theft and tax fraud



The owner of a tax preparation business was sentenced Thursday to 184 months in prison, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service announced. ...read full article
January 27, 2012

Forest Grove embezzler tried for identity theft



A Forest Grove woman convicted in 2008 of defrauding her former employer of nearly $200,000 was back in court this week, this time facing four charges of identity theft for allegedly posing as a notary public. ...read full article
January 27, 2012

Video conferencing mistakes make espionage easy, say researchers


HD Moore finds thousands of exposed conference and board rooms where secrets aren't so secret



Computerworld - Tens of thousands of video conferencing setups, including some in corporate meeting rooms where the most confidential information is discussed, are vulnerable to spying attacks, researchers said this week. ...read full article
January 27, 2012

Malware Poses as Phony Google+ Plug-In



Spammers are cashing in on the (modest) popularity of Google+ by sending out fake emails inviting users to try out Google+ Hangouts by downloading a malicious file posing as a Google+ Hangout plug-in. ...read full article
January 27, 2012

High court judges attempt to speed up Gary McKinnon case


Judges list computer hacker's extradition case for July hearing amid concern over time it is taking to return to court



The high court has expressed concern over the length of time it is taking the long-running case of the computer hacker Gary McKinnon to come back to court. ...read full article
January 27, 2012

European Parliament says its website victim of DDOS attack


The denial-of-service attacks follow new signatures to ACTA, an intellectual property treaty



IDG News Service - The European Parliament's website fell under a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDOS) on Thursday in what the organization classified as retaliation for the shutdown of the Megaupload file-sharing site and an anti-counterfeiting trade agreement. ...read full article
January 26, 2012

Six Charged in Scheme to Use Identities of Deceased People to Get Tax Refunds



A 10-count indictment was unsealed today charging six people with various offenses related to a scheme to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of at least $1.7 million in fraudulently obtained tax returns, often filed in the names of recently deceased taxpayers, the Justice Department and IRS announced today. ...read full article
January 26, 2012

Colorado Springs Man Indicted on Identity Theft and Fraud



DENVER – Randall V. Heath, age 51, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver on Monday, January 23, 2012, for identity theft, false claims, fraud and mail theft, United States Attorney John F. Walsh, IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Sean Sowards, and United States Postal Inspection Service Oscar Villanueva announced. Heath is currently in custody in New Mexico on state fraud charges. At some point Heath will be transported to Denver by the U.S. Marshals Service. Once in Denver the defendant will appear in U.S. District Court in Denver where he will be advised of his rights and the charges pending against him. ...read full article
January 26, 2012

Windstream's customer database used by employee for identity theft



Windstream Communications, a nation-wide provider of high-speed Internet, phone, and TV services, is busy doing damage control after an employee used Windstream’s customer database to open fraudulent accounts with online retailers. ...read full article
January 26, 2012

Former SF City Employee Pleads Not Guilty To Identity Theft



A SF-based Medi-Cal Eligibility Worker is facing charges in what the DA's office is calling "identity theft." The former employee of San Francisco's Human Services Agency, however, claims that she was just trying to demonstrate how much work she was doing. ...read full article
January 26, 2012

Man wanted for identity theft and forgery



Crime Stoppers and investigators with the Harris County Sheriff's Office are searching for the person responsible for the theft of a Houston area citizen's identity. ...read full article
January 26, 2012

Timeshare Marketing Scams



Timeshare owners across the country are being scammed out of millions of dollars by unscrupulous companies that promise to sell or rent the unsuspecting victims’ timeshares. In the typical scam, timeshare owners receive unexpected or uninvited telephone calls or e-mails from criminals posing as sales representatives for a timeshare resale company. The representative promises a quick sale, often within 60-90 days. The sales representatives often use high-pressure sales tactics to add a sense of urgency to the deal. Some victims have reported that sales representatives pressured them by claiming there was a buyer waiting in the wings, either on the other line or even present in the office. ...read full article
January 26, 2012

Threatened by Anonymous, Symantec tells users to pull pcAnywhere's plug


Source code leaked years ago, but now Anonymous hacking group has software in its sights



Computerworld - Symantec this week took the highly unusual step of telling users of its pcAnywhere remote access software to disable or uninstall the software while it fixes an unknown number of bugs. ...read full article
January 26, 2012

Data Breach Affects Two Million NY Customers, State Commission to Investigate



The New York State Public Service Commission announced yesterday they'll be looking into a data breach that may have exposed the personal information of almost two million customers to unknown attackers. ...read full article
January 26, 2012

DHS disputes memo on purported railway computer breach



The Department of Homeland Security is disputing a government memo obtained by Nextgov.com that said a targeted attack on the computer network of a railway company in the Northwest disrupted train service in early December. ...read full article
January 25, 2012

Kelly Harbert Pleads Guilty to Bank Fraud, Money Laundering, Identity Theft



Kelly Harbert, the former One Bank & Trust vice president, took a plea deal on Tuesday afternoon that reduced from 20 to three the number of federal felonies with which she was charged. ...read full article
January 25, 2012

BBB: Surge in ID Theft Targeting Businesses



LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. -- Identity theft crimes are not limited to individuals; businesses can also become victims. Better Business Bureau warns of a recent surge in business identity theft. ...read full article
January 25, 2012

Ex-city worker pleads not guilty to identity theft



A former employee of San Francisco’s Human Services Agency pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that she stole the personal information of more than 3,000 Medi-Cal applicants, prosecutors said. ...read full article
January 25, 2012

Owner of Alabama Tax Business Sentenced to More Than 15 Years in Prison for Identity Theft and Tax Fraud Scheme



Marsha Elmore of Wetumpka, Ala., the owner of a tax preparation business called Community Tax, was sentenced today to 184 months in prison, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. Elmore used her business to run a scheme to steal tax refunds by filing false tax returns with stolen identities. She had been indicted by a federal grand jury on Aug. 31, 2011, and pleaded guilty on Nov. 15, 2011, to one count each of filing false claims, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Elmore had previously been sentenced to 60 months in prison for a violation of supervised release, which was based on the conduct for which Elmore was sentenced today. Today’s sentence of 184 months is to run consecutively to her previous sentence of 60 months. ...read full article
January 25, 2012

Witness in Identity Theft and Tax Fraud Trial Indicted in Alabama for Perjury



An indictment was unsealed today charging Nacretia Lewis with perjury and lying to a federal agent, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. A federal grand jury in Montgomery, Ala., returned the sealed indictment on Jan. 19, 2012. It was unsealed following Lewis’s arrest. ...read full article
January 25, 2012

New Mexico Man Indicted for Using Stolen Identities to Obtain Tax Refunds



Douglas J. Kuester of Silver City, N.M., was arrested today on identity theft and tax fraud charges, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. A federal grand jury in Las Cruces, N.M., returned an indictment under seal on Jan. 18, 2012, charging Kuester with using stolen identities to file false tax returns. The 41-count indictment, which was unsealed after Kuester’s arrest, charges Kuester with filing false claims, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. ...read full article
January 25, 2012

Alabama Return Preparers Plead Guilty to Identity Theft and Tax Fraud Scheme



Yumeitrius Manuel and Margaret Kirksey, both of Montgomery, Ala., pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud the government and aggravated identity theft, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today. Kirksey pleaded guilty today. Manuel pleaded guilty on Jan. 11, 2012. The two had been indicted by a federal grand jury on July 27, 2011, on charges of conspiracy, aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, false claims and lying to federal agents. ...read full article
January 25, 2012

Three arrested on identity theft charges



PORT ALLEN, LA (WAFB) - Three people from Chicago were arrested last week after state police found items bought using stolen personal information in their car. ...read full article
January 25, 2012

Denmark business owner charged with ID theft, fraud



OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ) - A man who owns an area animal control business will stand trial on identity theft and fraud charges in Winnebago County. ...read full article
January 25, 2012

Newport man sentenced on federal fraud, identity theft charges



GREENEVILLE — A Newport, Tenn., man was sentenced today to 130 months in federal prison on charges related to a credit card scheme that arose out of a series of thefts from cars in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Pisgah National Forest. ...read full article
January 25, 2012

Identity theft case examined in 'The Imposter'



Speaking with The Park Record from San Antonio, Texas, as he prepared to fly to Utah for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, British documentary filmmaker Bart Layton very carefully chose his words as he attempted to convey the many convoluted aspects that surface throughout his new documentary, "The Imposter." ...read full article
January 25, 2012

Man accused of stealing customer IDs at work



KANNAPOLIS, N.C. -- The Rowan County Sheriff's Office said they arrested a man accused of stealing customer information from his place of work and opening fraudulent accounts. ...read full article
January 24, 2012

Alabama Woman Indicted for Using Stolen Identities to Obtain Tax Refunds



Crystal Sayles was arrested today on charges stemming from her use of stolen identities to commit federal tax fraud, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today. On Jan. 19, 2012, a federal grand jury in Montgomery, Ala., returned a 36-count indictment charging Sayles with filing false claims, wire fraud, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. ...read full article
January 24, 2012

Three Indicted in Alabama in Conspiracy to Obtain Tax Refunds Using Stolen Identities



Chiquanta Davis, Terrence Davis and Laurekshia Blakely were charged in a superseding indictment by a federal grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama on multiple counts stemming from an identity theft and tax fraud scheme, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today. The 34-count indictment charges all three with conspiring to defraud the United States by filing false claims. Chiquanta Davis is also charged with filing false claims, theft of government funds, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Terrence Davis and Laurekshia Blakely are also charged with theft of government funds. ...read full article
January 24, 2012

U.S. government online security website hacked


The hackers threatened further retaliation if controversial legislation is passed in the U.S.



IDG News Service - Hackers under the AntiSec banner appeared to have hacked late Monday the website of OnGuardOnline.gov, the U.S. federal government's online security website, in protest against controversial legislation. ...read full article
January 24, 2012

Tysons Corner Mall at Christmas: Identity Theft, Nearly 100 Arrests for Stolen Goods



Fairfax County police patrolling both Tysons Corner Malls in plain clothes during the 2011 Christmas holidays made 83 arrests and recovered nearly $45,000 in stolen merchandise. ...read full article
January 24, 2012

Broward couple charged in tax-fraud case that will be first of many to come, feds say



A Coral Springs couple who run a check-cashing business were charged with bilking the government in the first of a series of tax-fraud cases expected to be filed in federal court. ...read full article
January 24, 2012

Not even kids safe from identity theft


When children are victims, crime can go undetected for years, experts say



Millions of cases of identity theft are reported in the United States each year. ...read full article
January 24, 2012

LA man charged in international identity theft scheme after being caught in 'Operation Phish Phry'



The phishing expedition is over for Jonathan Clark, a Los Angeles resident who is the suspected ringleader of an international Internet-based criminal network dealing in identity fraud. ...read full article
January 24, 2012

Network Of 7K Typo Squatting Domains Drives Huge Traffic To Spam Web Sites



A report from Websense finds that spammers are cleaning up on misspelled domain names for prominent sites. A network of such typo squatting sites is driving millions of visitors to a Web site controlled by the spammers, making it one of the most traffic sites on the Internet. ...read full article
January 24, 2012

'Hannibal' leaks '100,000 Facebook logins'



The tit for tat between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel hackers escalated at the weekend after a hacker called Hannibal claimed to have leaked the Facebook login details of "100,000 Arabs". ...read full article
January 24, 2012

Researcher traces 'Gameover' malware to maker of Zeus


Cybercrime gang pays dev to build 'private' version of notorious money-stealing malware



Computerworld - The "Gameover" malware that the FBI warned users about earlier this month is a preview of the next version of the even-more-notorious Zeus money-stealing Trojan, a security researcher said today. ...read full article
January 24, 2012

Straight Talk: Valentine’s Day scams could leave you with a broken heart



The Canton Regional and Greater West Virginia Better Business Bureau (BBB) offers tips and advice for Stark County consumers to avoid fraudulent practices. ...read full article
January 24, 2012

Cruise Ship Scam Over Faked Death



A trio of alleged scammers have been caught allegedly faking a death on the cruise ship liner Costa Concordia in the first sign that con artists are targeting the crippled ship. ...read full article
January 23, 2012

Dirty tricks in Iowa involving former Obama 2008 staffer?



It’s difficult to know whether to tell this story in straight or reverse chronology, but either way, it raises eyebrows about the tactics that Iowa Democrats will deploy in 2012. Let’s take this in reverse. The story starts with an arrest yesterday in Des Moines of Zach Edwards, who works at Link Strategies as its Director of New Media, for identity theft targeting the Iowa Secretary of State, Republican Matt Schulz ...read full article
January 23, 2012

Richfield Man Faces Federal Charges for Alleged Involvement in Identity Theft Ring



A 26-year-old Richfield man was federal indicted for his alleged role in an identity-theft ring that the feds say is responsible for the loss of more than $2 million from financial institutions and retail businesses in at least than 14 states. ...read full article
January 23, 2012

Phishers Bait City Workers in Seattle With Phony Speeding Tickets



Hundreds of government employees in Seattle, Washington received fraudulent emails yesterday that appeared to be traffic violation notifications but were, in fact, vehicles for infection by malicious software. ...read full article
January 23, 2012

Anonymous dupes users into joining Megaupload attack


Recruits accomplices by spreading links via Twitter that auto-starts attack tool



Computerworld - The Anonymous hacking group recruited unwitting accomplices in Thursday's attacks against U.S. government sites, a security researcher said today. ...read full article
January 23, 2012

$2 million ID theft case broadens with more charges, suspects



Eleven additional suspects have been indicted in a $2 million identity-theft ring that operated in the Twin Cities and reached across the Midwest, the U.S. Justice Department said today. ...read full article
January 23, 2012

Jeremy Dodson, ex-CU Buffs sprinter, gets deferred sentence in ID theft case



A former University of Colorado track star with a promising career pleaded guilty to one count of identity theft and one count of theft in a plea deal Friday that will allow him to remove the felony conviction from his record if he stays out of trouble ...read full article
January 23, 2012

Police seek to identify woman wanted in connection with identity theft



PRINCESS ANNE -- Maryland State Police are seeking the public's assistance in the identification of a woman wanted in connection with an identity theft. ...read full article
January 23, 2012

Italy: Company identity theft at expense of DI DONNA TRADE



We would like to bring to the attention of fresh produce operators that unidentified people are making contact with producing companies to buy and supply products on behalf of Rutigliano-based DI DONNA TRADE. ...read full article
January 23, 2012

PSC Investigates Consumer Data Breach at NYSEG, RG&E



ALBANY, N.Y. - The New York State Public Service Commission has announced that it will conduct a full and complete investigation into the unauthorized access to customer data announced Monday by New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG) and Rochester Gas and Electric (RG&E), subsidiaries of Iberdrola USA. ...read full article
January 23, 2012

Man guilty of ID theft, fraud over Apple items



HOUSTON—A Houston-area man has pleaded guilty to using fake IDs and stolen credit card numbers to buy more than $200,000 worth of Apple iPads and IPhones. ...read full article
January 20, 2012

Megaupload.com Gets Hit by Mega Piracy Indictment; Hackers Attack Feds, Entertainment Industry



The Justice Department has indicted seven individuals and two companies behind the popular file-sharing website megaupload.com, which has been touted by stars will.i.am, Kim Kardashian and Diddy, and, according to reports, has hip-hop producer Swizz Beats as its CEO. ...read full article
January 20, 2012

Identity theft related to Medicaid fraud draws a 24-month sentence



A west-metro home health care provider has been sentenced to 24 months in prison for aggravated identity theft in an attempt to defraud Medicaid, the U.S. attorney's office said Thursday. ...read full article
January 20, 2012

Indians pitcher Fausto Carmona arrested in identity case



SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - Cleveland Indians pitcher Fausto Carmona has been arrested for allegedly using a false identity in the Dominican Republic, where officials are contesting his real name and birthdate. ...read full article
January 20, 2012

Waco: Woman Convicted in ID Theft Pleads Guilty to Failure to Appear



WACO (January 19, 2012)—Christine Elifritz, who skipped court on an ID theft charge in 2011, pleaded guilty Thursday to failure to appear. ...read full article
January 20, 2012

Former KC charity director admits thefts, gambling losses



A former Kansas City man who embezzled more than $100,000 from two local charities pleaded guilty Thursday to federal bank fraud and aggravated identity theft charges. ...read full article
January 20, 2012

Springs police bust drug and ID theft ring



THE GAZETTE - Two men nicknamed Worm and Crack Head are suspected of leading a drug and identify-theft ring affecting 230 people across six states, Colorado Springs police said Wednesday. ...read full article
January 20, 2012

Feds charge 7 in 'massive' case against Megaupload online piracy ring



Computerworld - A day after thousands of websites went on strike protesting controversial anti-piracy legislation in the U.S., federal authorities today announced they have busted a pirate ring that allegedly hauled in $175 million. ...read full article
January 20, 2012

Carberp Trojan Commits Financial Fraud on Facebook



A new iteration of the Carberp trojan is targeting Facebook users, but unlike most Facebook attacks that attempt to pinch login credentials, this one is trying to steal money by fooling users into handing over an e-cash voucher. ...read full article
January 20, 2012

Man pepper sprayed during ID theft attempt at SunTrust



A homeless man was pepper sprayed after he attempted to withdraw thousands of dollars from a Suwanee, Ga., SunTrust Bank using another man’s identity, reports the Gwinnett Daily Post. ...read full article
January 20, 2012

Feds cuff coder accused of US bank source code swipe



A computer programmer has been charged with stealing source code worth $9.5m from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, according to the FBI and prosecutors. ...read full article
January 20, 2012

Koobface Gang Shuts Down C&C Server, Drops Offline



The crew behind the Koobface worm, who have been quite open about their exploits and financial gains from their work in the past, now seem to be ducking underground as pressure is building on them in the wake of exposures of their operation and real identities. The command-and-control server used to run the Koobface botnet, known as the Mothership, is now offline and new infections seem to have dropped off, experts say. ...read full article
January 19, 2012

16 indicted in identity theft ring



BAY VILLAGE, OH (WOIO) - On June 10, 2010, a Bay Village resident reported her checking account number had been compromised and utilized on a number of fabricated checks. These fabricated checks were cashed at local banks by various individuals for a total of $43,000. Bay Village Police Department began an investigation which exposed a much larger fraud enterprise. Bay Village Police worked cooperatively with many bank fraud investigators, the U. S. Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies and identified losses totaling $415,828.00 at four separate banking institutions. ...read full article
January 19, 2012

Rochester woman charged with identity theft



A Rochester woman who was part of a large group of people who traveled throughout New York stealing wallets from hospitals and colleges was arrested on a warrant Tuesday, city police said ...read full article
January 19, 2012

Crimes Nearby: Former Justice Gets Probation for Identity Theft



After pleading in an embezzlement case, Katherine Pope, who served as Shelter Island justice from 1998 to 2002, and her husband, Wayne, were both given probation on Jan. 10, according to a report on The Suffolk Times. ...read full article
January 19, 2012

Alleged Russian Cybercriminal Extradited to U.S.



Vladimir Zdorovenin, an alleged prolific Russian cybercriminal, has arrived in New York City following his arrest and subsequent extradition by Swiss authorities. The FBI had been working to find and extradite Zdorovenin for several years. ...read full article
January 19, 2012

Zappos, Amazon sued over customer data breach



LAS VEGAS (AP) — Online retailers Amazon.com and Zappos.com are being sued in Kentucky by a Texas woman alleging that she and millions of other customers were harmed by the release of personal account information. ...read full article
January 18, 2012

Symantec backtracks, admits own network hacked


Warns pcAnywhere users they face increased risk, confirms theft of source code of prominent consumer programs



Computerworld - Symantec today backed away from earlier statements regarding the theft of source code of some of its flagship security products, now admitting that its own network was compromised. ...read full article
January 18, 2012

Facing Post-Transaction Attacks, Banks Should Reassess Fraud Protection



Banks will have to continue to upgrade their fraud protection controls, especially in the face of new and evolving attacks exclusively designed to evade them, researchers now say. ...read full article
January 18, 2012

Young, in Love and Sharing Everything, Including a Password



Young couples have long signaled their devotion to each other by various means — the gift of a letterman jacket, or an exchange of class rings or ID bracelets. Best friends share locker combinations. ...read full article
January 18, 2012

Former Capital One Bank Employee Indicted for Bank Fraud, ID Theft



HOUSTON - Jamal Gerard Mose-Burrel, 22, of Houston, has been arrested following the return of a 17-count indictment charging him with conspiracy, bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced today. ...read full article
January 18, 2012

ID theft victim arrests a travesty



It's bad enough to be the victim of identity theft. To spend time in jail as the person who stole your own identity is a travesty. ...read full article
January 18, 2012

Three years after becoming a victim of ID theft, Freedom man's battle wages on



WATSONVILLE - In January 2009, Narcizo Zavala Guillen filed a police report after he became a victim of identity theft. Three years later, the Freedom man is still fighting a court battle to repair his damaged credit report and get debt collectors off his back. ...read full article
January 18, 2012

Former Hilliard councilman gets 4 years for identity theft



A former Hilliard City Councilman and Franklin County official was sentenced Friday, Jan. 13, in Franklin County Common Pleas Court to four years in prison for identity theft in connection with a mortgage-fraud scheme. ...read full article
January 18, 2012

New stealthy botnet Trojan holds Facebook users hostage



A new strain of cybercrime Trojan is targeting Facebook users by taking over their machines and shaking them down for cash. ...read full article
January 18, 2012

Koobface Gang Apparently Hiding in Plain Sight



The individuals allegedly responsible for wreaking havoc on Facebook with the infamous Koobface botnet are living lavishly, blatantly flaunting their ill-gotten gains and taking little precautions to cover their tracks. Their locations, travels, business ventures, social media personas, Internet and real-life identities are apparently well-documented, but no one seems to be able to do anything about it. ...read full article
January 18, 2012

UK police officer leaves security-related Olympics documents on train



LONDON — A British tabloid reported Tuesday that it had been handed documents about security arrangements for the London Olympics that were left on a train by a police officer, the latest in a series of embarrassing mishaps involving British authorities misplacing government documents. ...read full article
January 17, 2012

Non-U.S. customers kept in dark as Zappos cleans up after data breach


Online clothing shop Zappos.com reset the passwords of over 24 million customers after security breach



IDG News Service - Online shoe and apparel shop Zappos.com is advising over 24 million customers to change their passwords following a data breach, but its website is currently inaccessible to people outside the U.S. ...read full article
January 17, 2012

Update: Hacking Group TeaMp0isoN Claims Breach of T-Mobile



The hacking group TeaMp0isoN claims to have compromised Web servers used by T-Mobile, and absconded with account information for company employees, including members of T-Mobile's media team. ...read full article
January 17, 2012

Vermont woman pleads guilty to stealing credit card numbers



NEWPORT, Vt. — A former Vermont call center employee has been given a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to stealing customers' credit card numbers. ...read full article
January 17, 2012

