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Stolen laptop recovered – Medford Airport Theft Story

February 6th, 2012

Laptops have made life easy as they can be carried around easily. Business travelers cannot imagine life without them. But how far is it safe, especially when one is traveling?

Tune in to this latest story on laptop theft which took place on Medford Airport:

Jan 27 dawned like any other day for a Medford man. Little did he know that the day was going to take a different turn later in the day. It started with changes in his flight timings. He arrived late to pick up his luggage but unfortunately by then part of his luggage was stolen! According to the video cameras a white man in his late 20s to early 30s walked into the airport at 12:47 p.m., took this gentleman’s laptop from the carousel and left. At that time a white woman of similar age was accompanying him.

This Macintosh laptop was stored in a large box that identified the contents inside. Apparently the luggage arrived before the passenger and thus fell prey to the thieves. This was not a planned theft. One could call it an ‘opportunity’ theft.

Detective Sgt. Mike Budreau ‘s report says” “I can’t think of another case where somebody’s (property) has been taken from a luggage carousel at the airport,” “Hopefully it’s not something that’s going to continue.”

The surveillance video clearly shows that the couple is taking the item and leaving the airport in a taxi. The Police report further states that they traveled to downtown Medford and ran away without paying the cabbie.

The couple went to two Medford pawn shops to pawn the stolen laptop but was unable to do so.

One of the pawn shop employee had seen the news release and immediately recognized the ‘white man’. The white man’s description that was circulated on TV: average height and build with brown hair; he wore white sunglasses, a black and gray coat, gray sweater, light blue jeans and black shoes. The lady had brown hair, was thin and wore a white jacket and white shoes. She had a black purse.

Laptop stolen from Medford Airport Carousel

The police were successful in nabbing the couple accused of the theft of Macintosh computer at the Medford Airport.

The names of the suspects are Kevin Miers and Teresa Gerlach. An off duty Medford Police officer was vigilant enough and recognized the pair from the surveillance pair he had seen earlier in the day. He saw them strolling on Riverside Avenue in Medford.

Police immediately got in touch with them and the couple admitted to the theft. The couple had sold the computer to a gentleman at a residence on Crater Lake Avenue. The laptop has been returned to the owner.

More about the suspects, Kevin Miers and Teresa Gerlach

The couple appears to be regular law offenders. Miers is a troublemaker who had a showdown with the police in 2007 when he was caught in possession of marijuana and had tampered with drug records. Gerlach had leaded guilty to delivery of methamphetamine the same year.

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Posted in Computer security, computer security software, data breach, data encryption, laptop theft

Tags: AlertSec Xpress Crime Hardware insurance laptop Medford Notebooks and Laptops Police security Television Theft

ICO issues Midlothian Council record fine of £140,000 for disclosing sensitive personal data

February 4th, 2012

Midlothian Council pays hefty fine for data breach

ICO is leaving no stone un-turned to punish data breach culprits. It is levying fines to those who compromised private data, especially children’s sensitive data.

Recently the council fined the Midlothian Council a record fine of £140,000 for disclosing sensitive child data. And we are not talking here about just one breach. There were 5 breaches between Jan and June 2011.

The case in detail

Breach 1 – This happened when documents related to the status of a foster carer were sent to seven healthcare professionals, who had no reason to see this data.

This particular incident took place in January 2011 and details came to light only in March when the council started to investigate. In spite of the investigation similar incidents took place in May and June.

Breach 2 – Minutes of a child protection conference were sent by mistake to the former address of the mother’s partner, where they were opened and read by an unauthorized individual. The documents contained personal data about the mother, who made a complaint to her social worker about this case.

Assistant Commissioner for Scotland Ken Macdonald said “the serious upset that these breaches would have caused to the children’s families is obvious and it is extremely concerning that this happened five times in as many months.’

“I hope this penalty acts as a reminder to all organizations across Scotland and the rest of the UK to ensure that the personal information they handle is kept secure.”

He further added that information about children’s care, details about their health and wellbeing, is the most sensitive information that is held by local authorities. It goes without saying that this information has to be protected and that strict policies are to be chalked out and followed.

The ICO’s investigation

According to the ICO all five breaches could have been avoided if the council had been strict about protection policies, training and had put checks in place. It has further ordered the council to take action to keep the personal data secure.

Since the incidents the council has recovered all of the information that was sent to the wrong recipients and is updating its security policies.

What the the ICO chiefly wants is that the government should give itstronger powers to audit local councils’ data protection compliance, if necessary without consent.

NHS bodies across the UK want the same kind of powers in light of the recent data protection breaches.

Midlothian Council comments:

Colin Anderson, chief social work officer for Midlothian Council, commented: “As soon as the council discovered the problem, it investigated and found eight letters or documents had been sent to the wrong recipients, for which the council is sincerely sorry.