Piedmont woman linked to ID theft investigation


Tracy Lavarnway, of Piedmont, admitted using American Quality Exteriors customer information to commit theft and credit card fraud



Secret Service agents and police investigating identity theft have uncovered more than 300 potential victims — nearly half of whom did business with a company in Bethany where a suspect worked. ...read full article
January 17, 2012

Man fined $1,750 for identity theft



A man on disability who tried to obtain a new B.C. identity card using his brother's name has been fined $1,750 to send a message to the public that identity theft has serious consequences. ...read full article
January 17, 2012

NSA constructs hardened Android, unleashes it on world


Vicious apps squashed by super-spook mobile OS



The US Defense Department's The National Security Agency (NSA) has released a security-hardened version of Google's mobile OS, Android. ...read full article
January 17, 2012

Quotation Mark Parsing Flaw Makes IE Users Vulnerable to Attack



A bug in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has left users of the popular browser vulnerable to cross-site scripting attacks, according to researchers at the security firm Imperva Data Security. ...read full article
January 17, 2012

Zappos Zapped: Biggest Consumer Danger Not Credit Cards But Identity Theft



The big online shoe and apparel retailer Zappos, owned by Amazon.com, has been zapped by hackers. From discussions on the Internet that accompany reports of the story, it appears that a large number of consumers believe that in a hacking, the biggest risk is their credit cards. ...read full article
January 17, 2012

Zappos Hacked: What You Need to Know



Zappos.com – the online source for shoes – was the victim of an attack that compromised account information for millions of customers. Zappos customers need to understand what is at stake, and be on alert for suspicious or malicious activity resulting from the attack. ...read full article
January 17, 2012

Hacked Zappos Customers: Beware Phishing Scams



As hacks go, Zappos’s attack over the past weekend could have been a lot worse. ...read full article
January 17, 2012

13 tips everyone should know about identity theft



Identity theft often starts outside of the tax administration system when someone's personal information is stolen or lost. Identity thieves may then use a taxpayer's identity to fraudulently file a tax return and claim a refund. In other cases, the identity thief uses the taxpayer's personal information in order to get a job. The legitimate taxpayer may be unaware that anything has happened until they file their return later in the filing season and discover two returns have been filed using the same Social Security number. ...read full article
January 17, 2012

Facebook Security Phishing Attack In The Wild



At the time of writing there is a new Facebook phishing attack going on. It will not just try to steal your Facebook credentials; it will also try to steal credit card information and other important information such as security questions. ...read full article
January 17, 2012

Japanese boffins fear virus nicked spacecraft blueprints



Japanese space engineers have admitted one of their computers has been infected by a Trojan that may have leaked sensitive data, including system login information, to hackers. ...read full article
January 17, 2012

Clinton man accused of using other people's Social Security numbers to steal cable TV



CLINTON ,N.Y. (WKTV) - A Village of Clinton man has been charged with grand larceny after authorities say he was using other people's social security numbers to steal cable television service. ...read full article
January 13, 2012

Home Depot, Sears, Kmart, and Kohl's Hit By Identity Theft Ring



At this stage in the proceedings, it’s all merely allegations. Prosecutors have filed a criminal Complaint and the named defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. That’s how it goes. So – keeping in mind that it’s simply the prosecutors’ say-so against the protestations of the defendants, who knows how this will all flush out in the end. ...read full article
January 13, 2012

Seaford Brothers Face Charges in Identity Theft Ring


Hussein brothers allegedly manufactured fake driver’s licenses out of their storefront smoke shops in Greenwich Village.



Three Seaford brothers were arrested Thursday and charged with being part of a seven-member identify theft ring that “hijacked” more than 180 people’s store credit accounts to obtain in excess of $1 million in merchandise, gift cards and store credits. ...read full article
January 13, 2012

Fraud exam adjourned for trio accused of identity theft



A preliminary examination was adjourned Thursday for three persons accused of setting up an identity-theft scheme and bilking the state of $300,000. ...read full article
January 13, 2012

Researchers Find Sykipot Trojan Variant For Hijacking DoD Smart Cards



A report from Alien Vault says that variants of the Sykipot Trojan have been found that can steal DOD smartcard credentials. ...read full article
January 13, 2012

Namesco spits out phishy warning after credit card info leak


'Please do not treat this as SPAM'



Namesco customers are angry over the domain name and hosting firm's handling of a security breach that exposed the credit card details of some of the domain name and hosting firm's users. ...read full article
January 13, 2012

Woman indicted by federal jury in identity theft ring



WASHINGTON -- A Salisbury woman accused in an identity trafficking scheme was taken into custody by federal investigators this week, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ...read full article
January 13, 2012

Identity theft victim helps police track down suspects



MEMPHIS, TN - (WMC-TV) - A Memphis man whose debit card was stolen managed to help police track down his two identity thieves and put them in jail. ...read full article
January 13, 2012

Banks Coming Together To Fight Hackers, Prevent Attacks



Major banks like Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group and Bank of America are putting together plans to help identify new security threats before they happen, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal this week. ...read full article
January 13, 2012

Stratfor slaps website back online after Anon mega-hack


CEO: Hacktivists can't silence us - and soz about the credit cards



Stratfor has restored its website to normal operation on Wednesday, more than two weeks after a hack attack by Anonymous that made the global intelligence analyst firm a byword for information insecurity. ...read full article
January 12, 2012

Spammers hit mobes with QR code junkmail jump pads



Security researchers have spotted spam emails that point at URLs featuring embedded Quick Response codes (QR codes). ...read full article
January 12, 2012

Suspects in 14-state, $2M identity-theft ring face judges



Suspects in a $2 million identity-theft ring that involves more than 100 people began appearing in federal courtrooms in the Twin Cities this week to face charges. ...read full article
January 12, 2012

National identity theft bust comes through DeKalb



DeKALB – A national identity theft investigation that resulted in the indictment of 50 people was partially operated out of DeKalb. ...read full article
January 12, 2012

3 Phila. men charged in identity-theft ring



Two Philadelphia residents were arrested Wednesday and a third is being sought on charges of participating in a multistate identity-theft ring, federal authorities said. ...read full article
January 12, 2012

Hayward woman sentenced in connection with massive Oakland identity theft ring



OAKLAND -- A Hayward woman was sentenced Wednesday to 216 days in jail for a felony forgery conviction for her role in a large-scale and sophisticated identity theft operation, an Alameda County District Attorney spokeswoman said. ...read full article
January 12, 2012

Attackers Reused Adobe Reader Exploit Code From 2009 In Extremely Targeted Hacks



The targeted attack that exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in Adobe's Reader application last month was extremely focused on defense industrial base firms, and affected just a handful of systems, according to a company spokesman. ...read full article
January 12, 2012

Carrier IQ detection tool converted to premium SMS Trojan


Android malware creators exploit the Carrier IQ controversy to distribute a premium SMS Trojan



IDG News Service - Android malware writers are taking advantage of the controversy surrounding Carrier IQ's smartphone tracking software in order to distribute a premium SMS Trojan, security researchers from Symantec warn. ...read full article
January 12, 2012

IRS overwhelmed by fraud, identity theft cases, watchdog says



WASHINGTON -- A government watchdog says the Internal Revenue Service can't fully handle identity theft cases and fraudulent tax refund claims or adequately answer taxpayers' questions because its budget is too small to deal with its growing workload. ...read full article
January 12, 2012

Are apps exposing you to ID theft?


A new website makes it easy to filter the applications you've given permission to access your information on 8 social media sites.



If you use social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr and have an email account with Google or Yahoo, chances are you've given permission to a few applications to access your profile. But do you know how many? ...read full article
January 12, 2012

APNewsBreak: NY arrests 7 in $1M identity theft



ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says seven people have been arrested in an identity theft scheme that netted more than $1 million in products and gift cards by tapping consumer charge accounts in four states. ...read full article
January 11, 2012

Boss of costumed NYC crime ring gets 9 to 18 years



NEW YORK (AP) — The leader of a crime ring that combined old-fashioned pickpocketing, modern-day identity theft and an array of costumes to steal more than $700,000 from banks was sentenced Monday to 9 to 18 years in prison. ...read full article
January 11, 2012

NJ ringleader of ID theft, fraud ploy admits guilt



NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The leader of an identity theft and fraud ring has pleaded guilty in a scheme that federal authorities said operated as a veritable "crime superstore" that reached from northern New Jersey to U.S. territories in the Pacific. ...read full article
January 11, 2012

Israeli credit-card hack draws a response


A hacker has released more than 400 credit card numbers allegedly belonging to Saudi Arabian citizens



IDG News Service - More than 400 credit card numbers claimed to belong to Saudi Arabian citizens were released on Tuesday in apparent retaliation for the release of 15,000 active credit card numbers of Israelis last week. ...read full article
January 11, 2012

New SEC Guidance May Impact Corporate Disclosure



As companies begin submitting their regulatory filings and financial reports from 2011, the SEC is pushing for more comprehensive data breach, cyber attack, and general risk-assessment disclosures. ...read full article
January 11, 2012

Alleged $1.4 million housing authority fraud began small, indictment says



In early 2010, officials at Baltimore's public housing agency noticed a few thousand dollars had gone missing — transferred without authorization to the bank account of a man who rented his Northeast Baltimore home to a low-income tenant, according to a federal indictment unsealed Monday. ...read full article
January 11, 2012

TRENTON: Woman charged with fraud, identity theft could face 40 years



TRENTON — A 61-year-old woman was arraigned Friday on five charges of fraud and identify theft for writing checks in another woman’s identity and making fake licenses. ...read full article
January 11, 2012

Folsom man pleads guilty in Loomis Wealth Solutions fraud case



Christopher J. Warren, who fled the country with a fortune in gold and returned with a paltry $70,000 in cash stuffed into the cowboy boots he was wearing, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Sacramento federal court to identity theft and wire fraud related to cheating lenders out of $19 million. ...read full article
January 10, 2012

Hackers expose defence and intelligence officials in US and UK


Security breach by 'hacktivists' reveals email addresses of 221 British military staff and 242 Nato officials



Thousands of British email addresses and encrypted passwords, including those of defence, intelligence and police officials as well as politicians and Nato advisers, have been revealed on the internet following a security breach by hackers. ...read full article
January 10, 2012

US Commission probing if India intercepted its emails


A hacked memo allegedly from India's military states that the country intercepted the emails with the help of mobile phone companies



IDG News Service - The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) has asked for an investigation after hackers posted online a memo purportedly from India's military, which claimed that the country had intercepted emails of USCC officials with the help of Nokia, Research In Motion, and Apple. ...read full article
January 10, 2012

German cops hacked in revenge for dad spying on daughter


Payback after officer used cyber-bug at home



An infiltration of a German federal security system last year has been traced back to a botched attempt by an unnamed security official to use a Trojan to monitor his daughter's internet usage, Der Spiegel reports. ...read full article
January 10, 2012

Gamers Seek Beta Versions, Download Malware Instead



Tracking the increasingly common use of PC games as an infection vector, researchers at the Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC) discovered a couple of malicious programs making the rounds on torrent and file sharing sites. ...read full article
January 10, 2012

Man pleads guilty to stealing ATM codes



A San Diego man who placed a debit card skimming device on a bank security door and trained hidden cameras on ATM machines so he could steal the PIN numbers of thousands of customers pleaded guilty Monday to identity theft, burglary and grand theft charges. ...read full article
January 10, 2012

Fresno woman pleads guilty in tax, ID theft cases



A Fresno woman pleaded guilty in federal court in Fresno Monday to identity theft and making false claims against the United States in two separate cases. ...read full article
January 10, 2012

Palisades Park man admits running ID-theft and bank-fraud ring that netted $4 million



A Palisades Park man admitted Monday that he ran an identity-theft ring that peddled social security cards to scores of Korean clients who used them steal million of dollars through fraudulent bank loans, credit card ‘bust-outs” and other schemes. ...read full article
January 10, 2012

Boss of costumed NYC crime ring gets 9 to 18 years



NEW YORK (AP) — The leader of a crime ring that combined old-fashioned pickpocketing, modern-day identity theft and an array of costumes to steal more than $700,000 from banks was sentenced Monday to 9 to 18 years in prison. ...read full article
January 10, 2012

Apple, RIM deny claims of data backdoor for Indian government


Symantec hackers claim intelligence memo shows secret deal



Updated Apple and RIM have denied providing the Indian government with backdoor access to customers' data, after the release of a memo that appears to suggest that they and Nokia did a deal in exchange for access to the Indian smartphone market. ...read full article
January 9, 2012

Symantec confirms source code leak in two enterprise security products


Hacking group discloses source code segments used in Symantec's Endpoint Protection 11.0 and Antivirus 10.2



Computerworld - Symantec late Thursday confirmed that source code used in two of its older enterprise security products was publicly exposed by hackers this week. ...read full article
January 9, 2012

Israeli Official Compares Cyber Attack to Terrorist Operation



Israeli authorities are investigating a cyber attack Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon described as being akin to a "terrorist operation." ...read full article
January 9, 2012

Cases of Denver mistaken-identity arrests



The last thing Stephen Tendell and his mother, Ethel, thought would happen after they reported to Denver police that he was the victim of identity theft was that he would end up hauled off to jail. ...read full article
January 9, 2012

Women Accused Of Stealing Checks From Mailbox


Pueblo County Pair Allegedly Stole, Used Checks



PUEBLO, Colo. -- Two Pueblo women are accused of stealing checks from a mailbox, and then using the checks at local stores. ...read full article
January 9, 2012

Palm Beach County courts redact personal information from cases available to public



WEST PALM BEACH — As business at Palm Beach County's courts resumed in the first week of the year, court clerks got their first test of how they will adapt to a new state law designed to keep personal information out of public view. ...read full article
January 9, 2012

Hearing Today For Man Accused Of ID Theft, Burglary


Daniel Axinte Accused Of Placing Skimming Device On Security Door



SAN DIEGO -- A preliminary hearing was scheduled Monday for a San Diego man accused of placing a debit card skimming device on a bank security door and ATM machines so he could steal the PIN numbers of thousands of its customers. ...read full article
January 9, 2012

Pastebin Downed By Second DDoS Attack This Week



For the second time this week, Pastebin.com on Thursday found itself hit by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. The site was previously taken offline for a portion of the day on Tuesday, though no motives or culprits for that attack have been named yet. ...read full article
January 9, 2012

Mafia hit suspect cuffed after BlackBerry chatter intercept


Cops keep schtum on sniffing RIM data



Canadian police have apparently used BlackBerry communications to arrest murder suspect Raynald Desjardins in a move seen as an unprecedented use of intercepted data. ...read full article
January 4, 2012

Anonymous hunts neo-Nazis with WikiLeaks-style site



Members of Anonymous have re-doubled their offensive against German neo-Nazis. The hacktivists of Operation Blitzkrieg this week launched a WikiLeaks-style website that aims to expose members of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) and other extremist groups, Der Spiegel reports. Nazi-leaks.net (German) already features a list of alleged donors to the NPD. It also hosts what OpBlitzkrieg claims are internal emails, a list of contact details purported to belong to far-right newspaper subscribers, and customer data allegedly hacked from neo-Nazi online stores. ...read full article
January 4, 2012

Adam Baker deal possible today



NEWTON -- Adam Baker is scheduled to appear in court today, and his attorney told reporters Tuesday that he has struck a plea deal with prosecutors in Catawba County. ...read full article
January 4, 2012

New AIM Instant Messaging Client Poses Privacy Risks, Says EFF



Digital rights watchdog Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is advising users of AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) not to upgrade to the next version of the instant messaging application because its features expose them to privacy risks. ...read full article
January 4, 2012

Better Business Bureau lists top scams of 2011



SALT LAKE CITY — The Better Business Bureau of Utah Tuesday released its list of the most prevalent fraud schemes of 2011, with the Internet and email being key tools used to defraud people. ...read full article
January 4, 2012

Israeli credit cards hit by cyber attack



ALLEGED SAUDI hackers have posted the details of 15,000 Israeli credit cards online in the biggest politically motivated cyberspace attack against Israel to date. ...read full article
January 4, 2012

Phishing remains a hazard for companies who rely heavily on the Internet



This kind of threat poses an increasing issue to the online selling or buying of products. Presented in the form of spoof emails and other ploys, this form of identity theft is on the rise. ...read full article
January 4, 2012

Former Saugus interim library director suspended



By Matt Tempesta / The Daily Item SAUGUS — The Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to suspend former interim Library Director Ewa Jankowska with pay Tuesday night. ...read full article
January 3, 2012

Hacking group releases more Stratfor subscriber data


The data dump includes 75,000 names and addresses of subscribers to the analysis service



IDG News Service - Hackers released another batch of data on Thursday pilfered from Stratfor Global Intelligence, a widely used research and analysis company whose website was attacked last weekend. ...read full article
January 3, 2012

Hackers Plan Satellite Network to Fight Internet Censorship



A group of hackers are reportedly declaring war on Internet censorship, and they plan to fight back with their own satellite communications network. ...read full article
January 3, 2012

"Anonymous" hacks police union, Valley victims exposed



FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- One of California's biggest law enforcement groups got hit by a high profile hack, and several Valley victims are among those left exposed. ...read full article
January 3, 2012

Report: Phishing attack targets Apple customers



Macworld - A "vast phishing attack" that attempts to capture the credit card information of Apple customers was launched on Christmas day, according to a report from Mac security-software company Intego. ...read full article
January 3, 2012

Analysis Challenges Stuxnet Origins Story, Suggests Links to Duqu and Other Malware



An ongoing analysis of the Duqu malware by researchers at Kaspersky Lab finds many links between the two pieces of malicious code and casts doubt on the conventional wisdom about Stuxnet's origins. ...read full article
January 3, 2012

Scammers return to scene of crime


Victims of fraud, identity theft lijely to be targeted again



It was bad enough when Bobby Worden was scammed five years ago by a telemarketer who offered credit card processing machines for his Clark County businesses. ...read full article
January 3, 2012

Japan tasks Fujitsu with creating search-and-destroy cyber-weapon


Zombie boss hunter developed in lab



Fujitsu has been commissioned to develop ‘seek and destroy’ malware, reportedly designed to track and disable the sources of cyber-attacks. ...read full article
January 3, 2012

AKO users warned following Stratfor website hack



YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — The U.S. Army’s web portal for soldiers is asking anyone who registered usernames with open-source intelligence provider Strategic Forecasting , or Stratfor, to watch for identity theft and report any credit card fraud to the Army’s Criminal Investigative Command. ...read full article
December 19, 2011

Photos lead to identity theft arrest in LA



LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police say surveillance photographs made public last week led to the arrest of a Southern California woman suspected of assuming other people's identities to steal $14,000 from personal bank accounts. ...read full article
December 19, 2011

Good Samaritans conned into paying for $41K hotel stay



You kind of have to wonder. What's worse? Having your credit card stolen, or being mocked for it on the blogosphere? ...read full article
December 19, 2011

Digital Data on Patients Raises Risk of Breaches



One afternoon last spring, Micky Tripathi received a panicked call from an employee. Someone had broken into his car and stolen his briefcase and company laptop along with it. ...read full article
December 19, 2011

'Barefoot Bandit' pleads to 16 counts



COUPEVILLE - Colton Harris-Moore , the "Barefoot Bandit," has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison after pleading guilty to dozens of state charges. ...read full article
December 19, 2011

Madison purse snatcher arrested in Indiana, police say



A young woman who allegedly stole the purse of an 87-year-old woman while the victim was loading groceries into her vehicle at a Madison store has been arrested in Indiana, authorities reported. ...read full article
December 19, 2011

Inside Charity 'Scam'



A bunch of hardened gangbangers have gone from hustling on the street corner to hustling Wall Street. ...read full article
December 19, 2011

Sprint Disables Carrier IQ Software on its Devices



Sprint has decided to stop using Carrier IQ’s diagnostic software in light of the ongoing controversy about user privacy, according to reports. ...read full article
December 19, 2011

Japanese game maker to reopen hacked site, says no private data lost


The company said it aims to reopen its "Square Enix Members" site to Japanese and U.S. users by the end of the year.



IDG News Service - Japanese game developer Square Enix said Monday that no private data was stolen when a server for a fan site was hacked last week, and it plans to reopen the site to users by the end of the year. ...read full article
December 16, 2011

Iran tricked U.S. spy drone into landing in country, report says



Computerworld - The U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel spy drone that was recently captured and displayed by Iranian authorities may have been tricked into landing in that country after being electronically ambushed. ...read full article
December 16, 2011

Md. man convicted in identity theft, card skimming case



A Laurel man authorities said ran an identity theft and credit card skimming ring that victimized more than 780 people was convicted in federal court this week. ...read full article
December 16, 2011

NYC officer arrested in ID fraud scheme



NEW YORK — Prosecutors say a 23-year-old New York City police officer has been arrested on grand larceny and forgery charges as part of massive identity theft take down earlier this year. ...read full article
December 16, 2011

Consumer Confidential: Firms caught up in identity theft offer little help to victims



Victims of identity theft will tell you: The shock of being defrauded isn't the worst part. What really stings is having to spend days or even weeks undoing all the damage. ...read full article
December 16, 2011

Harrisburg Man Charged with Identity Theft and Mail Fraud in Unemployment Benefits Scheme



WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 -- The U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania issued the following news release: The United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, announced today the indictment of an individual for identity theft and fraudulently obtaining unemployment compensation benefits from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Mark E. Givens, age 45, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was charged in a 36-count indictment handed up by the Grand Jury sitting in Harrisburg yesterday. ...read full article
December 16, 2011

Malcolm X youngest daughter behind bars in identity theft case



NEW YORK (Reuters) - Malikah Shabazz, the youngest daughter of black civil rights leader Malcolm X, is in prison for failing to start paying back money stolen in an identity theft case, law enforcement sources confirmed on Thursday. ...read full article
December 16, 2011

Internet Pioneers, Security Experts Send Letter to Congress Blasting SOPA



Letter for SOPAA group of engineers, networking specialists, security experts and other specialists deeply involved with the Internet's development and growth have sent a letter to lawmakers criticizing the highly controversial SOPA and PIPA bills and imploring them not to pass the legislation, which they say would stifle innovation and "threaten engineers who build Internet systems or offer services that are not readily and automatically compliant with censorship actions by the U.S. government." ...read full article
December 16, 2011

'Self-aware' bank account robbing code unleashed by hacker



A hacker has published code for potent cross-site scripting attacks that he claims go beyond the usual cookie stealing and phishing for users' private details. ...read full article
December 16, 2011

Twitter stalking case dismissed by Md. judge


The Judge said that protections under the First Amendment extend to online speech



IDG News Service - A U.S. judge in Maryland dismissed on Thursday a criminal case against a person who was charged with stalking a religious leader on Twitter, upholding "a tradition of protecting anonymous speech, particularly anonymous political or religious speech" ...read full article
December 16, 2011

BigPond customers targeted by phishers



Telstra’s beleaguered BigPond customers, who suffered a major security breach last week when customer details were leaked to the web, are now subject to a targeted phishing campaign. ...read full article
December 16, 2011

Westbury Mortgage Fraud Kingpin Sentenced


DA: Sweet’s group stole more than $20M from banks individuals and Nassau County government



Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice has announced that the kingpin of the largest mortgage fraud and identity theft ring in Nassau County history has been sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for his role in leading an organization that stole more than $20 million from homeowners, banks, and the Nasssau County government. ...read full article
December 16, 2011

Sixteen Persons Charged in International Internet Fraud Scheme



LAS VEGAS—Federal charges have been unsealed against 16 individuals for their involvement in an international Internet scheme that defrauded online purchasers of purported merchandise such as automobiles and other items, announced Daniel G. Bogden, United States Attorney for the District of Nevada. ...read full article
December 15, 2011

Casino thief convicted of conspiracy, wire fraud and identity theft



United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced that Christopher Donte Evans, 27, of Frierson, Louisiana, was convicted today by a federal jury of one count of conspiracy, four counts of wire fraud, and four counts of aggravated identity theft. ...read full article
December 15, 2011

In Push For Data, Schools Expose Students To Identity Theft



"Burdened Beginnings" is a series examining the problem of child identity theft. Other stories in the series can be found here. ...read full article
December 15, 2011

Alaska fishing crewman accused of identity theft



ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska State Troopers say a 30-year-old man from East Wenatchee, Wash., has been arrested in Alaska's Dutch Harbor in an identity theft case. ...read full article
December 15, 2011

UK’s biggest ID fraud hotspots revealed



Londoners are most at risk of identity theft, with the UK's five biggest fraud hotspots all situated in the capital. ...read full article
December 15, 2011

Production house becomes victim of identity theft



Identity theft is certainly not an alien occurrence for many in the industry. But this time around, the unidentified imposters have managed to masquerade as the production house, UTV Motion Pictures. ...read full article
December 15, 2011

FDLE arrests 48 in child computer sex crimes investigation



LEE COUNTY, Fla.- The Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested 48 child predators as part of a six-month investigation known as Operation Amalgamate. The investigation began in July after Attorney General Pam Bondi and FDLE merged the FDLE’s Computer Crime Center and the AG’s Child Predator Cybercrime Unit to more effectively investigate online child exploitation. ...read full article
December 15, 2011

Police Want Public's Help in Identity Theft Scheme



Anne Arundel County police are asking for the public's help in identifying a man who made two separate wire transfers at SunTrust Bank in Edgewater. ...read full article
December 15, 2011

Woman accused of identity theft



BENTON, La. (AP) - A 48-year-old Haughton woman faces a charge of identity theft for using her neighbor's debit card without permission. ...read full article
December 15, 2011

iBahn, supplier of hotel internet services, denies breach


iBahn said it relentlessly monitors attempted hacks on its network



IDG News Service - iBahn, a provider of internet services to some 3,000 hotels worldwide, denied on Thursday a news report that its network was breached by hackers. ...read full article
December 15, 2011

FBI Likely to Get More Cybercrime Agents



The FBI is one of a handful of U.S. agencies tasked with investigating computer crimes and one of the many roadblocks that has stood in the way of more successful cases and prosecutions is a lack of resources, mostly in the form of trained agents. It looks like the bureau will be getting the money in 2012 to hire more agents for its cybercrime unit, but the 14 new agents included in next year's budget still aren't nearly enough to address the full scope of the problem in the U.S., let alone globally. ...read full article
December 14, 2011

Restaurant Depot Admits They Were Hacked, Customer Data Stolen



A hack has the Restaurant wholesale chain Restaurant Depot in hot water, after thieves compromised the firm's credit card processing systems and made off with customer information, including credit card numbers. One published report claims as many as 100,000 individuals may have been victims of the breach. ...read full article
December 14, 2011

Firms caught up in identity theft offer little help to victims



Being a victim of identity theft is bad enough, but the time and trouble involved in trying to do damage control is often worse. Companies caught up in the wrongdoing should assist consumers. ...read full article
December 14, 2011

Peoples Gas warns customers of identity theft risk



December 13, 2011 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- Peoples Gas says some customers could be at risk for identity theft. The utility sent a letter to those customers warning them about a security breach. ...read full article
December 14, 2011

Identity Thief Tries to Run



Albuquerque, NM - On Friday December 09, 2011 Officers with the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) attempted to arrest federal fugitive Fernando Calleros. Calleros was wanted by the United States District Court for failing to comply with his conditions of pre-trial release. Calleros faces federal charges on Fraud by Wire and Mail Fraud where it is alleged he attempted to steal peoples’ identity. ...read full article
December 14, 2011

Five apps banned from Apple's App Store in 2011


From tethering to DUI checkpoints and radiation detection--five apps shown to the door by Apple



Apple gave the app, Drivers License, the boot this week after concerned politicians claimed it encouraged identity theft. Drivers License joins a short list of apps that Apple gave boot in 2011 because Apple either didn't get the joke, offered too much functionality, or that Apple felt was downright dangerous. ...read full article
December 14, 2011

Man faces sentencing today for 3 Tenafly slayings in 2008



A New York man who admitted stabbing three people to death at their home in Tenafly in 2008 faces up to 75 years in prison when he is sentenced today. ...read full article
December 14, 2011

Twenty Something Asks Facebook For His File And Gets It - All 1,200 Pages



Be careful of what you ask for. That's a lesson that Max Schrems of Vienna, Austria, learned the hard way when he sent a formal request to Facebook citing European law and asking for a copy of every piece of personal information that the world’s largest social network had collected on him. ...read full article
December 13, 2011

Windows Phone bug reportedly disables messaging


The Windows Phone messaging hub is disabled by sending certain a text string, according to the Winrumors blog



IDG News Service - A reported vulnerability in Windows Phone causes its messaging features to be disabled after the device is sent a specific SMS or chat message. ...read full article
December 13, 2011

Homeland Security Warns SCADA Operators Of Internet-Facing Systems



In the wDHSake of the hack of water and sewer infrastructure operated by a Texas community, the Department of Homeland Security is again warning owners and operators of critical infrastructure to take note of SCADA and industrial control systems that may be accessible from the Internet. ...read full article
December 13, 2011

Counties warn of juror-ID theft scam



Officials in Kane and McHenry counties are warning residents to beware of a possible identity theft scam in which people are mailed a bogus juror summons asking a person to mail back a form that includes their Social Security number. ...read full article
December 13, 2011

ID theft suspect who police say bailed on trial arrested again



PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) - An identity theft suspect who authorities say skipped out on the last day of his trial last week is back behind bars. ...read full article
December 13, 2011

Cheswick man sentenced to 4 years for bank fraud



A loan closing agent from Cheswick was sentenced Monday to four years in prison for bank fraud, money laundering and identity theft. ...read full article
December 13, 2011

Attacks Against Oil Conglomerates Ramping Up, Execs Claim



Executives for some of the world’s largest oil companies stressed that cyber attacks against their companies are becoming more strategic and happening more frequently at a conference last week, according to a report today from the BBC. ...read full article
December 13, 2011

Malicious apps infiltrate Google's Android Market


Bogus games purged after more than 10,000 downloads



Google security crews have tossed at least a dozen smartphone games out of the Android Market after discovering they contained secret code that caused owners to accrue expensive charges for text messages sent to premium numbers. ...read full article
December 12, 2011

PhD student sentenced in identity theft, fraud case



A gifted college student who masterminded an identity theft and credit card fraud operations was sentenced on Friday to 70 months in prison. ...read full article
December 12, 2011

Developing countries most vulnerable to cyberattacks — UN



Developing countries are at higher risk of being the target of cyberattacks, a United Nations-led forum on cybersecurity said on Friday, where experts discussed ways to mitigate the phenomenon at the national and international levels. ...read full article
December 12, 2011

UPDATE:Credit Card Identity Theft From Russia (And Not With Love)



Federal prosecutors in Virginia alleged that Jonathan Oliveras, 26, managed a credit card fraud operation that operated throughout the East Coast of the United States. That scheme involved the purchases over the Internet of stolen credit card from sellers believed to be located in Russia. Upon obtaining the stolen information, Oliveras purportedly distributed the data to individuals in New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. ,who then used the information to make fraudulent purchases. ...read full article
December 12, 2011

FTC Gives Refunds to Rogue Antivirus Victims



The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is sending reimbursement checks to more than 300,000 people victimized by a rogue antivirus scam. ...read full article
December 12, 2011

Court dismisses most breach claims against Heartland by banks


Nine banks want Heartland to pay for damages related to 2008 breach



Computerworld - A U.S. district court in Texas has dismissed all but one of the claims brought by several banks against Heartland Payment Systems over the massive data breach the payment processor disclosed in January 2009 . ...read full article
December 12, 2011

Surveillance tech companies should not sell to despots, EU says


And U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warns surveillance companies that their products could be used to breach human rights



IDG News Service - Surveillance technology companies have a moral obligation not to sell to repressive regimes, said Europe's Digital Agenda Commissioner on Friday. Her views were echoed by the U.S. secretary of state who said that companies cannot pretend they don't know what their technology is used for in countries like Syria and Iran. ...read full article
December 12, 2011

Chinese cyberspies stealing key data, U.S. analysts say



As few as 12 different Chinese groups, largely backed or directed by the government there, do the bulk of the China-based cyberattacks stealing critical data from U.S. companies and government agencies, according to U.S. cybersecurity analysts and experts in Washington. ...read full article
December 12, 2011

Cyber crime stretches local police resources



When a woman in Pennsylvania reported that someone was using her credit card to buy pizzas in Forest Lake, police tracked the deliveries to a local apartment. ...read full article
December 12, 2011

Web scam-busting trio thwarted by mystery DDoS rocket


Backhanded compliment for fraud alert sites



A bunch of anti-scam sites were knocked offline last week by fierce and apparently well-organised distributed denial of service attacks. ...read full article
December 12, 2011

Wanted fugitive arrested in Boonville



BOONVILLE, N.Y. (WKTV) - The Oneida County Sheriff Office arrested a wanted fugitive on Route 12 in the Town of Boonville after pulling him over for speeding. ...read full article
December 9, 2011

Four Romanian Nationals Charged with Allegedly Participating in Multimillion Dollar Scheme to Hack into and Steal Credit Card Data from U.S. Merchants



WASHINGTON – Four Romanian nationals were charged in an indictment unsealed yesterday in federal court for their alleged participation in an international multimillion dollar scheme to remotely hack into and steal payment card data from hundreds of U.S. merchants’ point of sale computer systems, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney John P. Kacavas of the District of New Hampshire and Special Agent In Charge Steven Ricciardi of the U.S. Secret Service, Boston Field Office. ...read full article
December 9, 2011

Cnet Apologizes for Nmap Adware Bundling



Officials at Cnet's Download.com site have issued a statement apologizing for bundling the popular open source Nmap security audit application with adware that changed users' search engine and home page to Microsoft properties. Fyodor, the author of Nmap, raised the issue earlier this week, saying that his app was being wrapped in malware on Download.com. ...read full article
December 9, 2011

Six cuffed in £1m student readies phishing probe


That's a lot of beer money nicked from bank accounts



Scotland Yard's cybercrime crackdown squad has cuffed suspected crims accused of masterminding a phishing scam that netted more than £1m in cash from hundreds of unsuspecting students. ...read full article
December 9, 2011

Owner of Miami-Area Mental Health Company Sentenced to 35 Years in Prison for Orchestrating $205 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme



WASHINGTON – The owner of a fraudulent Miami-area mental health care company, American Therapeutic Corporation (ATC), was sentenced today to 35 years in prison for orchestrating a $205 million Medicare fraud scheme, announced the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). ...read full article
December 9, 2011

Google's Schmidt calls Carrier IQ software a keylogger


It actually records keystrokes, he says at a conference in the Netherlands



Computerworld - Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt today distanced his company from Carrier IQ's software, even as he described the technology as a keylogger. Schmidt's comments came at an Internet freedom conference in the Netherlands. ...read full article
December 9, 2011

LI mortgage fraud ringleader sentenced



The kingpin of the largest mortgage fraud and identity theft ring in Nassau County history was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison on Thursday for his role in stealing more than $20 million from homeowners, banks and the county government, according to a statement from Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice. ...read full article
December 9, 2011

Man indicted for identity theft and false claim as U.S. citizen



BIRMINGHAM – A federal grand jury indicted a Mexican man in the United States illegally for falsely representing himself as a U.S. citizen, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance. ...read full article
December 9, 2011

Two arrested after allegedly using stolen debit card to pay bills, shop



DECATUR - A 28-year-old suspect was arrested on charges of identity theft and obstruction of justice after he allegedly used a debit card that had been dropped by a woman at a gas station to pay his $700 cellphone bill. ...read full article
December 9, 2011

Woman Wanted in Identity Theft Bank Scam



GLENDALE, Calif. -- Police are asking for the public's help in identifying a woman accused of stealing more than $14,000 from bank accounts throughout Southern California. ...read full article
December 9, 2011

Fed Raid over Alleged Identity Theft Scheme



(Coldwater, MS 12/8/2011) Two people living under assumed names in Tate County face hundreds of years in prison and millions of dollars in fines. ...read full article
December 9, 2011

HP Facing Class Action Suit For Not Disclosing Printer Vulnerability



A class action lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in California against Hewlett-Packard could have wide ranging implications for software makers, should the court agree with the plaintiff's claim that the company violated the state's consumer protection laws by failing to disclose a serious vulnerability in the software that runs some of its printers. ...read full article
December 9, 2011

Digital certificate authority suspends ops following breach



Websites belonging to a Netherlands-based issuer of digital certificates were unavailable following reports hackers penetrated their security and accessed databases that should have been off limits. ...read full article
December 8, 2011

Yahoo awarded $610M in spam case


The spam campaign promised people prizes from a non-existent Yahoo lottery in an effort to steal their information



IDG News Service - Yahoo has won a lawsuit against spammers, a legal victory that also includes a default judgment of $610 million. ...read full article
December 8, 2011

DeKalb man charged with identity theft gets probation



SYCAMORE – A DeKalb man charged with identity theft and deceptive practices was sentenced Wednesday to 60 months of probation. ...read full article
December 8, 2011

Miami VA Hospital employee charged with identity theft


A Miami VA Hospital employee is charged with selling patient IDs for cash



An employee at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Miami has been charged with selling the personal identities of disabled patients who receive services at the hospital, authorities said Wednesday. ...read full article
December 8, 2011

Botnet Lair in Ukraine Demonstrates Dangers of Infection



A recently discovered server in Ukraine demonstrates the danger -- and volume -- of industrial-level identity theft. The server, located by the United Kingdom-based security firm Prevx, was a storage site for data stolen from 160,000 computers that had been infected by viruses. ...read full article
December 8, 2011

Attackers Using Known Trojan in Exploits on Adobe Zero Day



The newly discovered vulnerability in Adobe Reader and Acrobat that the company is planning to patch next week is being used to install a known Trojan that has been used in attacks against other Adobe vulnerabilities in the past. ...read full article
December 8, 2011

Thieves plunder apartment for Facebook booty



São Paulo police are warning of the perils of flashing your wealth on Facebook after a teenager's snaps of his electronic equipment and foreign holidays on the social network prompted thieves to rob his family's apartment. ...read full article
December 8, 2011

Symantec confirms Flash exploits targeted defense companies


November attacks delivered in malicious PDFs attached to messages promising a contract guide for 2012



Computerworld - Security researchers at Symantec today confirmed that exploits of an unpatched Adobe Reader vulnerability targeted defense contractors, among other businesses. ...read full article
December 7, 2011

Banks Rely Too Heavily On Social Security Numbers, Report Finds



Banks can do better at protecting their customers from the risk of identity fraud, a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research finds. ...read full article
December 7, 2011

Major identity theft investigation at UA



TUCSON - A multi-agency investigation into identify theft has more than a hundred UA students facing questions. ...read full article
December 7, 2011

Former Saugus Public Library employee Linda Duffy charged with stealing more than $800,000 from library account



Saugus — The Department of Justice issued the following press release about the indictment of former Saugus Public Library employee Linda Duffy. ...read full article
December 7, 2011

Judge gives CA woman 4 years for bank fraud



BOISE -- A California woman convicted for bank fraud and identity theft has been ordered to serve four years in a federal prison and repay more than $18,000 to her crime's victims. ...read full article
December 7, 2011

Nurse sentenced in patient ID thefts



A nurse who worked at four hospitals in the Denver area has been sentenced for stealing patient records and identity theft. ...read full article
December 7, 2011

Hackers hit supermarket self-checkout lanes, steal money from shoppers



Criminals have tampered with the credit and debit card readers at self-checkout lanes in more than 20 supermarkets operated by a California chain, allowing them to steal money from shoppers who used the compromised machines. The chain, Lucky Supermarkets, which is owned by Save Mart, is now inspecting the rest of its 234 stores in northern California and northern Nevada and urging customers who used self-checkout lanes to close their bank and credit card accounts. ...read full article
December 7, 2011

Convicted Staten Island identity thief caught up in fingerprint scam, cops say



STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A convicted identity thief from West Brighton is at it again, authorities say. ...read full article
December 7, 2011

Personal Information of 3.5 Million Poker Players Spilled Online



Customers of the online poker Website Ultimate Bet (UB) are the victims of a data breach that spilled the private information of up to 3.5 million of its customers online over the weekend. ...read full article
December 7, 2011

Man fights felony hacking charge for accessing wife's email


Gmail showed her having extramarital affair



A Michigan appeals court is trying to decide whether the state's anti hacking law should be invoked against a man who broke into his wife's Gmail account to see if she was having an affair. ...read full article
December 7, 2011

Hackers exploit Adobe Reader zero-day, may be targeting defense contractors


Adobe credits Lockheed Martin, victim of earlier attack, and defense industry cyber-threat group with reporting unpatched bug



Computerworld - Adobe today confirmed that an unpatched, or zero-day, vulnerability in Adobe Reader is being exploited by criminals. ...read full article
December 6, 2011

RSA security lapse led to March hack, says researcher


Exploit targeted Windows XP machines that didn't have DEP switched on



Computerworld - The attack that hacked RSA Security's network earlier this year succeeded because the company failed to take a basic security precaution, a researcher said Monday. ...read full article
December 6, 2011

Anti-Kremlin websites complain of DDoS attacks


Election fraud monitors: 'We were silenced as Russia went to the polls'



Websites publicising doubts about the fairness of the Russian parliamentary election last weekend have become the victim of denial of service attacks. ...read full article
December 6, 2011

Idaho's consumer chief targeted by identity theft



BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The head of Idaho's consumer protection division warns that even he is not immune to identity theft. ...read full article
December 6, 2011

Man Sentenced For Fraud, Identity Theft



NATIONAL CITY, Calif. -- A man who gained unauthorized access to the names and personal identifying information of employees of a San Diego business and their family members, then used the stolen information to open credit cards in the victims' names, was sentenced on Monday to four years in federal prison. ...read full article
December 6, 2011

Text messages lead Paramus police to suspects



A text message sent to a suspect already in custody led to two more arrests on charges of identity theft in Paramus last week. ...read full article
December 6, 2011

Verizon Becomes First Company to Offer Certified Online-ID Protection



Verizon has become the first company certified to offer high-level online-identity protection for federal personnel and visitors to dot-gov websites, officials at the telecommunications firm announced on Monday. ...read full article
December 6, 2011

From Sony's DRM Rootkit to CarrierIQ: Why Commercial Rootkits Make Us So Mad



The half life of the CarrierIQ "rootkit" scandal proved to be a little more than a week. That's about how long it took for Trevor Eckhart, a young, Connecticut-based Android developer to begin raising questions about some stealth software he discovered running on Android phones by HTC and speculation in the media and online to run rampant about what kinds of spying said software might be engaged in. ...read full article
December 6, 2011

Denver cops nail 'Breakroom Bandit'



A man law enforcement accuses of being the "Breakroom Bandit" faces 22 felonies after a string of thefts from employee lockers at Denver area stores. ...read full article
December 5, 2011

Committee approves cybersharing bill despite privacy concerns


The bill would give the NSA access to private information held by U.S. companies, a critic says



IDG News Service - The U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee has approved a recently introduced bill that would allow greater cyberthreat information sharing between U.S. intelligence agencies and private companies even though privacy advocates say it would allow those agencies to spy on U.S. residents. ...read full article
December 5, 2011

Albuquerque identity theft victim almost sent to jail mistakenly



An Albuquerque man learned his identity was stolen when a lawyer called to notify him about a felony charge he didn’t commit. ...read full article
December 5, 2011

Lawmakers propose alternative to Stop Online Piracy Act


Eleven lawmakers call for the U.S. International Trade Commission to investigate copyright infringement complaints



IDG News Service - A group of U.S. lawmakers has proposed an alternative to the controversial copyright enforcement legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act, with the draft proposal giving the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) the authority to investigate complaints about copyright infringement on foreign websites. ...read full article
December 5, 2011

Plea bargaining for financial crime set to come into law early next year


Plea bargaining to settle serious financial crimes could be introduced as early as next year according to politicians and leading legal experts.



Research by The Daily Telegraph has shown leading City law firms and Government Ministers are looking at new rules on deferred prosecution agreements to be introduced in the next session of Parliament starting in May. ...read full article
December 5, 2011

Making 'clone' Facebook accounts can fool ANYONE into accepting a fake friend within 24 hours - even security experts



Think your Facebook profile is private? Well think again. A security expert has worked out a way to 'friend' anyone with the use of social media trickery. ...read full article
December 5, 2011

Carrier IQ: How big a threat is it?