“The council immediately took steps to retrieve the information, or have it destroyed, and voluntarily reported ourselves to the information commissioner. I must emphasise that there is no evidence that anyone was put at risk.

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Posted in Computer security, Data Protection, Encryption, Identity and Information loss, computer security software, data breach, data encryption, identity theft

Tags: AlertSec Xpress BigPond business Check Point data breach data security ICO Information privacy Ken Macdonald Midlothian Council Personally identifiable information Social Security number Telstra Theft

Around 1000 patients of Lexington Clinic lose data because of Laptop theft

January 31st, 2012

Seal of the United States Federal Trade Commis...

The Federal State Commission issues data protection guidelines. Lexington Clinic suffers data breach

We have mentioned this before and are reiterating – Medical data is very very vulnerable. Most data breach and laptop stealing cases are related to Medical data. We have covered so many posts related to medical data breach that they have almost become a routine now! It is as if Medical data simply cannot be secured. Is the data security world listening? It is so very important to protect data, especially patient data.

Breaking news: Today’s post highlights the vulnerability of medical data breach and laptop thefts.

Lexington Clinic Laptop Theft

According to the Lexington clinic the laptop was atolen last month from the neurology department in the Saint Joseph office park on Harrodsburg Road.

The clinic further adds that the laptop contained patients’ names and some medical information. Fortunately it did not contain Social Security, credit card, or bank account numbers. A total of 1,018 patients lost their private data.

Letters are being sent to the affected parties.

The moment Lexington Clinic found out about the theft, it informed the police and all door locks to the neurology department were urgently changed. Lexington Clinic is currently working with the St. Joseph security officials to ascertain the security of offices located in the St. Joseph Office Park.

Note for Lexington Clinic patients – In case you have been or currently are a patient of the Lexington Clinic Neurology Department, and if you have not received a letter about this theft then it is safe to assume that your data was not on the stolen laptop. So far there is no proof that any of the stolen data has been misused.

The Federal Trade Commission is requesting everyone to take steps to protect information:

Beware of signs of identity theft, such as:

• Bank Accounts you didn’t open and debts on your accounts that you are not aware of

• Wrong information on your credit reports, including accounts and personal information, such as your Social Security number, address(es), name or initials and employers.

• In case you do not receive your bills on time, follow-up with your creditors.

• Receiving credit cards that you didn’t apply for.

• Being denied credit or being offered less favorable credit terms. If it is too good, then it is not true

• Receiving calls or letters from debt collectors or businesses about merchandise or services you didn’t buy.

About Lexington Clinic – It is Central Kentucky’s oldest and largest group practice, with more than 200 providers offering primary and specialty care services. Founded in 1920, Lexington Clinic offers more than 30 specialties and operates offices in more than 25 locations throughout Central and Eastern Kentucky.

Source: LexingtonClinic.com

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Posted in Computer security, Data Protection, computer security software, data breach, data encryption, laptop theft

Tags: Central Kentucky data breach data security Federal Trade Commission Information Commissioners Office Information privacy laptop Medicine Personally identifiable information Saint Joseph Social Security number Theft

UK mobile phone operator O2 suffers data breach

January 30th, 2012

Every data breach is a wake-up call for all of us using the Internet. We just assume our data is safe but how about thinking twice before posting private information on the world wide web? There are technical things which we, laymen, do not understand. Our information gets leaked to third parties and we don’t even know about it. Guess what, every time you visit a site, your phone number is getting leaked through your mobile service provider!

The O2 Scandal

Customers of O2, the European mobile network, suffered a data breach as their phone numbers were exposed to web sites visited from their smartphones. Unfortunately the security breach went on for two weeks before it was fixed on Jan 25.

Mobile customers in the United Kingdom started tweeting Wednesday morning about the breach after mobile developer Lewis Peckover found out about a security loophole in devices carried by European mobile network O2. It appeared that after O2 had performed its routine maintenance on its network this month, some users’ mobile phones started sending their owners’ phone numbers to web sites that were visited using mobile browsers through a 3G/WAP connection. Fortunately those who used Wi-Fi were saved from this ordeal.

This post shows that customer privacy is at stake. The breached phone numbers could be used for SMS spam or for hacking purpose. They are a treat for hackers and just waiting to be exploited!

The mobile device security industry is going through a bad phase. Just last April, Apple iPhones (running iOS 3.2 and above) had a flaw wherein the bug logged users’ location data in unencrypted files stored on the phones themselves. Customers were at their wits end when they heard this and there was chaos in the mobile industry. As if that was not enough, just last month, phone-monitoring software maker Carrier IQ admitted that its data-tracking program was already installed on all its phones across the country!.

Comment by O2

O2 issued a statement last Wednesday and explained that the issue has been fixed.