The maker of the software that monitors smartphone performance is facing increasing scrutiny, following a security researcher's report on Carrier IQ. ...read full article
December 5, 2011

Should Homeland Security control the electrical grid? Maybe



The electrical grid is commonly cited as a potential security issue for the U.S. And in a wide-ranging study on the matter, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say that the time has come for the U.S. government to focus a single agency's efforts on doing a better job of securing it. ...read full article
December 2, 2011

Forest Grove legal assistant pleads guilty to aggravated identity theft



The legal assistant at Robert Browning's Forest Grove law firm pleaded guilty Thursday in Washington County Circuit Court to first-degree theft and aggravated identity theft. ...read full article
December 2, 2011

Sen. Franken Demands Answers From Carrier IQ on Mobile Tracking



The fallout from the controversy surrounding the presence of Carrier IQ's monitoring software on millions of mobile devices on several different platforms has now reached Washington. Sen. Al Franken on Thursday sent a letter to the company, demanding answers to a series of questions about the software and its capabilities, and saying that the data that Carrier IQ collects "may violate federal privacy laws". ...read full article
December 2, 2011

How to turn off Carrier IQ on your iPhone


Apple says it stopped supporting the monitoring software on 'most' iOS 5 devices



Computerworld - iPhone users can turn off the Carrier IQ software that's raised a ruckus among consumers, bloggers and privacy advocates with just four taps. ...read full article
December 2, 2011

OpRobinHood more likely to stiff punters than bankers


Stealing from the rich, giving grief to the poor



Charities are unlikely to benefit from an Anonymous-led operation attempting to use stolen credit card details to make donations to worthwhile causes. ...read full article
December 2, 2011

Yahoo Messenger flaw enables spamming through other people's status messages


The unpatched vulnerability in Yahoo Messenger allows attackers to change other people's status messages automatically



IDG News Service - An unpatched Yahoo Messenger vulnerability that allows attackers to change people's status messages and possibly perform other unauthorized actions can be exploited to spam malicious links to a large number of users. ...read full article
December 2, 2011

Federal prosecutor in Portland calls release of repeat aggravated identity theft defendant a 'grave mistake'



A month ago, a federal judge warned Andrew J. Clark, who was facing aggravated identity theft charges shortly after having served a stretch in federal prison for the same crime, not to mess up, as he hesitantly released the man pending trial. ...read full article
December 2, 2011

Police Release Suspect Photo In Staten Island Identity Theft



NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — The NYPD is asking for the public to help uncover a bewildering case of grand larceny involving a Staten Island man. ...read full article
December 2, 2011

Teacher's aide fired, NISD makes changes after alleged ID theft



SAN ANTONIO - Northside Independent School District fired an instructional assistant charged with identity theft, and the district is now making changes within. 25-year-old Jason Miller was let go Thursday, two days after his arrest. ...read full article
December 2, 2011

Florist pleads no contest to identity theft


He and his wife used customers' credit card information for themselves, detectives say.



A Glendale florist and his wife pleaded no contest Thursday to multiple charges of identity theft following accusations that they stole financial information from customers who shopped at their Glenoaks Boulevard shop, officials said. ...read full article
December 2, 2011

Elderly Woman Imprisoned as Leader of People Smuggling Ring



An 85-year-old ring leader of an extensive migrant smuggling operation in southern California has been sentenced to 30 months in prison. ...read full article
December 1, 2011

Identity Theft Reported by Households Rose 33 Percent From 2005 to 2010



WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An estimated 8.6 million households had at least one person age 12 or older who experienced identity theft victimization in 2010, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today. This was an increase from the 6.4 million households victimized in 2005. ...read full article
December 1, 2011

2 RI men deny charges they arranged $25M investment fraud by stealing IDs of terminally ill



PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Rhode Island estate planner and one of his former employees pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges they orchestrated a $25 million swindle of insurance companies and brokerage houses by stealing the identities of terminally ill and elderly people, including some they met by advertising offers for a $2,000 charitable gift in a Catholic newspaper. ...read full article
December 1, 2011

4.9 million retired military members, families have medical information stolen



CORPUS CHRISTI — Personal and protected health information for 4.9 million retired military members and their families or dependents has gotten into the wrong hands, according to Science Applications International Corp., a government contractor that handles health information for the United States Department of Defense Military Health System. ...read full article
December 1, 2011

Duqu hackers scrub evidence from command servers, shut down spying op


Delete all files and logs just days after researchers revealed botnet's existence



Computerworld - The hackers behind the Duqu botnet have shut down their snooping operation, a security researcher said today. ...read full article
December 1, 2011

GAO: Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Intiatives Lack Focus



According to a new report from the Government Accountability Office, federal cybersecurity workforce initiatives are in need of better planning and coordination, particularly with regards to human capital. ...read full article
December 1, 2011

Identity theft charges filed against Cartwright



A Chippewa Falls man is accused in separate criminal complaints of identity theft-related crimes. ...read full article
December 1, 2011

Fargo Man Pleads Guilty to Identity Theft, Possession of Materials Involving the Sexual Exploitation of Minors



A Fargo man has pleaded guilty to charges of identity theft and possession of materials involving the sexual exploitation of minors. ...read full article
December 1, 2011

Off-duty Border Patrol agent sentenced to probation for purse theft



BISBEE — An off duty Border Patrol agent who stole a woman’s purse in Douglas in August was sentenced to serve three years of probation Friday in Cochise County Superior Court. ...read full article
December 1, 2011

Northern Ireland's top cops 'hacked by NotW' - new claim



Senior police officers and a Cabinet minister may have been targeted for computer hacking by unscrupulous journalists at News International. ...read full article
December 1, 2011

UN Says Old Server, Old Data Exposed In TeamP0ison Hack



UNIn the wake of a highly visible hack of its network infrastructure, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says that hackers from the group TeamP0ison compromised an unpatched server and that e-mail addresses and account passwords exposed in the attack were outdated. ...read full article
December 1, 2011

Bill would allow U.S. intelligence to share cyber-threat info


The legislation would help protect U.S. businesses against cyberattackers, the sponsors say



IDG News Service - A bill introduced by senior members of the House Intelligence Committee would allow intelligence agencies to share classified cyber-threat information with approved U.S. companies, while encouraging companies to share their own information. ...read full article
December 1, 2011

Inside the shadow world of commercialised spook spyware


'We'll penetrate commsats, undersea cables, Skype ...'



Exclusive Western and Chinese high-tech companies are competing aggressively to sell, install and manage intrusive and dangerous internet surveillance and communications control equipment for the world’s most brutal regimes, a six-month investigation has found. ...read full article
November 30, 2011

Report: Computer Hacking, Theft Of Government Secrets Alleged In News International Probe



A report from The Guardian claims that detectives working for Rupert Murdoch's News International may have siphoned off classified intelligence documents from MI5, Britain's domestic intelligence agency. ...read full article
November 30, 2011

Former Platteville police chief accused of identity theft



PLATTEVILLE, Colo. -- The former police chief of Platteville in northern Colorado faces embezzlement and identity theft charges. ...read full article
November 30, 2011

Key associate in ID theft ring pleads guilty



A Ridgefield woman pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy and fraud charges Tuesday, admitting she was the second-in-command of a large-scale identity theft and bank-fraud ring based in Bergen County. ...read full article
November 30, 2011

FTC, Facebook reach privacy agreement



WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Facebook, accused of deceiving its customers, has agreed to take steps to assure their privacy won't be violated in the future, U.S. regulators said Tuesday. ...read full article
November 30, 2011

Foreign hackers targeted Canadian firms



A leading cyber-crime expert says foreign hackers who launched a massive attack on Canadian government computers last fall also broke into the data systems of prominent Bay Street law firms and other companies to get insider information on an attempted $38-billion corporate takeover. ...read full article
November 30, 2011

Hackers target U.N., World Bank personnel



A new hacker group on Tuesday claimed to have leaked the email addresses and passwords of more than 100 individuals at the United Nations. ...read full article
November 30, 2011

Facebook virus alert: Worm hidden in image of two blondes



A new worm is spreading on Facebook: once downloaded, it tempts the user into opening it by masquerading as a screensaver with a thumbnail image of two blonde women. ...read full article
November 30, 2011

Anonymous launches OpRobinHood against banks


'We have come to take the 99%'s money back'



Anonymous and other hacktivists have joined together to launch an attack on banks in response to recent crackdowns against the Occupy protest movement. ...read full article
November 30, 2011

BUSTED! Secret app on millions of phones logs key taps


Researcher says seeing is believing



An Android app developer has published what he says is conclusive proof that millions of smartphones are secretly monitoring the key presses, geographic locations, and received messages of its users. ...read full article
November 29, 2011

Ten Arrested In Mail, Identity Theft Case



An investigation into mail and identity theft that began over the summer has resulted in the arrests of ten suspects, the El Paso County Sheriff's Office reports. ...read full article
November 29, 2011

Philadelphia Man Sentenced To 15 Years In Prison For Identity Theft Ring



PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A Philadelphia man, convicted last June of running an identity theft ring involving 24 other people, was sentenced Monday to more than 15 years in prison. ...read full article
November 29, 2011

Parents Call Dead Son’s Identity Theft “Modern Day Grave Robbing”



SANDWICH (CBS) – Some grieving Cape Cod parents say scam artists are adding to their suffering after the loss of their only son. ...read full article
November 29, 2011

Four charged in New Jersey insider abuse identity theft cases


Defendants sold victims' personal information obtained through their jobs in state government and the tax department



The Mercer County, New Jersey prosecutor's office said it ended a seven-month identity theft investigation by charging four defendants in identity-theft related activities. According to the prosecutor, each defendant used their insider access to obtain the information they purportedly sold. ...read full article
November 29, 2011

KC woman could face 22 years in prison for role in adoption scam



A Kansas City woman on Monday admitted her role in scamming 14 couples across the country in a scheme in which she pretended to be pregnant with twins and willing to let others adopt them. ...read full article
November 29, 2011

13 MILLION gamers in ID theft scare after Nexon breach


Game items offered to punters who change their passwords



An estimated 13 million gamers have been left at greater risk of ID theft following a breach at gaming firm Nexon. ...read full article
November 29, 2011

Facebook Worm Spreading, Installing Zeus Bot



A new worm has popped up on Facebook, using apparently stolen user credentials to log in to victims' accounts and then send out malicious links to their friends. The worm also downloads and installs a variety of malware on users' machines, including a variant of the Zeus bot. ...read full article
November 29, 2011

Feds Take Down 131 Counterfeiting Sites



It’s going to be considerably harder to get that sweet, knock-off Louis Vuitton bag you’ve been eyeing, and you can thank the US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) for that. The agency reportedly seized control of some 130 websites last week in advance of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, according to a report from The Register. ...read full article
November 29, 2011

SMS Trojans Spreading to the Rest of the World



SMS Trojans that ride along on supposedly benign mobile apps and then send out messages to high-priced numbers have been a problem in some Asian and Eastern European countries for several years now, most notably in Russia and China. But now the attackers have realized that there's a whole big world of users out there to target and have begun going after people in other countries with new strains of SMS malware. ...read full article
November 28, 2011

Look out for Cyber Monday deals - and scams



(RNN) - The nation's biggest shopping day of the year has come and gone, but that doesn't mean the deals are history. Online retailers are rolling out big savings for those who are logging on and checking out on Cyber Monday. ...read full article
November 28, 2011

AT&T hackers have terrorist connections, say Philippines police



IDG News Service - The FBI and police in the Philippines have jointly busted a ring of four alleged hackers in Manila with connections to a terrorist group in Saudi Arabia, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippines police said last week. ...read full article
November 28, 2011

Scammers steal IRS refunds with ease



Identity-theft crimes have soared in the electronic age, with crooks graduating from everyday credit-card fraud to stealing people’s identities such as Social Security numbers for income tax-return scams. ...read full article
November 28, 2011

Presumed iTunes Gift Certificate Contains Malware



Berlin, November 22, 2011 – The eleven Research Team has issued a warning against e-mails which promise a gift certificate for the popular Apple online music service iTunes. The e-mails have the subject line „iTunes Gift Certificate“ and promise a 50 dollar discount for everyone shopping at the iTunes Store using the code which is allegedly contained in the attachment. This, however, consists of a Zip file which contains executable files that install themselves into two separate Windows folders and which are activated with every Windows start. The malware is most likely a Trojan which opens a connection to a remote server from which it awaits further orders. From there it can download any kind of malware to the infected server. ...read full article
November 28, 2011

Spooks take the wheel in UK's £650m cyber-war operations



Analysis The British government's Cyber Security Strategy is giving the intelligence agencies a greater role than ever in defending business and the public against internet threats. ...read full article
November 28, 2011

Utah professor arrested for allegedly viewing child porn on flight



(CNN) -- A University of Utah professor, arrested over the weekend for allegedly viewing child pornography on his laptop during a flight, will be arraigned on Monday in a Boston court. ...read full article
November 22, 2011

Anonymous Hacks, Leaks E-mails, Voicemails of California Special Agent



Calling it a form of "electronic civil disobedience," hacktivist group Anonymous took aim at a special agent from the California Department of Justice on Friday. The group spilled 38,000 e-mails containing “computer forensics techniques, investigation protocols as well as highly embarrassing personal information,” according to a press release on Pastebin. ...read full article
November 22, 2011

Update: AT&T says attempted hack of customer accounts failed


Of its 100 million wireless customers, less than 1% affected



Computerworld - AT&T on Monday acknowledged an organized attempt to hack information on fewer than 1% of its 100 million wireless customers, but said no accounts were breached. ...read full article
November 22, 2011

Identity theft victim wrongly arrested, calls Help Desk



ATLANTA -- Mashara Williams is a successful architect. She is married, eight months pregnant and has a perfectly clean criminal history. And up until Monday, thanks to identity theft, she also had an arrest record. ...read full article
November 22, 2011

Holocaust survivors info stolen by North Miami Jewish agency worker, feds say



Identity theft may have reached a new low over the weekend when an employee of a Jewish community organization got busted on charges of selling a bunch of Holocaust survivors' identity information for a sum of $1,000. ...read full article
November 22, 2011

Mooresville woman accused of identity theft



MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- A Mooresville woman is accused of stealing someone’s checking account number and using that to pay her electric bills. ...read full article
November 22, 2011

Health care worker sentenced in Scarsdale identity theft



A home health-care worker was sentenced Monday in White Plains to four years in federal prison for stealing the identities of the elderly Scarsdale couple for whom she worked. ...read full article
November 22, 2011

Maine man gets 6 years in tax fraud scheme



PORTLAND, Maine—A former Arundel man has been sentenced to more than six years in federal prison for seeking fraudulent tax refunds totaling nearly $216,000 in other people's names. ...read full article
November 22, 2011

With 4 Million Ghost Click Victims, FBI Hoping A Few Step Forward



The news last month was of the bust up of the biggest cyber crime ring in history, with 4 million victims and $14 million in losses. Now the FBI is hoping a few of those victims step forward to help with the prosecution. ...read full article
November 21, 2011

Report warns of cyberspying by China, Russia



Computerworld - The U.S. can expect more aggressive cyberespionage efforts from China, Russia and other countries looking to collect information in areas such as pharmaceuticals, defense and manufacturing, according to a new government report. ...read full article
November 21, 2011

Hacker Says Texas Town Used Three Character Password To Secure Internet Facing SCADA System



In an e-mail interview with Threatpost, the hacker who compromised software used to manage water infrastructure for South Houston, Texas, said the district had HMI (human machine interface) software used to manage water and sewage infrastructure accessible to the Internet and used a password that was just three characters long to protect the system, making it easy picking for a remote attack. ...read full article
November 21, 2011

New York Theft Ring Recruited Waiters to Steal Information from Customers, Authorities Say



An ambitious and disciplined identity-theft ring recruited waiters at steakhouses and other high-end New York restaurants to steal diners' credit-card information, then used it for luxury shopping sprees, authorities said Friday. ...read full article
November 21, 2011

Man sentenced for fraud, identity theft



A Florida businessman who operated a $200,000 credit-card fraud and identity-theft scheme that was investigated by a task force that includes a Greenwich police detective was sentenced Friday in a New Haven federal court to 61 months in prison. ...read full article
November 21, 2011

Haverford man charged in harassment, stalking CBS anchor



HAVERFORD – Philadelphia police have charged a township man with harassment, identity theft and related offenses. ...read full article
November 21, 2011

Who's been scanning your credit card?



Sometimes an invention can solve a problem. At other times, it can leave you wondering: Was this a problem to begin with? Think of the difference between a TV remote control and a Flowbee. Everyone likes to change the channel without getting out of the Barcolounger, but how many people want to cut hair using a vacuum cleaner? ...read full article
November 21, 2011

Police Search For More Suspects In ID Theft Ring



DENVER (CBS4) – Police are asking for help finding five more people they say were involved in an identity theft ring. ...read full article
November 21, 2011

25 Worst Internet Passwords



If “password” is your password, chances are you’ve been the victim of a hack attack. ...read full article
November 21, 2011

Couple link identity theft to McDonald's drive-through visit



For weeks, Jennifer and Anthony Bossuyt were stumped about a series of liquor store charges that appeared on their debit card. ...read full article
November 21, 2011

Lax Security to Blame for NASDAQ Hack



The cyber attack on the NASDAQ OMX Group late last year was the result of shoddy security, according to a new report via Reuters. ...read full article
November 21, 2011

Apparent cyberattack destroys pump at Ill. water utility


In separate incident, hacker claims access to SCADA system at Houston utility



Computerworld - A pump at a public water utility in Springfield, Ill. was recently destroyed after cyberattackers gained access to a SCADA system controlling the device, according to a security expert who said he obtained an official report about the incident. ...read full article
November 21, 2011

Feds back off on Jan.1 eHealth standards deadline


U.S. health officials delay enforcement until March 31, 2012



Computerworld - The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid said Thursday that it will delay enforcement of a deadline for healthcare providers to roll out a new version of a standard governing how medical transactions are processed. ...read full article
November 21, 2011

FBI To Probe California University Hack That Changed Student’s Grades



More than 60 current and former students at Santa Clara University had their academic records hacked into and grades changed – for the better, according to a letter posted to the school’s site on Monday by university president Michael Engh. ...read full article
November 21, 2011

Stolen Desktop Computer Exposes Data Of Nearly 4 Million Patients


Healthcare organization was in the midst of an encryption rollout when unencrypted machine was stolen



A desktop computer stolen from healthcare organization Sutter Medical Foundation has potentially exposed the personal information of nearly 4 million patients. ...read full article
November 15, 2011

IRS Security Deficiencies May Put Taxpayer Data At Risk



Information security failings are making it impossible for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to get its financial house in order and could be putting taxpayers' sensitive information at risk, according to a financial audit of the agency by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). ...read full article
November 15, 2011

Texas man convicted of trying to sneak out of US to join al-Qaida, faces 20 years in prison



HOUSTON — A Texas man accused of attempting to sneak out of the country with restricted U.S. military documents, money and equipment in order to join al-Qaida was convicted Monday of trying to help the terrorist organization. ...read full article
November 15, 2011

Alleged ‘Felony Lane Gang’ member caught


Secret Service targeting identify-theft ring



The United States Secret Service and the Hampton Police Department are trying to apprehend members of an identity-theft ring. ...read full article
November 15, 2011

Muscatine woman facing charges for using debit card



MUSCATINE, Iowa — A Muscatine woman has been accused of theft, identity theft, and fraudulent use of a credit/debit card. ...read full article
November 15, 2011

Anonymous Finland Wages War on Mining, Leaks 500,000 E-mails



The Finnish arm of the Hacktivist collective Anonymous announced their intent to wage a war against domestic mining company Talvivaara over the weekend, according to a press release posted to the Pastebin file sharing Web site on Saturday. ...read full article
November 15, 2011

Phone hacking victims' QC hit by trojan infection



The opening day of a judicial inquiry into phone hacking and other privacy-invading skullduggery by the British media was briefly interrupted on Monday - by a suspected Trojan horse infection. ...read full article
November 15, 2011

Man charged with identity theft in Columbia County



HUDSON -- New York State Police arrested 27-year-old Sekhou Toure on Thursday in connection with cases of local identity theft. ...read full article
November 15, 2011

Police charge NYC man in connection to Greenport identity theft ring



GREENPORT - A New York City man, already charged in connection with several hundred identity theft cases in the area is facing new charges. ...read full article
November 15, 2011

ID theft suspect back in jail



COLUMBIA COUNTY — The man recently arrested in connection with rampant local identity theft was released from jail Nov. 10, but re-arrested the same day and is back in jail. ...read full article
November 15, 2011

Franconia doctor charged with prescription fraud waives preliminary hearing



A Franconia Township doctor waived a preliminary hearing Wednesday for numerous alleged counts of prescription fraud, prescribing in bad faith, prescribing to a drug-dependent person, identity theft, corrupt organizations and dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities. ...read full article
November 15, 2011

Man who posed as plastic surgeon cuts plea deal



PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) - A 21-year-old man admitted Monday he had pretended to be a doctor at Oregon Health and Science University hospital and committed identity theft and other crimes. ...read full article
November 15, 2011

Muscatine woman facing charges for using debit card



MUSCATINE, Iowa — A Muscatine woman has been accused of theft, identity theft, and fraudulent use of a credit/debit card. ...read full article
November 14, 2011

Guilty pleas for leaders in card-skimming ring



One of the leaders in an identity-theft ring that stole the credit card numbers of hundreds of D.C.-area consumers has pleaded guilty and the other is scheduled to do so on Monday. ...read full article
November 14, 2011

Hackers may have spent years crafting Duqu


Gang customized attack files for each target, says Kaspersky Lab



puterworld - The hacker group behind Duqu may have been working on its attack code for more than four years, new analysis of the Trojan revealed Friday. ...read full article
November 14, 2011

Steam’s 35 Million Users Compromised in Hack



Gamers who use the digital distribution network Steam were warned that their account information may have been exposed to hackers following a compromise of the company's Web page and back end databases. The incident yielded a slew of sensitive customer information, including user’s passwords and encrypted credit card numbers, Steam said. ...read full article
November 14, 2011

Iran wrestles Duqu malware infestation


Son of Stuxnet cyberweapon makes landfall in Tehran



Iran admitted on Sunday that unspecified computer systems in the country had been infected with the Duqu worm, a strain of malware similar to the infamous Stuxnet worm that sabotaged key nuclear plant systems in the country last year. ...read full article
November 14, 2011

Platoon Boosts Lawyers Helping Homeless Vets



U.S. Army veteran Caroline Contreras was living in a homeless shelter, struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, when another problem threatened to push her over the edge: Identity theft. ...read full article
November 14, 2011

Franconia doctor charged with prescription fraud waives preliminary hearing



A Franconia Township doctor waived a preliminary hearing Wednesday for numerous alleged counts of prescription fraud, prescribing in bad faith, prescribing to a drug-dependent person, identity theft, corrupt organizations and dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities. ...read full article
November 14, 2011

Cops: Asheville man stole brother's identity



ASHEVILLE — Police say an Asheville man stole his brother’s identity after being arrested for being intoxicated and disruptive. ...read full article
November 14, 2011

Local woman avoids identity theft scam



A Cranbrook woman wants people to know that identity theft and phone scams can very easily happen to just about anyone. ...read full article
November 14, 2011

CI pinpoints 200 millionth piece of cloud-based malware


According to Panda, a third of all the malware in existence was created in the first 10 months of 2010.



CSO - The good news is that Collective Intelligence (CI), the engine for Internet security created in 2006 by Panda Security's malware research laboratory, recently processed its 200 millionth malware file via the cloud. That's also the bad news. ...read full article
November 14, 2011

Man fined after selling unlawfully obtained personal data of online bingo players



A man who made approximately £25,000 from selling unlawfully obtained personal data has been issued with a £1,700 fine and conditional discharge by a UK court. ...read full article
November 14, 2011

Utah mayor apologizes over photo misuse



The mayor of Utah's second-largest city has apologized to a California man for using his photo without permission while the mayor freelanced a series of articles to promote his city under an alias. ...read full article
November 14, 2011

Tour de France winner sentenced for hack of doping lab


Trojan siphoned 1,700 confidential files



Floyd Landis, the disgraced US cyclist who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France victory for doping, was handed a suspended 12-month prison sentence for his part in a hack of an anti-doping lab computer. ...read full article
November 11, 2011

Justice Department Asks Federal Court to Shut Down South Florida Tax Preparer



WASHINGTON – The United States has sued Kenia Marrero seeking to bar her and her business, Kenia Immigration Services, from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. ...read full article
November 11, 2011

Duqu Attackers Using Word Docs As Attack Vector



As the analysis of the Duqu malware continues to evolve, the picture that's emerging is becoming more and more intriguing. The latest bits of evidence uncovered show that not only do the attackers create custom files for each individual attack, there is evidence indicating that they might have been working on Duqu in some form since 2007. ...read full article
November 11, 2011

U.S. Judge upholds investigators' access to Twitter data


The ruling in the WikiLeaks investigation upheld secrecy in collecting such information



IDG News Service - A District Judge in the U.S. upheld Thursday an earlier order that Twitter must provide certain types of information of account holders to government investigators working on the WikiLeaks case, and declined to unseal records that could provide information on whether the prosecutors had tried to get similar information from other Internet companies. ...read full article
November 11, 2011

Valve admits forum hack exposed gamers' privates



Steam, the online platform of video game firm Valve Corporation, has admitted that customer personal details including encrypted credit card information might have been exposed by a hack attack last weekend. ...read full article
November 11, 2011

Identity Theft Suspects Nabbed At Feather Falls Casino



OROVILLE, Calif. -- Deputies arrested four suspects in an identity theft ring after an incident at Feather Falls Casino. Butte County investigators looked into a report of a fraudulent check last week. They uncovered an identity theft ring involving four suspects and at least 15 victims. ...read full article
November 11, 2011

Malware Writers Use Block Cipher in Latin America



The creators of banking trojan programs in Brazil are using sophisticated block ciphers to encrypt their malware, making detection by anti virus products more difficult. ...read full article
November 11, 2011

Two arrested from Moss Bluff for burglary and identity theft



Lake Charles – On October 12, Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office detectives received a report in reference to a theft that occurred a few days before. ...read full article
November 11, 2011

S.F. woman gets 9 months for San Bruno blast scam



A San Francisco woman has been sentenced to nine months in jail for posing as a victim of the San Bruno natural gas pipeline explosion to receive free benefits, a prosecutor said Thursday. ...read full article
November 11, 2011

Portland man accused of a second round of credit card fraud after release from federal prison on similar charges



A man released from federal prison in 2009 after serving two years for using stolen credit card numbers to book flights from Eugene to California, reserve luxury hotel rooms and pay for more than a dozen tickets to Disneyland is back in federal custody. ...read full article
November 10, 2011

Feds Bust $14 m Cybercrime Ring That Hijacked iTunes, Netflix Traffic To Rake in Ad Dollars



An indictment filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York charges seven individuals with a a global scheme to commit Internet advertising fraud. The scheme infected more than four million machines in over 100 countries with malware. It is believed to have netted the scammers more than $14 million in commissions from online advertisers. ...read full article
November 10, 2011

Ex-college accounting assistant embezzled $500,000, police say



A former accounting assistant at Antelope Valley College has been arrested and accused of embezzling $500,000. ...read full article
November 10, 2011

Banks fending off brazen hacker raids on business accounts



Network World - Banks are having to fend off ever more attacks from hackers who break into computers of their business customers and try to make fraudulent funds transfers electronically for large amounts. If you doubt how bad this hacker scourge has become, ask Jorge Solis, senior vice president of security at First Midwest Bank. ...read full article
November 10, 2011

City IT manager accused of brazenly stealing mayor's email



A former IT manager for the city of Hoboken, New Jersey, was arrested on Wednesday on charges he intercepted emails sent to and from its sitting mayor and other top city officials, and forwarded them to others. ...read full article
November 10, 2011

Report: Phishing Domain Registrations Way Down



Online criminals registered far fewer Web domains for use in phishing attacks in the first half of 2011, in what may signal a decrease in phishing scams, according to a global phishing survey released this month by the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG). ...read full article
November 10, 2011

Underground call-centre for identity theft uncovered by security researchers



Researchers from security vendor Trusteer have come across a professional calling service that caters to cybercriminals. The business offers to extract sensitive information needed for bank fraud and identity theft from individuals. ...read full article
November 10, 2011

String of burglaries tied to identity theft ring in Columbia County



While investigating a rash of burglaries in the Warren area, Columbia County Sheriff’s Office investigators believe they have uncovered a burglary and identity theft ring that has tied three suspects with over a dozen home invasions. ...read full article
November 10, 2011

Victim of hoax call was detained while police investigated threat



BENNINGTON -- A Manchester man was held on $15,000 bail Wednesday after pleading not guilty to accusing another of multiple homicides, causing that man to be detained briefly by police. ...read full article
November 10, 2011

Two people caught in possession of stolen personal information



TEMPLE - Police have caught two suspects associated with both credit card fraud and identity theft. ...read full article
November 10, 2011

Women arrested in string of thefts at schools, hospitals, police say


Ziedra Domine Jenkins, 29, and Tomika Lawanna Johnson, 32, were arrested on Wednesday.



A pair of women suspected in numerous thefts and burglaries at schools and hospitals across Central Florida were arrested on Wednesday in Ocoee, police said. ...read full article
November 10, 2011

Former DC church official sentenced to 8 years



The former chief financial officer of a historic church in Washington has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison for embezzling $850,000 from the institution. ...read full article
November 10, 2011

Computershare Says No Customer Data Exposed In Breach



The investor services company told Threatpost that an investigation has determined that data stolen by a rogue employee didn't contain shareholder data. However, the company still hasn't retrieved two USB drives containing company email and documents that outline some of Computershare's closely held business plans. ...read full article
November 9, 2011

What's it like to share your SSN with 50 people? Follow a victim's struggle



Jonathan Barnett is also Jose Cruz. And Jesus Ramirez. And Pilar Terrones, Pilar Sanchez, Esmeralda Gonzalez and dozens of other people, at least according to the nation’s identity system. ...read full article
November 9, 2011

Smart Card Alliance Government Conference Concludes with Updates on Health Security Card and Expanding Uses of PIV for Information Access



Princeton Junction, NJ, November 7, 2011–More than 600 government and technology sector leaders and 40 exhibitors came together at the 10th Annual Smart Card Alliance Government Conference, which took place last week in Washington, D.C. The event brings together a broad spectrum of government users, policy makers, analysts and technologists in a collaborative and informative conference that includes the latest news on a wide range of government smart card programs underway. ...read full article
November 9, 2011

Vishing and Smishing: How ID Thieves are Ruining Lives



Imagine getting a text message from your bank informing you that your credit card has been compromised and that you need to call the number provided. ...read full article
November 9, 2011

Two arrested for their roles in a national identity theft ring



Robert A. Hill, 49 years old, formerly from Emanuel County, along with Robert A. Smith, 46, were taken into custody in Atlanta Wednesday, Nov. 2. for their roles in a national identity theft ring. ...read full article
November 9, 2011

Department of Defense Contractors Replacing Legacy Two-Factor Authentication With YubiKey



PALO ALTO, CA and STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN--(Marketwire -11/09/11)- Yubico, the leading provider of simple, open online identity protection, today announced a rapid increase of YubiKey orders from U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) contractors to replace legacy two-factor authentication tokens. The growing business within the defense sector validates the unique, high security processes provided by Yubico. ...read full article
November 9, 2011

FTC settles privacy complaint against online ad network


ScanScout's description of how consumers could opt out of data collection didn't work, the agency says



IDG News Service - Online video advertising network ScanScout has agreed to settle U.S. Federal Trade Commission charges that it wrongly claimed that consumers could opt out of receiving targeted ads by changing their computer's browser settings to block cookies. ...read full article
November 9, 2011

Financial Records of Millions At Risk After Computershare Insider Copies Data To USB... Then Loses The USB



Computershare, the investor services firm, has filed suit against a former employee it charges with making off with thousands of pages of proprietary company documents, including information on shareholder names, account numbers and financial holdings. ...read full article
November 9, 2011

DARPA gets serious with Internet security



Network World - WASHINGTON -- The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) had a big hand in creating the Internet and now its wants to get serious about protecting it. ...read full article
November 9, 2011

Foreign government emails HACKED says TeamP0ison



TeamP0ison has lobbed a file on Pastebin which purports to be a few hundred e-mail accounts complete with passwords. ...read full article
November 9, 2011

Researchers Warn of Prison Hacks, Opening Cell Doors



Remote hackers springing inmates from their jail cells -- it sounds like a plot lifted from an old episode of "24" or "Prison Break." But authorities are concerned by new research that claims such an attack is feasible. ...read full article
November 9, 2011

Attorney requests change of venue for Adam Baker trial



NEWTON, N.C. – Adam Baker's lawyer wants a trial on charges of identity theft and obtaining property by false pretenses moved from Catawba County due to publicity surrounding the death of his daughter, Zahra. ...read full article
November 9, 2011

Trojans, Anonymous, Android threats dominate landscape



In a new report examining the threat landscape over the third quarter, PandaLabs researchers found that five million new malware samples were created from July through September, including a peak of new trojans. ...read full article
November 9, 2011

Man accused of identity theft for flyer miles



VANNAH, GA (WTOC) - A man accused of using stealing identities for frequent flyer miles perks appeared before a federal judge Monday. ...read full article
November 9, 2011

8 Ways to Create Stronger Passwords



Fallows and his wife, Deb, followed Gmail’s instructions on recovering a compromised account, and eventually regained access, but they were unable to recover her old emails until Google executives got involved. (Before James Fallows called on his own contacts, who happened to be high-level executives in the company, Google had declined to help them further.) ...read full article
November 9, 2011

NYC hotel auditor indicted in guest credit card scam



An auditor for a stylish New York City hotel chain has been indicted for allegedly stealing guests' credit-card information and selling it to a man accused of using it to buy $840,000 worth of airline tickets and other items, the Associated Press reports. ...read full article
November 8, 2011

Phony Document Rings Broken Up


Alleged California Ringleader Arrested



It just got a little harder to get a phony driver’s license or Social Security card in the U.S. On November 3, more than 300 law enforcement officers from a variety of federal and local agencies executed dozens of search warrants and arrests involving fraudulent document rings operating in California, Illinois, and Texas that reached into a number of other states and Mexico. ...read full article
November 8, 2011

Adidas.com shut down after 'criminal attack'


Adidas has taken several of its websites offline after an attack last week



IDG News Service - Adidas has been forced to take some of its main websites offline after a "sophisticated, criminal cyber-attack" that took place last week, the company said. ...read full article
November 8, 2011

Study Finds Online Privacy Tools Fail to Protect Users



Poor design and usability issues make leading online privacy management tools ineffective, according to researchers at CMU's Cylab. The report said the results suggest that the current system of industry-led opt out protections is "fundamentally flawed." ...read full article
November 8, 2011

'Nitro' Cyberespionage Attack Targets Chemical, Defense Firms


But aspects of the attack are 'like 1998 all over again'



Another wave of cyberespionage attacks -- this time targeting chemical and defense companies and traced to a hacker in China -- used an old-school attack method that harkens back to circa 1998. ...read full article
November 8, 2011

Anonymous blasts El Salvador offline



The government of El Salvador's websites were taken out on Saturday in what was a weekend of big hacks by the Anonymous collective. ...read full article
November 8, 2011

Anonymous won't expose Mexican cartel's "servants"



(Reuters) - Latin American members of the activist hacker group Anonymous called off a planned November 5 plan to expose people associated with the Zetas, Mexico's most violent drug cartel, according to the group's blog. ...read full article
November 8, 2011

Anonymous Targets Capital One, Wal-Mart, Viral Video Judge William Adams, and More



It was a busy weekend for the shadowy collective of Internet hackers and activists that calls itself Anonymous, with claims by the group to have launched attacks that took down the Web pages of both government- and private sector Web sites as well as public- and Internet personalities, including Judge William Adams, the subject of a viral video that shows him reportedly beating his daughter with a belt. ...read full article
November 8, 2011

US cyber chief says cloud computing can manage serious cyber threats



Network World - WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The security of cloud computing is often debated but such debates seem to be over for the general tasked with running the United States military's cyber command, who sees the technology not only as way to rein in IT costs but a way to more easily protect IT assets. ...read full article
November 8, 2011

Report: Security From The Inside Out


New report offers retrospective on recent insider attacks, threats, and defenses



IT and network administrators are increasingly concerned about data leaks and attacks from inside the company, but their user awareness training programs are falling short of the mark. ...read full article
November 8, 2011

CIA monitors up to 5 million tweets daily, report says



Agency's Open Source Center said to use social media to assess reaction to world events ...read full article
November 8, 2011

Internal Fraud On The Rise, Kroll's Annual Global Fraud Report Reveals


Study shows that 60 percent of frauds are committed by insiders, up from 55 percent last year



NEW YORK, Oct. 18, 2011 – Fraud remains predominantly an inside job, according to the Kroll Annual Global Fraud Report released today. This year’s study shows that 60 percent of frauds are committed by insiders, up from 55 percent last year. Overall, fraud concerns among executives around the globe rose approximately 15 percent led by information theft and corruption and bribery. The findings are contained in a study commissioned by Kroll with the Economist Intelligence Unit of more than 1,200 senior executives worldwide. ...read full article
November 8, 2011

Danwine Dewayne Renard sentenced for role in identity theft scheme



East St. Louis, IL (KSDK) - A former inmate was sentenced to 12 years in prison for participating in an identity theft scheme while incarcerated. ...read full article
November 8, 2011

Hoosiers Endure Nightmarish ID Theft Problems


Indiana Reports Increase In ID Theft Complaints



INDIANAPOLIS -- Identity theft is a pervasive problem in Indiana, ensnaring an average of 12 people every day, according to the attorney general's office. ...read full article
November 8, 2011

Public's help sought in identifying credit card, identity theft suspect



Washoe County Sheriff's detectives are seeking the public's help in identifying a man suspected of credit card and identity theft. ...read full article
November 8, 2011

Hacks In Sweden Might Affect Personal Data Of 180,000 Users


Attackers penetrate some 58 websites, including popular blogging site Bloggtoppen.se



The personal data of some 180,000 Swedish users might be at risk following a series of hacks that have affected some 58 websites. ...read full article
November 7, 2011

Teens' Murderers Leave Online Trail 1.4 Billion Pages Long



Vanity Fair reports that two British Columbia teens convicted of first degree murder used World of Warcraft to plot the rape and murder of a close friend. The result: a trail of online evidence 1.4 billion pages long. ...read full article
November 7, 2011

KPN stops issuing SSL certificates after possible breach


KPN said it does not appear any fraudulent SSL certificates were issued, though



IDG News Service - The largest telecommunications company in the Netherlands has stopped issuing SSL certificates after finding indications that the website used for purchasing the certificates may have been hacked. ...read full article
November 7, 2011

Notorious eBay hacker gets 3-year suspended sentence


'Vladuz' repeatedly impaled auctioneer's defenses



Vladuz, the Romanian hacker who repeatedly accessed off-limits parts of eBay's website and then publicly taunted company officials over the security lapses, has been handed a suspended three-year sentence, according to news reports. ...read full article
November 7, 2011

Israeli Military, Intelligence Sites Down After Threat by Anonymous



The Websites of Israel’s Mossad and Shinbet intelligence services as well as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) site were knocked offline today following a Nov. 4 threat by Anonymous. However, members of the group may not be to blame. ...read full article
November 7, 2011

Accused Hollywood hacker does about face, pleads not guilty


Previously apologized for invading celeb's privacy



A Florida man has pleaded not guilty to charges he broke into the email accounts of actresses Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis, and as many as 50 other celebrities, and made off with nude photos and personal information. ...read full article
November 7, 2011

Major DNS Cache Poisoning Attack Hits Brazilian ISPs



There is a large-scale DNS cache-poisoning attack going on in Brazil at the moment, with potentially millions of users affected by a tactic that is forcing the to install a malicious Java applet before they can reach many popular sites, including Google, Gmail and Hotmail. ...read full article
November 7, 2011

Wi-Fi security do's and don'ts



Network World - Wi-Fi is inherently susceptible to hacking and eavesdropping, but it can be secure if you use the right security measures. Unfortunately, the Web is full of outdated advice and myths. But here are some do's and don'ts of Wi-Fi security, addressing some of these myths. ...read full article
November 7, 2011

Texas man's terrorism trial to start Monday



HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas man accused of trying to sneak out of the country to go on "jihad" and provide al-Qaida with money, GPS receivers and restricted U.S. military documents will be tried Monday on terrorism charges. ...read full article
November 7, 2011

New Mac Malware Variants Found in Trojaned Apps Are Stealing Data



Researchers have discovered a series of variants of the DevilRobber Mac OS X Trojan that have a menu of different capabilities, depending upon the strain, and can not only mine Bitcoins using the infected machine's processing power, but also steals files, installs a Web proxy and may steal the user's Safari browsing history. ...read full article
November 7, 2011

DoJ: Stingray cellphone tracking device falls under Fourth Amendment, but don't ask about it



n 2008, federal authorities arrested David Daniel Rigmaiden on charges of spearheading a massive identity theft ring in Arizona. Rigmaiden allegedly led this operation from January 2005 to April 2008, harvesting some $4 million off of more than 1,900 fraudulent tax returns. He was ultimately nabbed, however, thanks in part to controversial, and somewhat mysterious tool known as a "stingray" -- a device that effectively acts as a fake cell tower, allowing authorities to locate and track a cellphone even when it's not being used to place a call. Since his arrest, the 30-year-old Rigmaiden has been battling the feds in the U.S. District Court of Arizona, on allegations that their tracking tactics constituted an unlawful search and seizure, thereby violating his Fourth Amendment rights. ...read full article
November 7, 2011

Alleged International ID Theft Ring Founder Vladislav Horohorin Set for US Extradition


Attorney Says That US Government is attempting to Try Case in the Media



New York criminal attorney, Arkady Bukh spoke yesterday in regards to the upcoming extradition of alleged hacker, Vladislov Horohorin. “It seems the US Government has decided that it is better to have court in the media than use the appropriate and legal setting for this case,” says the rather frustrated Arkady Bukh. “My client is having a lot of difficulty believing in justice these days.” ...read full article
October 31, 2011

FBI Russian Spy Videos Released



ABC News’ Jason Ryan, Pierre Thomas and Jack Cloherty report: The FBI video is remarkable: Russian spies digging up payoff money in New Jersey, handing off a bag in a New York train station and passing information in furtive meetings and “brush bys.” ...read full article
October 31, 2011

Anonymous threatens to expose Mexican drug cartel


Anonymous said one of its members was kidnapped by the cartel



IDG News Service - Anonymous advised its members to protect their online identities, and not to wear the traditional Anonymous mask in public, or even purchase them online, as a core group decides if it should take on a Mexican drug cartel that is said to have kidnapped a member of the group. ...read full article
October 31, 2011

California man caught with 300,000 identities



A Southern California man was convicted of identity theft after authorities discovered he had obtained more than 300,000 personal profiles. While not the most authorities have seen, it's a large cache of personal information, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Brown. ...read full article
October 31, 2011

Attackers Moving to .CE.MS Domain For Attack Sites



Attackers have been making a mess of some of the smaller country-code top-level domains for a while now, registering random domain names en masse and then using them deliver malware and rogue AV. The most infamous example of this is the .co.cc domain, which had become so infested with malicious domains that Google removed the entire domain from its search results earlier this year. Now the bad guys have moved on to the mountainous West Indies isle of Montserrat. ...read full article
October 31, 2011

Man arrested for allegedly stealing car, mail



Angels Camp police Sunday morning arrested a Tuolumne County man, who was out on bail and already facing multiple criminal charges, for allegedly stealing a car and pilfering mail from dozens of county residents. ...read full article
October 31, 2011

‘Smishing’ targets victims with texts



The Montana Attorney General's Office and the Division of Banking and Financial Institutions issued an alert that warns consumers about people or entities engaged in a new scam involving text messages. ...read full article
October 31, 2011

Teenager's rocky life leads to 3 murders



Sainab Said Osman used to walk a block from her apartment building across busy Franklin Avenue and shop at Seward Market & Halal Meat. ...read full article
October 31, 2011

Bogus Texas college student, 48, gets prison



AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A 48-year-old Dallas man who stole an identity and faked being a college student to get loans has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison. ...read full article
October 31, 2011

Mac OS X Trojan Goes Bitcoin Mining, Steals Files



A new Trojan targeting Mac OS X users is not only after data, but Bitcoins as well. The malware is being detected by Sophos as Miner-D, but is also known as DevilRobber. According to Sophos, the Trojan is hiding inside pirated versions of the Mac OS X image editing application GraphicConverter version 7.4, and is being actively distributed on file-sharing networks and torrent sites like Pirate Bay. Once on the system, the Trojan creates a backdoor for remote access and installs a Bitcoin miner that uses up any spare CPU or GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) cycles. ...read full article
October 29, 2011

Scarlett Johansson Hack Suspect Allegedly Stalked Woman for 12 Years



The man accused of hacking email of Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis and Christina Aguilera is also reportedly suspected of stalking another woman — apparently not a celebrity — for 12 years. ...read full article
October 28, 2011

Chinese hackers may have attacked U.S. satellites


Upcoming congressional report highlights attacks on two satellites, Bloomberg report says



Computerworld - Suspected Chinese hackers interfered with two U.S. satellites on four separate occasions in 2007 and 2008. ...read full article
October 28, 2011

Asheville woman charged with identity theft



ASHEVILLE — An Asheville woman was charged with two counts of identity theft. ...read full article
October 28, 2011

Ocala Officers Arrested In Identity Theft Scheme



OCALA, Fla. -- An Ocala police officer and several other people were arrested in an elaborate identity theft scheme, police said. ...read full article
October 28, 2011

Critics say Govt.'s Death File puts dead at risk for identity theft



BALTIMORE - It's the one number you go to great lengths to protect, knowing that if someone learns your Social Security number they could try and get a credit card or a mortgage or even file as you on their taxes. You don’t don't give it to just anybody. But the federal government does, once you're dead. ...read full article
October 28, 2011

Public Eye: Identity theft hit 1 million Californians last year



Identity theft hit 1 million Californians last year; caution urged. Identity theft: It can happen anywhere and to anyone. ...read full article
October 28, 2011

Portland police arrest man who claimed to be ID theft victim



PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) - Identity theft investigators with the Portland Police Bureau say an 18-year-old man who claimed to be the victim of ID theft was nothing more than a con. ...read full article
October 28, 2011

InstantPeopleFinder.com Highlights a Growing Problem: College Identity Theft



Delaware City, DE (PRWEB) October 28, 2011 InstantPeopleFinder.com, a leading provider of online public records and people search, hopes to raise awareness of a new and rapidly growing form of identity theft that targets college students. Today, in addition to worrying about managing their studies and extracurricular activities, students have a new concern – protecting their identity. InstantPeopleFinder.com, hence becomes perfect to enhance personal security and safety via people find, background checks, and more. ...read full article
October 28, 2011

Massive Swedish hacks leak details on 400K user accounts


Users repeatedly using the same password makes matters worse



IDG News Service - The details of more than 400,000 user accounts have leaked onto the Internet in Sweden, following a series of attacks that have affected about 60 websites. ...read full article
October 27, 2011

Social engineering: My career as a professional bank robber


Today's criminals aren't stealing money -- that's so yesterday, according to Jim Stickley. It's sensitive data he's after.