“In between the 10th of January and 1400 Wednesday 25th of January…there has been the potential for disclosure of customers’ mobile phone numbers to further website owners,” O2′s statement read. “It was fixed as of 1400 on Wednesday 25th January 2012.”

The office of the Information Commissioner (The ICO is a public U.K. body that enforces and oversees activity pertaining to the Data Protection Act of 1998) is looking into this matter presently.

“When people visit a website via their mobile phone they would not expect their number to be made available to that website,” the ICO said in a statement issued Wednesday. “We will now speak to O2 to remind them of their data breach notification obligations, and to better understand what has happened, before we decide how to proceed.”

Update from O2

According to O2, it regularly gives subscriber’s phone numbers to web-sites that offer age-restricted information and premium-rate billing without the user’s knowledge.

Apparently the company has been providing user phone numbers to web-sites that are browsed by millions of users from their phones using the 3G network. This has been happening since Jan 10. Obviously the site owners are having a ball with this piece of information.

What should a common man do to avoid such a pitfall?

Always read the terms and conditions of any mobile service that you choose to use. Better to be safe than sorry!

Alertsec comes to the rescue

80% of data loss is due to lost or stolen equipment. 50% of network breaches take place by using passwords from lost or stolen equipment. Laptop encryption is the solution to laptop theft problem. Small and big companies are now realizing the importance of tracking software. Alertsec offers laptop encryption service to secure your data.

Organisations are now made aware about their data security and are implementing data encryption techniques. Alertsec uses encryption software to protect data from breaches and theft.

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O2, the mobile phone service provider, suffers data breach

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Posted in Computer security, Data Protection, Uncategorized, computer security software, data breach, data encryption

Tags: AlertSec Xpress Business and Economy Carrier IQ Cellular network data breach Data Protection Act 1998 data security disk encryption ICO Information Commissioner Information Commissioners Office Information privacy IPhone Personal computer Ponemon Institute Telecommunications Telephone number Wednesday

Univ. of Hawaii settles data breach lawsuit

January 29th, 2012

Companies cannot just get away with data breaches. They are answerable to customers and have to compensate. Customers generally file lawsuits when their demands are not met and where private data is stolen.

The following news report is making headlines

The University of Hawaii has agreed to provide two years of credit protection services to settle a class-action lawsuit that involved data breaches that took place between 2009 and 2011

Seal of the University of Hawai i System

UOH settles data breach lawsuit

wherein 100,000 students, faculty, alumni and staff between 2009 and 2011, officials and attorneys were involved. This was announced last Thursday.

Apparently the university has denied liability for the breaches. Its spokesperson said it will settle the case by providing two years of credit monitoring and credit restoration services to members who request it. According to the university spokesperson it will continue to “work diligently so that the chance of future data breaches is significantly reduced.”

Data breach details

There were five data breaches in all. It also included the one that took place in 2009 where Social Security numbers, grades and other personal data were posted online for almost a year before being removed from the website. According to University officials a faculty member uploaded files containing the information to an unprotected server, exposing the names, academic performance, disabilities and other information of more than 40,000 students who attended the flagship Manoa campus from 1990 to 1998 and in 2001, by mistake.

Breaches also took place at the West Oahu campus, Kapiolani Community College and Honolulu Community College.

The University’s statement ”We are pleased to settle this case by providing two years of credit monitoring and credit restoration services to those class members who request it. The University continues to work diligently so that the chance of future data breaches is significantly reduced. Given the uncertainties and expense of litigation, the University believes this settlement is in the best interests of the University and its entire ‘ohana.”

The attorneys, Bruce Sherman and Thomas Grande who are representing the class, said

“We have researched more than forty (40) data breaches at colleges and universities across the country. In almost every instance, two years of credit monitoring and fraud restoration were offered to data breach victims,” said Bruce Sherman, one of the attorneys representing the class. “Offering two years of credit monitoring and fraud restoration services to breach victims should be the standard response by any breaching entity in Hawai’i, including government agencies,” Sherman noted.

“The settlement is significant for several reasons,” said Thomas Grande, who also represents the class. “This settlement is the first data breach settlement in Hawai’i and affects almost 100,000 persons,” Grande noted.

“Credit monitoring provides for continuous checking by a credit agency of a class member’s credit file. If there is suspicious activity, the class member is notified immediately and is given assistance to resolve the problem,” Sherman said.

“Credit monitoring services may cost as much as $5 to $15 per month if purchased individually. We are extremely pleased that the University has negotiated a settlement package that provides these services to every class member who wants them,” Grande said.

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Organisations, especially corporate giants, have to have an information security policy in place that proves they have taken necessary steps and measures to safeguard the information they gathered. If these policies are not adhered to, the regulators may prosecute.

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