CSO - Jim Stickley got his first computer at age 12, and he was chatting with other computer "nerds" on bulletin board sites by the time he was 16. A wannabe hacker, Stickley said his first foray into playing the system was with free codes -- codes that would exclude his phone and computer time from racking up charges that would incur the wrath of his parents. ...read full article
October 27, 2011

Grand Jury Indicts 6 People in Identity Theft and Real Estate & Welfare Fraud



Fresno County District Attorney Elizabeth A. Egan announced on Wednesday the filing of an indictment alleging 180-count felony real estate fraud case against Fresno residents: 37-year old Justin Dee Linder, 32-year-old Kelly Jo Linder, 37-year-old Gregg Borchardt, 68-year-old Hector Secco, 30-year-old Ryan Leffingwell, and 27-year-old Amy Leffingwell. The indictment included felony counts of grand theft, recording of false documents, false notarizing, identity theft and welfare fraud charges. ...read full article
October 27, 2011

Vernon Housekeeper Swindles Nearly $3,000 From Employer, Police Say



VERNON — A 60-year-old woman previously convicted on charges of identity theft, larceny and forgery was arrested Wednesday amid allegations she swindled nearly $3,000 from an elderly woman who had hired her as a housekeeper, police said. ...read full article
October 27, 2011

Microsoft Releases First Annual Computing Safety Index


Trustworthy Computing Group introduces online tool to help Web users gauge how well they protect their online information



Microsoft is introducing an online tool to help Web surfers gauge how well they are protecting their online content and surfing experience, and it turns out consumers are doing an even better job of protecting info than they know, though work remains to be done. ...read full article
October 27, 2011

The Identity Theft Council Warns Of Increased Risk Of Identity Theft To Small Businesses


National cybersecurity awareness month calls to small businesses to prevent, detect, and remedy identity theft threats



WALNUT CREEK, Calif., Oct. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- In recognition of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM), the Identity Theft Council (ITC), an award-winning non-profit grassroots movement dedicated to bringing more effective ways to combat identity theft, is warning small businesses across the country to pay more attention to the very real and costly threats posed by identity theft. A recent Javelin Strategy & Research study found that fraud suffered by Small Business Owners (SMBO) totaled an astonishing $8 billion. Banks, merchants and other providers absorbed at least $5.43 billion of that loss, while the cost to victims was $2.61 billion. ...read full article
October 27, 2011

NSA Director Says U.S. Working to Push Attack Data to ISPs



WASHINGTON--The commander of the U.S. Cyber Command said that the federal government is working on a system now that would allow it to work with ISPs and others to help stop ongoing attacks against government and private networks by pushing intelligence and attack signatures to them. ...read full article
October 26, 2011

Japan foreign offices, parliament hit by virus attack


Some government computers were infected by a virus via email, but Tokyo's top spokesman says no critical data was lost.



IDG News Service - Computers at Japan's diplomatic offices abroad and its House of Representatives were infected by viruses during cyberattacks over the last several months, the country's top spokesman said. ...read full article
October 26, 2011

Mitsubishi Hack May Have Yielded Defense, Nuke Secrets



A report claims the recent hack of Japanese Defense Contractor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries may have led to the theft of sensitive data related to weapons systems and nuclear reactors. ...read full article
October 26, 2011

VA: Identity theft scam targeting local veterans



GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) -- The Grand Junction VA Medical Center is warning local veterans about an identity theft scam targeting them. ...read full article
October 26, 2011

Identity thief nabbed with over 300,000 victim profiles



A California man was sentenced to eight years in prison for identity theft after federal police GPS-tracked his phone and discovered a hard drive with over 300,000 victim profiles during a raid of his home. ...read full article
October 26, 2011

Wayne County woman charged with identity theft, misuse of food stamps



A Wayne County woman is charged with identity theft, after police say she used another person's food stamp benefits. ...read full article
October 26, 2011

Morris County ID theft charge at issue in court



A Belleville woman is testing New Jersey’s law on identity theft by claiming it doesn’t apply to her alleged creation of a Facebook profile in the name of an ex-boyfriend who is a Parsippany police detective. ...read full article
October 26, 2011

3 Accused Of Identity Theft



BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- The Bakersfield Police Department is asking for the community’s assistance in identifying and locating three people accused of identity theft, burglary, and unauthorized use of an access card. ...read full article
October 26, 2011

ID theft parolee gets 8 years in federal prison



LOS ANGELES (AP) - A California parolee has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison for his second identity theft scheme. ...read full article
October 26, 2011

Report: Hacks From China Shuttered UK Firm, Cost Economy $43 billion



The head of the UK Ministry of Defence's Cyber Security Program says that targeted attacks have already caused the premature demise of a UK wind turbine maker, and has cost the country $43 billion in lost economic growth already. ...read full article
October 25, 2011

Spammers create their own URL shortening services


The strange development may be an attempt to get around filtering software that checks the destination domains



IDG News Service - Spammers have created their own services to shorten URLs (uniform resource locators) in an apparent attempt to circumvent security measures in place at well-known shortening websites, according to Symantec. ...read full article
October 25, 2011

Floyd woman accused of stealing gas cards from former employer



FLOYD, N.Y. (WKTV) - A Floyd woman has been charged with grand larceny after State Police say she stole more than $2,000 in gas cards from her former employer. ...read full article
October 25, 2011

ID theft ring tied to Emory patients



DULUTH, Ga. — Channel 2 has learned thousands of potential victims of an alleged identity theft ring have something in common: they're all patients at Emory Healthcare's Orthopedic Clinic. ...read full article
October 25, 2011

Dozens become victims of identity theft in part of the Arklatex


What you can do to protect your personal information



Nearly thirty people in the small Louisiana town of Springhill have had their identities stolen this year. ...read full article
October 25, 2011

Anonymous tipster claims Internet security breach at Pan American Games



Journalists covering the Pan American Games, including about two dozen Canadians, could be at risk of identity theft or fraud. ...read full article
October 25, 2011

Police: Woman Uses Craigslist For Scams



BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- The Bakersfield Police Department is asking for the community's help in identifying a woman accused of theft by fraud. ...read full article
October 25, 2011

US to seek extradition of man held in Ireland



THE US is to seek the extradition of an Algerian-born man currently in custody in Ireland after he was charged in a Pennsylvania court with conspiring with a woman known as “Jihad Jane” to recruit people online for terrorist plots. ...read full article
October 25, 2011

Inmate slain in Aberdeen had minor record



ABERDEEN, Wash. — The fleeing jail inmate who was shot and killed Friday when he threatened a woman in Aberdeen, Wash., had been jailed in an identity theft case. ...read full article
October 25, 2011

New DOS tool overloads SSL servers with ease


The tool takes advantage of a feature in SSL that can be maliciously exploited



IDG News Service - A newly released denial-of-service (DOS) tool can be used to bring down SSL servers using an average laptop computer and a standard DSL connection. ...read full article
October 24, 2011

Wrongly jailed woman seeks action against Atlanta cops



Atlanta (CNN) -- When Teresa Culpepper called Atlanta police to report her car stolen, the last thing she expected was to land behind bars for 53 days in a case of mistaken identity. ...read full article
October 24, 2011

Obama issues order aimed at preventing federal data leaks



Computerworld - President Obama has issued an executive order aimed at better securing data stored by federal agencies. ...read full article
October 24, 2011

Woman allegedly drained checking account of Gig Harbor couple



Authorities say a 32-year-old woman used a fake identity and phony checks to drain nearly $330,000 from a Gig Harbor couple’s checking account earlier this year. ...read full article
October 24, 2011

Penn Hills woman pleads guilty to identity theft



A Penn Hills woman pleaded guilty last week to one count of identity theft, according to federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh. ...read full article
October 24, 2011

Jefferson County Sheriff's Office falls victim to computer hack



The Sheriff's Office was notified late Friday, October 21, 2011, that the department was part of a broad scheme to hack into law enforcement databases and release publicly the personal information of law enforcement personnel in many areas of the country. ...read full article
October 24, 2011

Homebuyers can protect their credit in many ways


Keep credit card balances below 10%, send mortgage applications in 14-day span



That golden window right before you sign for a mortgage is one of the times when your credit is the most vulnerable. You're submitting applications for loans, putting personal data on forms for real estate agents and mortgage brokers and, if you're also selling a home, inviting in strangers. ...read full article
October 24, 2011

State senator introduces bill to modify Real ID law



TALLAHASSEE -- If you've had to renew your driver's license in the past year, you probably had to bring a pile of papers with you to prove your identity. ...read full article
October 24, 2011

Super IT blunder risked $23m contract



The federal government has been in daily contact with the company responsible for the First State Super security failure and has demanded immediate changes to its systems as the company revealed that three other superannuation funds it administers were also affected. ...read full article
October 24, 2011

SCAMwatch warns travellers of fake flight booking sites


Victims have reported losses of more than $1000 for fake international flight bookings and instances of identity theft.



As the ‘silly season’ approaches fast, SCAMwatch has advised expectant travellers to check the authenticity of flight booking websites before making any reservations for domestic and international travel. ...read full article
October 24, 2011

3 G.I. men face federal charges



One Grand Island man has been charged with providing false information for federal benefits, while two others have been charged with illegally re-entering the country. ...read full article
October 21, 2011

US teen charged in 'Jihad Jane' terror plot



PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A high school honors student helped the American terror suspect dubbed "Jihad Jane" plot to kill a Swedish artist and used the Internet to raise money and recruits for overseas terrorists, federal prosecutors charged in an indictment Thursday. ...read full article
October 21, 2011

Broomfield woman pleads guilty to identity theft in check forging case



Josephine Pacheco, the Broomfield woman arrested earlier this year on multiple charges related to a large-scale check forging scam police say she masterminded, on Thursday pleaded guilty to one count of identity theft. In exchange, 12 other felony charges against her in the case were dropped. ...read full article
October 21, 2011

Pair accused of using Internet to aid in terror



(CNN) -- Two foreigners, including one who was a legal resident of the United States, have been charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists in an indictment from Pennsylvania. ...read full article
October 21, 2011

Abandoned Modesto aluminum plant poses identity theft threat to former workers



MODESTO - The former employees of an abandoned aluminum manufacturing plant fear their personal files may be swiped by scrap scavengers. ...read full article
October 21, 2011

Ex-insurer gets 14 years for fraud



A former insurance agent was sentenced Thursday to 14 months in federal prison after she pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to wire fraud and mail fraud. ...read full article
October 21, 2011

Report: NASDAQ Hackers Spied On Corporate Directors



The hackers who compromised systems belonging to the NASDAQ stock market last year were able to install monitoring software that allowed them to spy on the doings of corporate directors, Reuters is reporting. ...read full article
October 21, 2011

Skype lets hackers track your BitTorrent downloads



Scientists have devised a stealthy and low-cost way to track the internet protocol addresses of tens of thousands of Skype users, and link the information to their online activities such as the sharing of specific files over BitTorrent. ...read full article
October 21, 2011

Drive By Download Sites Using New Tricks To Avoid Detection



Amid an increase in defacements of legitimate websites over the past few weeks, Fraser Howard, a researcher from Sophos, has discovered that the groups behind the attacks are increasingly using sophisticated filtering and dynamic content to avoid detection by search engines and web filtering firms. ...read full article
October 20, 2011

Stuxnet Clone 'Duqu': The Hydrogen Bomb of Cyberwarfare?



If the Stuxnet virus was the atom bomb of cyberwarfare, then the discovery this week of the "Duqu" virus is the hydrogen bomb, security experts are warning. ...read full article
October 20, 2011

Identity Theft Led To Victim's Arrest



JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Terria Myrick spent a night in jail when she was accused of shoplifting at a Westside Walmart in a mistaken identity case because of identity theft. ...read full article
October 20, 2011

Eau Claire woman accused of swindling $50,000 from grandma



An Eau Claire woman is accused of spending more than $21,000 from her grandmother's checking account without permission, authorities say. ...read full article
October 20, 2011

Man Pleads Guilty to Aggravated ID Theft and Bank, Mail & Credit Card Fraud



United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that Matthew Gene Ballard, 32, of Manteca, plead guilty to mail fraud, bank fraud, credit card fraud, and aggravated identity theft. ...read full article
October 20, 2011

Man accused in VA benefits fraud



A Harrison County man is accused of using another person's identity to fraudulently receive more than $90,000 in benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. That's according to U.S. District Court records. ...read full article
October 20, 2011

Probe at Edge Hill University after student data breach



AN INVESTIGATION has been launched after personal details of nearly 800 Edge Hill University students were sent out in an email. ...read full article
October 20, 2011

Phishing page hacked, turned into PSA on the dangers of phishing



Here's something you don't see very often. Someone - perhaps the recipient of the below phishing mail while having a Falling Down style day at the office - decided enough was enough and set out to hijack the phishing site they were sent to. ...read full article
October 20, 2011

Identity theft victims dragged into serious trouble with the authorities



KUALA LUMPUR: A 25-year-old gave his MyKad to his boss on his first day of work. Now, he is facing 85 police reports for cheating involving RM180,000 worth of IT goods. ...read full article
October 19, 2011

'Son of Stuxnet' virus could be used to attack critical computers worldwide



A powerful new computer virus that some are calling the "Son of Stuxnet" has been discovered, and researchers are concerned about its potential for attacking critical infrastructure computers around the world. ...read full article
October 19, 2011

8.1 million people were victims of ID theft last year



WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- More than 8 million people fell victim to identity theft last year, according to the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. ...read full article
October 19, 2011

Inmate church says identities were stolen



A United Methodist congregation made up of inmates at the Iowa Correctional Institute for Women in Mitchellville said an Indianola woman and former inmate used its volunteers’ personal information to steal 40 identities ...read full article
October 19, 2011

Immigrant jailed in case of officer's stolen ID



HOLIDAY, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a Mexican immigrant is accused of using the stolen identity of a Texas police officer for more than a decade. ...read full article
October 19, 2011

Cops: Couple caught with 5 fake IDs, stolen credit cards



STAMFORD -- A man and woman from Queens, N.Y., were arrested Tuesday afternoon when they opened store accounts under fake names and tried to buy $3,300 worth of clothes and gift cards. ...read full article
October 19, 2011

Two men plead guilty to ID theft ring that targeted restaurant patrons



Two Maryland men have pleaded guilty to running an identity theft ring that targeted more than 250 people in the D.C. area. ...read full article
October 19, 2011

Identity Theft Cashing Fake Checks in York County



Carroll Township, York County— Police in York County release a surveilance photo in hopes of catching a theft. Carroll Township Police say a woman has been using the identity of two women that are in their 80's and 90's to cash fraudulent checks totalling $2,500 from the ACNB Bank in Carroll Township back on September 30, 2011 and the ACNB Bank in Gettysburg on the same day. ...read full article
October 19, 2011

Team Swastika group hacks 10,000 global Facebook account details



Security experts are warning web users to ensure they use strong passwords and vary their credentials from site to site after a new hacking group published log-in details of what it claimed to be more than 10,000 Facebook users. ...read full article
October 18, 2011

US companies pushed to disclose cyberattacks


New guidelines from US regulators throw a spotlight on disclosure of cyber-incidents



IDG News Service - Public companies may need to look more closely at their exposure to cyberattacks after new guidelines were released this week by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. ...read full article
October 18, 2011

Attorney General: Massachusetts Won't Investigate iTunes Fraud



It looks as if Apple iTunes users who have been the victim of identity theft will have to look for a new knight in shining armor to wring answers from the notoriously close-lipped Cupertino technology giant. ...read full article
October 18, 2011

Hacktivists pose growing threat to industrial computing


DHS warns nation about Anonymous



Members of the Anonymous hacking collective are increasingly interested in attacking industrial control systems used to automate machinery used by factories, power stations, water treatment plants, and other facilities critical to national security, the Department of Homeland Security warned last month. ...read full article
October 18, 2011

Defense Dept. hit with $4.9B lawsuit over data breach


Proposed class action suit involves TRICARE, seeks $1,000 per victim



Computerworld - The U.S. Department of Defense has been hit with a $4.9 billion lawsuit over a recently disclosed data breach involving TRICARE, a healthcare system for active and retired military personnel and their families. ...read full article
October 18, 2011

Hackers expose Citibank CEO's privates


Revenge strike against cuffing of Occupy Wall St protesters



Hacktivists have published a dossier of personal information on the head of Citigroup in retaliation for the cuffing of protesters at an Occupy Wall Street demo. ...read full article
October 18, 2011

Inside a Hacker Forum



Hacker forums function as a kind of combination training academy, social network and central bazaar for attackers looking for new tools, methods and techniques. They're also often patrolled by law enforcement agents and security researchers, but it's rare that any of the information that those people gather ever makes it into the hands of the public. One security company is now laying out some of the details of a year-long observation of a large hacker forum. ...read full article
October 18, 2011

U.S. Debated Cyberwarfare in Attack Plan on Libya



WASHINGTON — Just before the American-led strikes against Libya in March, the Obama administration intensely debated whether to open the mission with a new kind of warfare: a cyberoffensive to disrupt and even disable the Qaddafi government’s air-defense system, which threatened allied warplanes. ...read full article
October 18, 2011

Identity Theft Victim Speaks Out



(West Seneca, NY) Buffalo State College student, Madeline Tuft, doesn't know who they were, or how they did it. ...read full article
October 18, 2011

Wine fraud through identity theft on the rise



Some £600,000 of wine has been obtained through identity theft in the UK over the past six months, police have warned. ...read full article
October 18, 2011

New Information In Identity Theft Case



DES MOINES, Iowa -- A group that helps women in prison said they know how a woman charged in dozens of identity theft cases got private information. ...read full article
October 18, 2011

Identity Thieves Are Stealing Social Security Numbers From Dead Children



ARLINGTON, Va. (WUSA) --- A family whose four-year-old daughter died in January is finding this week that the theft of her social security number by identity thieves is not a rarity. ...read full article
October 18, 2011

Legislation would fight Medicare identity theft



There's a new effort to crackdown on criminals who use Medicare cards to steal identities. ...read full article
October 18, 2011

Woman changes plea to guilty for role in fraud scheme spanning 21 states



An Indianapolis woman accused of working with a national identity theft ring allegedly led by a Gary native changed her plea to guilty Monday. ...read full article
October 18, 2011

100 private documents accidentally published on police website



Privacy breaches by the Metropolitan Police have left more than 100 documents online which contain confidential information. ...read full article
October 18, 2011

Bank gaffe shows info of wealthy customers



A bank blunder has revealed the personal email details of scores of HSBC's high-income customers for the second time in two years. ...read full article
October 17, 2011

Medical identity theft a growing problem



With 1.5 million victims in the U.S., physicians can take a few simple steps to ensure that patients aren't using someone else's name to get care. ...read full article
October 17, 2011

‘Operation Swiper’ takes down largest ID theft ring in U.S. history



It was the largest identity theft takedown in U.S. history. ...read full article
October 17, 2011

Alleged sex offender gets prison on identity theft charge



An alleged sex offender who eluded police for five years after he was granted a new trial in Fond du Lac County has been sentenced to prison. ...read full article
October 17, 2011

SpyEye banking malware continues to plague computers


The tricky trojan hides itself on computers and can be hard to detect



...read full article
October 17, 2011

Britain, America Unite Against Identity Theft Trends



In an attempt to reverse the growing trend of identity fraud in Britain, Experian UK brought identity theft thought leaders from around the world to the 2011 Identity Theft & Fraud Forum. Keynote presenters included American identity theft expert John Sileo. ...read full article
October 17, 2011

College campuses often targets of Internet hackers, officials say



In August, the sensitive information of thousands of patients at Stanford University Hospital in California was illegally posted on the Internet, putting more than 20,000 people at risk of identity theft and misuse. ...read full article
October 17, 2011

Judge decries 'same conduct,' imposes stiffer sentence on repeat offender from Mobile



MOBILE, Alabama -- A Mobile man appeared in court last week for sentencing on his latest federal fraud conviction — his 5th— with a promise that a newfound devotion to Jesus has changed his ways. ...read full article
October 17, 2011

Thousands of Social Security Numbers Leaked Yearly



The Social Security Administration (SSA) puts thousands of Americans at risk of identity theft each year by accidentally leaking their Social Security Numbers, names and dates of birth, according to an investigative report by the Scripps Howard New Service . ...read full article
October 17, 2011

Suspected hacker in Hyundai Capital incident arrested in Philippines



SEOUL, Oct. 17 (Yonhap) -- A suspected hacker wanted on suspicion of stealing customer data earlier this year from Hyundai Capital, an affiliate of South Korea's top automaker, has recently been arrested in the Philippines, police here said Monday. ...read full article
October 17, 2011

US man charged in hacking case ordered to LA



Jacksonville, Florida: A man charged with hacking into email accounts of celebrities including actress Scarlett Johansson was ordered on Friday to appear in a Los Angeles courtroom Nov. 1. ...read full article
October 17, 2011

North Vancouver man admits faking currency



A Crown prosecutor is asking a B.C. Supreme Court justice to send a man caught by the North Vancouver RCMP with more than $165,000 in counterfeit money and $50,000-worth of marijuana to jail for five years for his crimes. ...read full article
October 17, 2011

Survey: '4 million' Brits stung by ID theft



Consumers continue to be complacent about identity theft despite growth of the crime, which has claimed four million victims in the UK alone. ...read full article
October 13, 2011

Raytheon's cyberchief describes 'Come to Jesus' moment


A rash of attacks following missile sales to Taiwan prompted a major cybersecurity review



IDG News Service - After Raytheon began selling missiles to Taiwan in 2006, the defense company's computer network came under a torrent of cyberattacks. ...read full article
October 13, 2011

Guy Who Stole Scarlett Johansson's Nude Photos Faces 121 Years in Jail



Following a year-long investigation--codename "Operation Hackerazzi"--the Federal Bureau of Investigation indicted the suspected celebrity email hacker Wednesday afternoon on 26 counts of identity theft, unauthorized access to a computer and wiretapping. The suspect, Chris Chaney, is believed to be responsible for breaking into the email accounts of as many as 50 celebrities and leaking information about their private lives, including some nude photos of Scarlett Johansson. Mila Kunis, Christina Aguilera, Simone Harouche and Renee Olmstead were also listed along with others identified only by their initials in the court filings, which also lists the email providers of the victims and dates of the hacks. (ScarJo uses Yahoo! mail.) Chaney faces up to 121 years in jail for the charges. ...read full article
October 13, 2011

Identity Theft of Over 2,000 Car Accident Victims At Florida Hospital



Recently, Florida Hospital in Orlando discovered an electronic privacy breach that saw the personal, medical and financial information of 2,252 patients stolen over a 20-month period. What is more tragic is that the criminals involved targeted the ER medical records of car accident victims. These criminals took advantage of people in their most vulnerable state directly after a traumatic incident. ...read full article
October 13, 2011

Woman speaks out as identity theft ring nears 9,000



DULUTH, Ga. — Duluth police tell Channel 2 Action News the number of victims of a local suspected identity theft ring has reached 8,965. ...read full article
October 13, 2011

Lexington Man Sentenced for Fraud, ID Theft at DMV Office



LEXINGTON, N.C. (WGHP)— A Lexington man who operated the North Carolina DMV tag office in Thomasville received three years ans nine months in prison last week for multiple federal counts of mail fraud and aggravated identity theft. ...read full article
October 13, 2011

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs hacked, includes access to ‘private’ photos



What could be one of the biggest celebrity hackings to date apparently has zapped entertainment powerhouse Sean “Diddy” Combs. ...read full article
October 13, 2011

Quincy man charged with identity theft



BRAINTREE — A 30-year-old Quincy man faces identity-theft and false-document charges after allegedly using a fake ID to make a purchase, police said. ...read full article
October 13, 2011

Operation “SAFE SCARE”



Van Buren, AR – Operation SAFE SCARE is a joint agency focus to validate the addresses provided by registered sex offenders. Halloween is a time when many children are on the streets going door-to-door trick-or-treating and are vulnerable to sexual predators. The aim of SAFE SCARE is to keep our kids safe so they can enjoy Halloween and being a kid. SAFE SCARE allows law enforcement to validate information provided by sex offenders during the registration and periodic re-registration requirements under Arkansas State Law. Normally, sex offenders’ addresses are verified only during initial registration and on a case by case basis after that. Experience tells us that often times, registered sex offenders will periodically re-register as required, but will use an address where they are not actually residing anymore. ...read full article
October 12, 2011

Feds: Philly Cop Used Prisoner Debit, Credit Cards



Federal authorities say a Philadelphia police officer tasked with protecting the belongings of jailed suspects instead used their debit and credit cards to treat himself to gasoline and other items. ...read full article
October 12, 2011

Cybercriminals Use Facebook, Bitcoin to Steal Digital Currency



Sophisticated cyber criminals are increasingly using malware and smartphones to snatch digital currency from unsuspecting victims, Internet security experts report. “Cyber criminals are looking to use mobile phones to take money from users because if you can get users to transact with you through their mobile phone, then you can extract money from user in this way,” says Tony Anscombe, senior security evangelist for website security company AVG. ...read full article
October 12, 2011

Sony suspends 93,000 online accounts after illicit logins


Sony says unauthorized logins were attempted across several networks but only a small portion were successful.



IDG News Service - Sony suspended 93,000 user accounts on several of its gaming and entertainment networks after unauthorized login attempts on those accounts, it said Wednesday. ...read full article
October 12, 2011

As Kids Go Online, Identity Theft Claims More Victims



Imagine learning that your ten-year-old child owns a home somewhere across the country or that your toddler owes thousands of dollars in income taxes for a job he or she has never held. If those scenarios seem unfathomable, they’re all too real for families whose children are victims of identity theft. ...read full article
October 12, 2011

Carroll County loan officer charged with identity theft



VILLA RICA, Ga. — A popular Carroll County bank employee is scheduled to go before a judge Tuesday. ...read full article
October 12, 2011

Missouri Inmates May Be Committing ID Theft Behind Bars



BOONVILLE - The Missouri Department of Corrections confirmed Tuesday it's investigating several cases of identity theft. ...read full article
October 12, 2011

Many websites 'leaking' personal info to other firms


Websites are sharing usernames and other personal information with advertising partners, a Stanford study says



IDG News Service - Many top websites share their visitors' names, usernames or other personal information with their partners without telling users and, in some cases, without knowing they're doing it, according to a new study from Stanford University. ...read full article
October 11, 2011

Anonymous may have slowed down NYSE site


The slowdown may have been the result of a half-hearted attack by Anonymous



IDG News Service - The website of the New York Stock Exchange slowed down significantly twice on Monday afternoon, the day when the hacker group Anonymous was scheduled to launch a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack on the website, according to an Internet and mobile cloud monitoring company. ...read full article
October 11, 2011

Veteran blames VA for identity theft



HENDRICKS COUNTY (WISH) - A former Marine living in Hendricks County says she’s a victim of identity theft and places the blame on the Department of Veterans Affairs. ...read full article
October 11, 2011

Couple admits to 2 deaths in Northwest crime spree



PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon man and his girlfriend have admitted to killing the man's father and stepmother in a 5-day crime spree that authorities said ultimately left four dead across the Pacific Northwest. ...read full article
October 11, 2011

LulzSec leader holds onto Sun email


Hacker vows to continue after other members of group were arrested



IDG News Service - The 4GB worth of email stolen by the LulzSec hacking group from The Sun tabloid site earlier this year are sitting on a server in China, according to "Sabu," the outfit's alleged leader. ...read full article
October 11, 2011

Scottsdale police arrest Phoenix man accused in ID theft



A Phoenix man was arrested Sunday morning in Scottsdale on suspicion of identity theft, burglary and drug possession. ...read full article
October 11, 2011

NYPD infiltration of colleges raises privacy fears



NEW YORK (AP) — With its whitewashed bell tower, groomed lawns and Georgian-style buildings, Brooklyn College looks like a slice of 18th Century America dropped into modern-day New York City. But for years New York police have feared this bucolic setting might hide a sinister secret: the beginnings of a Muslim terrorist cell. ...read full article
October 11, 2011

China Bid Blocked Over Spy Worry



Worried about potential spying, the U.S. government has blocked a bid from China’s telecommunications giant Huawei to help build a new national wireless network for first responders such as police, firefighters, and ambulances. ...read full article
October 11, 2011

P2P Version of Zeus Botnet Appears



A new version of the Zeus malware has appeared, and this does not seem to be a minor upgrade, a major custom version of the Trojan, which now sports a P2P capability that does away with the use of the domain-generation algorithm used in earlier versions and instead uses a hardcoded list of IP addresses to provide infected PCs with new software and config files. This is a throwback to the way the malware used to behave, but it comes with a twist: There no longer is a master URL that infected machines contact to get updates, making it much more difficult to track the Trojan's activities. ...read full article
October 10, 2011

N.Y. crackdown uncovers global crime ring, district attorney says



New York (CNN) -- A New York City crackdown on suspects allegedly involved in forged credit cards and identity theft led authorities to a $13 million global crime ring, Queens County District Attorney Richard Brown said Friday. ...read full article
October 10, 2011

Second Indian official charged in telecom scam


Dayanidhi Maran is alleged to have helped a foreign acquirer to buy operator Aircel



IDG News Service - India's top investigative agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation, said Monday that it has registered a case against former federal minister Dayanidhi Maran, in connection with ongoing investigations into alleged scams in the Ministry of Communications. ...read full article
October 10, 2011

Women lead the way in embezzlement cases



Others said women don't turn to violent crime because they are at a physical disadvantage. And they're not likely to pick up a gun and try to rob a bank. ...read full article
October 10, 2011

German hackers snare wiretap Trojan, accuse gov of writing it...



German hackers have captured and analysed a cyber-sleuth Trojan which they claim may have been used by police to tap Skype calls and IM chats of criminal or terrorist suspects. ...read full article
October 10, 2011

Police asking public to identify suspect accused of stealing credit car



State police are looking for a suspect accused of trying to use a stolen credit card in western Oneida County. ...read full article
October 7, 2011

Stanford Hospital blames contractor for data breach


After patient files $20M lawsuit, health care provider firm says contractor is responsible



Computerworld - Stanford Hospital & Clinics this week blamed a third party billing contractor for a data breach that exposed the personal data of some 20,000 patients. ...read full article
October 7, 2011

Law on foster care identity theft praised in RI



PROVIDENCE, R.I.—Rhode Island child welfare advocates are praising a new law co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin that aims to protect foster children from identity theft. ...read full article
October 7, 2011

Florida pair indicted in largest alleged BP claim scam



Washington (CNN) -- In the largest alleged BP oil spill-related scam uncovered to date, federal authorities on Thursday charged two Floridians with taking $340,000 in funds intended for victims of last year's environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. ...read full article
October 7, 2011

Android malware downloads instructions from blog


Researchers from Trend Micro say the communication mechanism is a first for mobile malware



IDG News Service - Researchers from Trend Micro have spotted a piece of malicious software for Android that receives instructions from an encrypted blog, a new method of communication for mobile malware, according to the company. ...read full article
October 7, 2011

Steve Jobs' Death Saddens World, Inspires Spammers



It was one of those odd moments where the entire online community was briefly unified in its mourning of the tech visionary, Apple co-founder, and former CEO whose life-work has demanded nearly universal respect. But as with everything else on the Internet, it didn’t last long. The dregs of the Web showed up in short-order to exploit the death of Steve Jobs, who died of cancer last night at the age of 56. ...read full article
October 7, 2011

SpyEye banking trojan: now with SMS hijacking capability



The SpyEye banking trojan has acquired the ability to reroute one-time passwords sent to victims' cellphones, a measure that bypasses protections more and more financial institutions are adopting. ...read full article
October 7, 2011

Debt collectors face state crackdown


Criminals worked at six big firms, Commerce Department says. Some workers stole personal data from consumers.



Minnesota regulators pounced on six debt collection firms Thursday for hiring felons, harassing consumers who owed money and stealing their financial information. ...read full article
October 6, 2011

Drive-by download attack on Facebook used malicious ads


This 'malvertisement' scam does not require any user action, making it much more dangerous



IDG News Service - Antivirus vendor Trend Micro has recently detected a drive-by download attack on Facebook that used malicious advertisements to infect users with malware. ...read full article
October 6, 2011

Identity Theft Suspect Caught At Home Depot


Credit Fraud Bust Leads To Bigger Find



COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A credit fraud bust at Home Depot led to an arrest involving multiple charges of identity theft, drug, and weapons charges. ...read full article
October 6, 2011

Death of Ore. teen linked to white supremacists



PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The paths of a teenager who called his mother daily and two white supremacists fleeing a murder scene in Washington state crossed in Western Oregon's Willamette Valley less than a week ago. ...read full article
October 6, 2011

Play dead to get deceased's credit frozen?



Dear Debt Adviser, Why do the credit bureaus make it so hard for an executor to report a deceased person or freeze the credit of a dead person? After spending a lot of time in "voice mail jail" and having to pretend I was the dead person, I managed to make it through to a human being and only then learned what address to send documents to. Is there any way bereaved people can avoid all this? ...read full article
October 6, 2011

Laurens man pleads guilty to identity theft



SPARTANBURG, SC (FOX Carolina) - The U.S. Attorney Bill Nettles said that a Laurens man was sentenced in federal court in Spartanburg on Wednesday. ...read full article
October 6, 2011

Former head of Hispanic American Council bound over for trial on embezzlement, identity-theft charges



KALAMAZOO — Ramon Berlanga-Rodriguez, who is charged with four felonies related to his time as the former executive director of the Hispanic American Council, has waived his right to a preliminary hearing. ...read full article
October 6, 2011

Two more sentenced to prison for ID theft



GREENVILLE — Women from Rains and Van Zandt counties are the latest defendants to have been sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to being a member of a widespread identity theft ring operating in Hunt County. ...read full article
October 6, 2011

Fraud experts call for internet security to be taught in schools as children's identities are stolen via social networks



Children are the new targets for organised crime gangs because they share too much about their personal lives on social networking sites. ...read full article
October 5, 2011

U.S. lawmakers point to China as cause of cyberattacks


U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers calls on the U.S. and its allies to put pressure on the Chinese government for cyber-espionage



IDG News Service - U.S. government officials need to put more pressure on their Chinese counterparts to stop a "pervasive" cyber-espionage campaign targeting U.S. companies, a U.S. lawmaker said Tuesday. ...read full article
October 5, 2011

Police say 2 are suspects in Washington slaying, Oregon teen’s disappearance



SALEM, Ore. — Federal, state and local police are hunting for a boyfriend-girlfriend duo suspected in the murder of the male suspect’s stepmother as well as the disappearance of his father in Washington state and of a teenager in Oregon days later. ...read full article
October 5, 2011

John Pignotti Gets Nearly 4 Years In Prison For Identity Theft



PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The former president of the Philadelphia String Band Association was sentenced to close to four years in prison Tuesday for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from two former employers. ...read full article
October 5, 2011

Police: Theft Suspect Pastes Own Photo On Stolen License



LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Police have charged a Louisville woman with identity theft after they said they found her with another person's driver's license with her own picture pasted on it after a shoplifting arrest. ...read full article
October 5, 2011

Woman disputes bill opened in her name when she was 7



Marcellus (WSYR-TV) -- A Marcellus woman, who says she was the victim of identity theft as a kid, is still haunted by the bills. When Caressa Wenzel tried to open a National Grid account for the first time, the company said she already had an account, opened in 1993 -- when she was 7-years old . ...read full article
October 5, 2011

Waynesboro PD looking for man who used fraudulent credit cards



WAYNESBORO, Ga. -- A man is wanted after buying several gift cards and other items with fraudulent credit cards. ...read full article
October 5, 2011

Defendant in "Bernie's" case misses court date, warrant issued



An arrest warrant for failing to appear in court has been issued for a man accused of driving around Denver with a dead friend, running up a bar tab on his account and using his ATM card at a strip club. ...read full article
October 5, 2011

Inside the Takedown of the M00p Malware Crew



BARCELONA--As online crime continues to grow in volume and expand in scope, encompassing a massive number of scams and operations around the world, security researchers, lawmakers and others are pushing for better cooperation among law enforcement agencies and the security community in taking down the attackers behind these schemes. There are precious few examples of successful operations that have succeeded in recent years, but one that can be considered a model of how things can work is the investigation into the m00p malware-writing crew that began more than seven years ago. ...read full article
October 4, 2011

Montgomery, Alabama, Woman Pleads Guilty to Using Stolen Identities to Obtain Tax Refunds



WASHINGTON – Melinda Clayton of Montgomery, Ala., pleaded guilty today to charges of conspiring to defraud the United States by filing false claims, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. ...read full article
October 4, 2011

Justice Department Sues to Shut Down New Jersey Tax Preparer


Newark Man Allegedly Claimed Phony Dependents on Customers’ Tax Returns



WASHINGTON - The United States has filed a lawsuit seeking to stop Luvander Hollaway from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The civil injunction complaint alleges that Hollaway of Newark, N.J., fails to comply with due-diligence requirements imposed by federal law on tax preparers who claim the earned income tax credit (EITC) on their customers’ returns. According to the complaint, Hollaway also falsifies reported income and lists fake dependents on his customers’ returns in order to claim the maximum EITC for them. ...read full article
October 4, 2011

'Well organized, sophisticated, fast' cybercriminals scare US banks



Network World - BITS, the U.S. financial industry's IT policy arm, has a new leader: Paul Smocer, an expert in email security and authentication. ...read full article
October 4, 2011

HTC investigates reports of vulnerability in Android phones


On the heels of researchers claiming a massive vulnerability, HTC now says it will investigate



PC World - Revelations by researchers over the weekend that several HTC Android phone models contain a "massive securityvulnerability" are being examined by the mobile handset maker. ...read full article
October 4, 2011

Data Theft: Hackers Attack


Crooks may seek your identity, but "hacktivists" cause the blockbuster breaches



We are constantly warned to protect our passwords, Social Security numbers and other “personal identifying information” to thwart thieves who may steal laptops or perpetrate online fraud. Although such breaches have soared since 2005 (right) as criminals try to commit identity theft, the truly enormous breaches (bottom) have increasingly been carried out by “hacktivists”—individuals or groups who are angry about an organization’s actions. Hackers, for example, exposed data about 77 million Sony customers after the company pursued legal action against other hackers. “More than 107 million people were affected by hacking during the first half of 2011,” says Jake Kouns?, CEO of the Open Security Foundation in Glen Allen, Va., which runs the Data­LossDB project (the data source for graphics on this page). ...read full article
October 4, 2011

Traffic stop sheds light on identity theft ring


The driver, pulled over in western Iowa, is accused of filing improper tax returns



An improper license plate on a western Iowa interstate has given authorities a rare window into a massive Las Vegas-based identity theft ring suspected of stealing at least $2.7 million from the U.S. government via improper federal income tax returns. ...read full article
October 4, 2011

Victim's look-alike jailed for identity theft at bank



An Eau Claire woman will spend at least 60 days in jail for stealing another woman's bank account information and making withdrawals from the account on consecutive days, even after the account was closed following the first day's theft. ...read full article
October 4, 2011

Stealing elderly parents' identities a hidden, common crime



Child ID theft is a scourge of the digital age -- a terrible crime that often sees parents ruining their own kids’ futures by taking out mortgages, car loans and other financial obligations in their names. But a new study shows that another kind of family-based ID theft, which rarely grabs headlines, might be much more prevalent: Stealing the identities of elderly parents. ...read full article
October 4, 2011

ID theft defendant changes plea to guilty



HAMMOND| An Illinois woman accused of partaking in an interstate identity theft ring changed her plea to guilty Monday in Hammond federal court. ...read full article
October 4, 2011

Former Selah man arrested in baby daughter's death



YAKIMA, Wash. — A 28-year-old man was arrested Monday on a manslaughter charge in the death of his baby daughter nearly three years ago in Selah. ...read full article
October 4, 2011

Ex-Stamford School Aide Charged in Identity Theft



STAMFORD, Conn. – A former Stamford teachers aide was arrested Monday and charged with stealing and using the credit card of a teacher she worked with last May, Sgt. Andrew Gallagher said. Charlotte Gore, 22, was taken into custody after meeting with her probation officer, he said. ...read full article
October 3, 2011

Police: Speeder used sister's identity



A traffic stop led Johnson City police Sunday to arrest a city woman on numerous charges after she gave police her sister's name because her own license was suspended, police reported in a news release. ...read full article
October 3, 2011

Rolly: Email hack is an ongoing nightmare for Salt Lake woman



Suzette Holly’s comfortable world turned upside down Tuesday when she learned scammers hacked her email account and targeted all her friends and associates. ...read full article
October 3, 2011

Local residents targeted by fraudulent text messages


They claim to be from Wells Fargo Bank, seek credit card numbers



Local residents say they’ve been getting text messages claiming to be from Wells Fargo Bank and asking them for their credit card numbers. ...read full article
October 3, 2011

Student scam jobs listed on ColumbiaWorks



After expecting to apply for a part-time accounting position at a job fair he was steered to by ColumbiaWorks, Columbia’s student and alumni employment website, Todd Merrill hesitated before he accepted the actual offer: a full-time, governmental campaign office position promising an $80,000-a-year salary—or at least until he would scribble his Social Security number onto a W-4 tax form. ...read full article
October 3, 2011

School vendor let vital data slip out



WILLIAMSBURG — WJC School Board members were unaware the firm hired to do the strategic plan once let the personal information of 18,000 students slip out online, where it was searchable for three months. ...read full article
October 3, 2011

Fifth and final member of identity theft ring sentenced to eight years in prison



A fifth member of an identity theft ring was sentenced Monday to eight years in prison after he and four women stole personal information, used funds to purchase high-end jewelry and then pawned the jewelry for cash. ...read full article
October 3, 2011

Heads Up! Fake iPhone 5 Email Can Infect Your Computer



The new iPhone has not been announced. It is not available for pre-order. It does not have a ridiculous see-through screen. It is not called the "iPhone 5G S" and it's (probably) not going to be available this Friday. So if you get an email with the subject line "iPhone 5G S has been released" that contains what appears to be marketing from Apple, don't fall for it. ...read full article
September 30, 2011

Update: Data breach affects 4.9M active, retired military personnel


Backup disk containing unencrypted personal data is missing



Computerworld - Sensitive data including Social Security Numbers, names, addresses, phone numbers and personal health data belonging to about 4.9 million active and retired U.S. military personnel may have been compromised after backup tapes containing the data went missing recently. ...read full article
September 30, 2011

NC police probe ID theft that targeted soldier



ERWIN, N.C. (AP) — A Harnett County soldier's decision to ask a friend to house-sit during his deployment to Afghanistan led to a massive betrayal of trust that included identity theft, the fraudulent sale of possessions and the friend's death, according to police in Erwin. ...read full article
September 30, 2011

Hundreds of seniors caught in identity scam



ATLANTA -- Fulton County is warning senior citizens about an identity theft scam offering stimulus money for their personal information. Seniors were told to go to an address on Peeple Street in Southwest Atlanta to fill out a form to get $500 in stimulus money. ...read full article
September 30, 2011

Car Thief Sentenced to 19 Years in Prison



A prolific car thief in Fresno has been sentenced to nearly two decades behind bars. ...read full article
September 30, 2011

Police learn about techniques used by identity thieves



Veronica Richardson, an Allegheny County probation officer for 33 years, remembers when the illegal use of another person's credit card required stealing the card itself. ...read full article
September 30, 2011

Jury: Medical equipment company owner defrauded Medicare, Medicaid



McALLEN — An Edinburg man was convicted of healthcare fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with his durable medical equipment company. ...read full article
September 30, 2011

Lawyers list 308 witnesses for ID theft trial



An identity theft case involving 13 defendants appears headed for a February trial in federal court in Minneapolis. ...read full article
September 30, 2011

Baltimore lawsuit spotlights obscure identity theft law


County man claims bar receipts violated federal consumer protection act



An obscure provision of a federal law created to prevent identity theft has come under the spotlight in Baltimore, where a man has sued three area bars for violating the law's intent. ...read full article
September 29, 2011

Hosting Provider InMotion Hacked, Thousands of Sites Affected



InMotion, a large hosting provider based in California, was compromised in recent days and the attackers were able to replace the index files of thousands of sites, defacing them and in some cases making it difficult for site owners to recover and reload their sites. ...read full article
September 29, 2011

Ex-officer sentenced in identity theft



A former Montgomery Police Department officer was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison with two years of supervised release Wednesday, according to U.S. Attorney George Beck. ...read full article
September 29, 2011

Man finds unknown violations on driver's license



A 30-year-old Garden City resident who went to the office of the Secretary of State to get his driving privileges reinstated discovered a greater problem when he learned someone had received additional violations in his name. ...read full article
September 29, 2011

Woman Charged With 16 Counts Of Identity Theft



SULLIVAN COUNTY, Tenn. -- Sullivan County authorities got some help from a jewelry store on solving a identity theft case. ...read full article
September 29, 2011

Pfizer, pharmacy group warn on counterfeit drugs



Pfizer Inc. and a pharmacy standards group are teaming to warn consumers about the risks of counterfeit prescription medicines, which endanger the public and take money from both pharmacies and legitimate drugmakers. ...read full article
September 29, 2011

Lakemoor man charged with identity theft in Naperville



A Lakemoor man who is being questioned concerning the slaying of his sister now is being held in Will County jail on charges of identity theft. ...read full article
September 29, 2011

As California Fights Prison Overcrowding, Some See a Golden Opportunity



The wooden floor of this dormitory at the state prison in Chino, Calif., is the only indication that inmates once played basketball here. Hoops long since taken down, the gymnasium in the East facility of the California Institution for Men was converted to sleeping quarters over a decade ago and now houses 200 inmates, who mill around their bunk beds in bright orange jumpsuits. Signs painted on the walls advise, CAUTION: NO WARNING SHOT WILL BE GIVEN — a reminder of how seriously the guards treat the riots, fights, beatings and rapes that are common here. "When this place goes off, it's a nightmare," Correctional Sergeant Mike Losorelli says of the facility. "The bunks get used as barricades." ...read full article
September 29, 2011

Typosquatting Hacks: Finger Slips Sink Ships



For nearly as long as DNS as has been around, aggressive advertisers and malicious doers have used a technique called typosquatting to take advantage of the fact that most of us aren't perfect typists: They buy up domains and set up realistic-looking yet malicious websites such as www.livve.com, www.live.cm, and www.liv.ecom to exploit users who incorrectly type live.com. ...read full article
September 29, 2011

Foxy Brown's brother gets prison for NYC ID theft



NEW YORK (AP) — Rapper Foxy Brown's brother is headed to prison for using forged credit cards to go on a luxury shopping spree and club jaunt in New York City. ...read full article
September 29, 2011

Round Lake Park woman gets prison for stealing from disabled man



A Round Lake Park woman was sentenced to four years in prison Wednesday for stealing more than $3,000 from a disabled man who had hired her for home care assistance. ...read full article
September 28, 2011

OnStar reverses course on controversial GPS tracking plans


Customer concerns prompted decision to drop privacy policy change, company says



Computerworld - GM subsidiary OnStar has reversed course on a planned change to its privacy policies that would have let it collect and share GPS tracking and other data from vehicles -- even after their users stopped subscribing to OnStar service. ...read full article
September 28, 2011

Hackers leak data of Goldman Sachs CEO



Hackers today released personal information for Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein. ...read full article
September 28, 2011

Pro-Syrian ‘Electronic Army’ Hacks Harvard University Site



Hackers from the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) vandalized Harvard University’s website Monday morning, presenting visitors to the Ivy League university’s homepage with an image of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad dressed posed in front of the nation’s flag in full army regalia. ...read full article
September 28, 2011

Scammers pretend to be friendly office printers


A new ruse for infecting computers wtih malware has been spotted by researchers at Symantec



IDG News Service - Hackers have found a new hook to trick people into opening malicious attachments: send emails that purport to come from office printers, many of which now have the ability to email scanned documents. ...read full article
September 28, 2011

Microsoft halts another botnet: Kelihos



Microsoft has put a halt to the Kelihos botnet and is accusing a Czech resident of hosting the botnet and using it to deliver spam and steal data, the company said today. ...read full article
September 28, 2011

DHS Thinks Some SCADA Problems Are Too Big To Call "Bug"



The Stuxnet worm may be the most famous piece of malicious software ever written. When it was first detected, a little over a year ago, the worm sounded a warning to nations around the world that critical infrastructure systems were potential targets of attack for foreign governments and cyber criminal organizations alike. But with the anniversary of the Stuxnet worm's discovery just past, the Department of Homeland Security admits that it is now reevaluating whether it makes sense to warn the public about all of the security failings of industrial control system (ICS) and SCADA software. ...read full article
September 28, 2011

USA Today pwned by s'kiddies on Twitter


Who would you like us to hack next today?



A group of mischievous hackers who target the Twitter feeds of news organisations claimed a fresh victim on Sunday when they hijacked the micro-blogging feed of USA Today. ...read full article
September 28, 2011

Nurse faces 51 counts of medical records, ID theft at Boulder



A nurse accused of improperly accessing patient records at numerous hospitals in the Denver metro area faces five counts of identity theft and 46 counts of theft of medical records in connection with his time at Boulder Community Hospital between May 2010 and January 2011. ...read full article
September 28, 2011

Credit Card Thief Assumes Man's Identity, OKs Shopping Spree



It's been another highly entertaining week of credit card crimes, starting off with a chilling step-by-step account of identity theft , and concluding with a credit card statement that could make your grandmother blush. ...read full article
September 28, 2011

Legally dead man in courtoom plea



LAS VEGAS, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- A Chicago stockbroker declared legally dead 25 years ago has pleaded guilty to a fraud charge in a Las Vegas courtroom. ...read full article
September 27, 2011

Soldier: Fighting Identity Theft Harder Than War Overseas



CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Carols Llanes and Martha Garcia have had a plan since meeting during their deployments in Afghanistan: come home, get married and start a new life together. ...read full article
September 27, 2011

Schumer seeks FTC probe of OnStar privacy policy


OnStar plans to collect data from customers that stop services an 'unheard of' privacy violation, U.S. Senator says



Computerworld - GM subsidiary OnStar's plan to collect and share GPS tracking and other data from vehicles even after their owners stop subscribing to its service has prompted an outcry from some lawmakers. ...read full article
September 27, 2011

Here's The Story Behind One Shocking Case Of Identity Theft



This week at my bank branch we had a major case of Identity Theft. ...read full article
September 27, 2011

Police arrest Wisconsin sex offender on theft charges



A registered sex offender from Wisconsin was arrested on attempted aggravated theft and identity theft charges Saturday night after trying to buy a vehicle with a fake Social Security number, name and address, Medford police said. ...read full article
September 27, 2011

Keep Your Identity: Even children can fall victim to identity theft



Now that the school year has started and our kids and grandchildren are off to tackle the academic challenges in front of them, this might be a good time to look at identity theft that is going on within that age group … or even younger. ...read full article
September 27, 2011

Murdered woman's brother charged with identity theft



The brother of a murdered Naperville woman was booked into the Will County Adult Detention Facility Friday on a charge of identity theft. ...read full article
September 27, 2011

Al-Qaida's Shamukh chat forum under attack, says expert


The forum used by Muslim militants has been rendered inaccessible



IDG News Service - Al-Qaida's top-tier Al-Shamukh chat forum is facing an ongoing electronic attack, that has rendered the forum totally unreachable, according to a terrorism expert. ...read full article
September 27, 2011

5 Dirty Tricks: Social Engineers' Latest Pick-up Lines



You may now be savvy enough to know that when a friend reaches out on Facebook and says they've been mugged in London and are in desperate need of cash, that it's a scam. But social engineers, the criminals that pull off these kinds of ploys by trying to trick you, are one step ahead. ...read full article
September 27, 2011

Hackers published personal data of 25,000 police officials



An Austrian hackers group has published the names and home addresses of 24,938 police officials sparking fears that many could be targeted by criminals. ...read full article
September 27, 2011

Nigerian Scam Becomes Burkina Faso Scam



Email con artists still hope to profit from the naivety of some people, promising millions to those willing to help them. The only difference now is that the newer versions of the Nigerian scam are a bit better documented. ...read full article
September 27, 2011

Felon sentenced on gun, ID-theft charges



A Providence man who barricaded himself in an attic in 2010 when officials arrived to arrest him on gun and identity-theft charges was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith to 164 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release, U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha announced Monday. ...read full article
September 26, 2011

Facebook's Timeline will be boon for hackers


'Story of your life' display makes it easier for criminals to dig up data for social engineered attacks, says researcher



Computerworld - Facebook's new Timeline will make it even easier for criminals and others to mine the social network for personal information they can use to launch malicious attacks and steal passwords, a researcher said today. ...read full article
September 26, 2011

Army expands warnings on social networking


Soldiers, families: Be wary about giving ID, security info



The Army’s Online and Social Media Division is warning soldiers and their families about the perils of online identity theft and operational security violations in its newest update to the Army Social Media Handbook. ...read full article
September 26, 2011

Slain Naperville woman’s brother extradited



The brother of a Naperville woman whose murder remains unsolved has been extradited from Florida to face identity theft charges, while police say he remains a “person of interest” in his sister’s death. ...read full article
September 26, 2011

ID thief investigation 'strangest' of postal inspector's 30-year career



Ramie Marston was employed by a Portsmouth bank when she entered her nanny's name and Social Security number into the bank's computer system and began racking up an estimated $100,000 in debt without the nanny's knowledge. ...read full article
September 26, 2011

USA Today's Twitter account falls victim to hackers



The same group that hacked NBC News' Twitter account on September 9 and sent tweets about a bogus attack on Ground Zero apparently grabbed hold of USA Today's Twitter feed today and fired off a clutch of messages. ...read full article
September 26, 2011

Symantec sounds alarm on threats to mobile devices



MANILA, Philippines - Rarely do I hear people complain about their mobile phones being compromised by malware and other forms of digital intrusion. Rare is good, but the fact that it can happen is no good. ...read full article
September 26, 2011

Romanian national sentenced for involvement in bank fraud scheme



A Romanian national was sentenced Friday in Bridgeport to 15 months in prison for his participation in a multi-state, ATM-skimming scheme that struck Greenwich, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. ...read full article
September 26, 2011

Alleged 'Commander X' Anonymous hacker pleads not guilty



A 47-year-old homeless man has pleaded not guilty to charges that he joined in an Anonymous-organized cyberattack that temporarily shut down Santa Cruz County servers. ...read full article
September 23, 2011

'Lurid' malware hits Russia, CIS countries


Trend Micro says more than 1,400 computers in 61 countries were targeted



IDG News Service - The latest espionage-related hacking campaign detailed by security vendor Trend Micro is most notable for the country it does not implicate: China. ...read full article
September 23, 2011

Alleged LulzSec, Anonymous hackers arrested in Ariz., Calif.



An Arizona man was arrested today for allegedly stealing data from Sony Pictures Entertainment earlier this year, and two others were indicted on charges of participating in a denial-of-service (DoS) attack that temporarily shut down Santa Cruz County servers late last year. ...read full article
September 23, 2011

Microsoft passes Rustock botnet baton to FBI



Microsoft on Thursday wrapped up its civil case against the still-unnamed controllers of the Rustock botnet and handed off the information gleaned during its investigation to the FBI. ...read full article
September 23, 2011

This Is How Fraudsters Get Hold Of Your Credit Card Information



Credit card fraud has been a enormous problem since the credit card was first introduced in the 1950?s. ...read full article
September 23, 2011

Protect yourself from fake antivirus software



It's something you don't want to happen when you're on your computer -- a malicious piece of software hijacking your machine. Believe me, I know. ...read full article
September 23, 2011

War with computer hackers hits the road



The computer industry has battled hackers and destructive software viruses for years. That battle is now spreading to vehicles. ...read full article
September 23, 2011

High-tech hackers hit Seattle businesses



SEATTLE – The first sign of trouble at the small Seattle software company where Alec Fishburne works came when several employees reported that their paychecks hadn’t shown up as usual via direct deposits at their banks. ...read full article
September 23, 2011

Lawyer: News Corp to be sued in US for hacking


Associated Press told that lawyers in US will begin pursuing case within next week



...read full article
September 23, 2011

UTSA Honors College informs students of computer security incident



The University of Texas at San Antonio is informing 688 students and prospective students who either enrolled in or applied to courses in the Honors College that an unauthorized user may have gained access to information about them. Those affected have been notified by personal letter. ...read full article
September 23, 2011

Why It’s Not Easy to Freeze Your Child’s Credit File



In her job as an analyst specializing in the retail banking world, Julie McNelley talks to a lot of bank executives. Recently, she says, she has heard concerns about child identity theft involving the use of a minor’s Social Security number to commit financial fraud. ...read full article
September 23, 2011

Craigslist users fight surprise $89 charges from penny auction site



Craigslist bargain hunters around the country are being thrust into the middle of an elaborate scheme involving some of the Internet's darkest corners: Penny auctions, spam, and affiliate marketing. And many are finding their bank accounts are $89 lighter for their troubles. ...read full article
September 23, 2011

Internet Explorer Malware Plugin Also Infects Firefox



Malware that sticks to a web browser is no news to anyone, but now, a new threat has been discovered that after infecting Internet Explorer, it drops a piece of spyware onto your Firefox. ...read full article
September 23, 2011

Cody Kretsinger, Arizona College Student, Charged In Sony Hacking Case



LOS ANGELES -- An Arizona college student was arrested and charged Thursday in a breach of computers at Sony Pictures Entertainment early this summer where more than 37,000 customers had their information stolen. ...read full article
September 22, 2011

Theft of Digital Health Data More Often Inside Job, Report Finds



Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Electronic health data breaches are increasingly carried out by “knowledgeable insiders” bent on identity theft or access to prescription drugs, according to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. ...read full article
September 22, 2011

Foster Care Identity Theft bill passes



PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- U.S. Rep. James Langevin's office says the legislation, sponsored by Democrat, requires states to run credit checks on foster youth over 16 years old before they age out of the system. It also ensures they get help clearing their records of inaccuracies that are the result of identity theft. ...read full article
September 22, 2011

Man charged in identity theft spanning two decades



When university student Patrick Guest had his wallet stolen at an Ajax gym in 1990, he filed a police report, but didn’t think about it too much. ...read full article
September 22, 2011

Memphis woman admits identity theft, tax scam



A Memphis woman accused of scamming the government of more than $100,000 has pleaded guilty to identity theft and conspiracy to defraud the United States ...read full article
September 22, 2011

Russian citizen convicted of identity theft in RI



PROVIDENCE, R.I.—A federal jury has convicted a Russian man living in Rhode Island of taking out nearly $275,000 in loans using the stolen identity of a U.S. citizen living in Ireland. ...read full article
September 22, 2011

New Identity Theft Scam Targeting Consumers Through Text Messages



A heads up about a new identify theft scam. ...read full article
September 22, 2011

3 indicted in sophisticated Wash. hacking scheme



SEATTLE (AP) — Soon after his office was burglarized — twice — Jeff Eby walked in and found a payroll report sitting on his printer. He hadn't printed it, and as his company's chief financial officer, he's the only person who would have. ...read full article
September 22, 2011

New licenses for victims of ID theft



LAS CRUCES - The Motor Vehicle Division has begun implementing a new program to help victims of identity theft, State Taxation and Revenue Secretary Demesia Padilla announced Wednesday. ...read full article
September 22, 2011

9 members of stolen identity ring sentenced



PHOENIX - A ring of criminals who made a living stealing people’s identities is out of work and facing a total of 107 years in prison according to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. ...read full article
September 22, 2011

Are celebs the newest target for hackers?



(CNN) -- The naked celebrities seem to be everywhere lately. Last week, hackers allegedly stole nude photos from actress Scarlett Johansson and then plastered them all over the Internet. ...read full article
September 22, 2011

Postal carrier pleads guilty in mail theft case



A local U.S. Postal Service letter carrier pleaded guilty Wednesday to a felony charge that he stole mail from three people on his route in Queensbury. ...read full article
September 21, 2011

Two Men Use Dead Friend's Debit Card to Visit Strip Club



With friends like this, who needs enemies? It's a cliché come to life: When Jeffrey Jarret died, his two friends Robert Jeffrey Young and Mark Rubinson toted the corpse around in their trunk and used their buddy's ATM card to visit a strip club. ...read full article
September 21, 2011

'Supercookies' just won't go away



User privacy is the biggest concern surrounding the use of supercookies which secretly collect user data beyond the limitations of common industry practice, noted Jason Pearce, security director of sales engineering at M86 Security Asia-Pacific. ...read full article
September 21, 2011

Woman stole identities of several co-workers, police say



SOUTH WINDSOR — A woman who police said stole the identities of several of her co-workers to open a number of utility accounts at her home was arrested Thursday. ...read full article
September 21, 2011

US wants online users authenticated



The White House has reportedly initiated an online user authentication programme that aims to fight cyberphobia. ...read full article
September 21, 2011

Prosecutor calls poker site 'global Ponzi scheme'


Full Tilt poker accused of defrauding players of $330m



...read full article
September 21, 2011

Android bug lets attackers install malware without warning


Google patch cycle puts users at risk



...read full article
September 21, 2011

Client info stolen from Hana Card



A succession of data leaks are besieging local credit card issuers as the latest version of online security breach has taken place at Hana SK Card. ...read full article
September 21, 2011

Use Skype on the iPhone? Your info could be stolen



Are you using the Skype for iOS app on your iPhone or iPod Touch? Then you need to be aware of how easily your information — particularly your entire address book — could be stolen without your knowledge. All it takes is a single chat message. ...read full article
September 21, 2011

3D Printers Used to Create ATM Skimmers



ATM skimmers were printed with high-tech 3D devices by a group of fraudsters who managed to steal more that $400,000 (€ 280,000) from unsuspecting bank customers. ...read full article
September 21, 2011

Data breaches affect 2m in Mass.



Personal information from nearly one out of three Massachusetts residents, from names and addresses to medical histories, has been compromised through data theft or loss since the beginning of 2010, according to statistics released yesterday by the office of Attorney General Martha Coakley. ...read full article
September 21, 2011

Man accused of helping teen with ID theft arrested in Moorestown



MOUNT HOLLY — A New York City man was arrested in Moorestown and accused of helping a 17-year-old girl commit identity theft. ...read full article
September 20, 2011

Investigation Leads to Financial Forgery Laboratory and Identity Theft Arrest



RENO— Reno Police Department have arrested two suspects for allegedly operating a financial forgery lab. ...read full article
September 20, 2011

Data Breach FUD: Fear, Uncertainty And Dollars



Data breach cost models are like the three bears’ porridge: victim estimates are decried as too low, market estimates are too high, and everyone is searching for the estimate that’s just right ...read full article
September 20, 2011

Cell phone scam: Man accused of adding himself to AT&T customers' account



A man has been arrested in connection with an identity theft scam involving cellular phones. ...read full article
September 20, 2011

6 Ways ID Thieves Steal Your Credit Card Number



One in every 10 American consumers has already been victimized by identity theft. Just earlier this year, a major online portal lost more than 12,000 credit card account numbers. Unfortunately, identity scammers are constantly coming up with novel ways to steal our credit card numbers. ...read full article
September 20, 2011

ID Analytics Study Finds Six Million U.S. Parents and Children Inappropriately Sharing Identity Information



SAN DIEGO, Sept. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly six million parents and children in the U.S. are inappropriately sharing identity information according to new data released today from ID Analytics' ID:A Labs. While the study found that about 500,000 children under the age of 18 have had their identities stolen by a parent, perhaps most shocking is the finding that two to three million elderly parents are likely victims of identity theft initiated by their adult children. ...read full article
September 20, 2011

Schneider: Newest email scam almost laughably fake



The email scam du jour is not particularly believable. Readers have been sending it to me not because they're wondering if it's real, but to mock its fecklessness. ...read full article
September 20, 2011

Feds: Wi-Fi hacking burglars targeted dozens of Seattle-area businesses



A federal grand jury has indicted three Seattle men accused of hacking the wireless networks of more than a dozen businesses to steal money and employees’ personal information. ...read full article
September 20, 2011

NHS loses CD of 1.6 MILLION patients' records



An NHS trust has told patients that it is acting to improve its data handling practices after a rebuke from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for losing a CD containing details on 1.6 million people. ...read full article
September 20, 2011

Hackers break SSL encryption used by millions of sites



Researchers have discovered a serious weakness in virtually all websites protected by the secure sockets layer protocol that allows attackers to silently decrypt data that's passing between a webserver and an end-user browser. ...read full article
September 20, 2011

Former SEMO Employee Found with Data Files of Personal Information of Students



CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo.- Hundreds of students received an identity theft warning following a security breach at Southeast Missouri State University. ...read full article
September 20, 2011

Beijing Police Detain Couple for Illegal Personal Information Trading



Beijing police said Monday that they have detained a couple who were found to be illegally trading large amounts of personal information on the Internet. ...read full article
September 19, 2011

Man accused of killing identity theft victims gets 30-year sentence



A man authorities say was part of a Brooklyn husband-and-wife identity theft team has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for the deaths of three identity theft victims, prosecutors said Thursday. ...read full article
September 19, 2011

Former soldier living in Spring Lake faces theft, fraud charges



A former soldier who was serving federal probation at his mother's home in Spring Lake was arrested last week on charges that he fraudulently obtained more than $50,000 in federal benefits. ...read full article
September 19, 2011

Firm sends bots into chats to solicit stolen data



Hackers have proved they can crack just about any computer network, from Sony's to Citigroup's. Afterward, they face another challenge: unloading the virtual booty. ...read full article
September 19, 2011

Bank's credit card bills found dumped



AT least 500 credit card bills were found dumped at a recycling station in the Pudong New Area yesterday, raising concerns over a possible leak of bank customers' personal information. ...read full article
September 19, 2011

Intel officials' emails posted after hack of cybersecurity group


Attack comes days after organization warned US urgently needs to improve cyberdefenses



...read full article
September 19, 2011

State Assembly computer system breached



SACRAMENTO -- More than 50 employees of the state Assembly -- including some lawmakers -- have been warned that their personal information might have been obtained by a computer hacker. ...read full article
September 19, 2011

CT tax worker arrested in data breach



A Connecticut tax collector faces felony charges that could land him in jail for as long as six years for allegedly using his work computer to look up tax returns on about 15 taxpayers without a legitimate business need, authorities say ...read full article
September 19, 2011

Blumenthal Bill Bumps Up Fines for Security Breaches



Recently Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced a one-hundred page bill, dubbed the Personal Data Protection and Breach Accountability Act of 2011, S.1535, (the “PDPBA Act”), referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, that if ultimately passed would levy significant penalties for identify theft and other “violations of data privacy and security,” criminalize as felonies the installation of software that collects “sensitive personally identifiable information” without clear and conspicuous notice and consent. ...read full article
September 19, 2011

Prison Sentence for Insider Crimes



Insiders often pose the greatest and most costly threat financial institutions face, as a loan fraud case in Maryland demonstrates. ...read full article
September 19, 2011

Tufts laptop with confidential personal information stolen



A Tufts?owned research laptop containing the personal information of 73 applicants to the Tufts Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) was stolen in April, though there has been no sign of misuse of the information to date.