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		<title>FedEx driver alerts police about identity theft</title>
		<link>http://blog.alertsec.com/2012/05/fedex-driver-recognizes-identity-thie/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.alertsec.com/2012/05/fedex-driver-recognizes-identity-thie/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 16 May 2012 11:25:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Computer security]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.alertsec.com/?p=3466</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This post is dedicated to all law-abiding citizens. Without them, this world would be  a chaotic place. Even the Police force draws strength from them and at times use their help. If we stay alert and keep the police informed of suspicious activities,  thieves will think twice before stealing. In today&#8217;s digital world, staying alert and [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fedexgroundtruck.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" title="A typical FedEx Ground truck. Photographed in ..." src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1e/Fedexgroundtruck.jpg/300px-Fedexgroundtruck.jpg" alt="A typical FedEx Ground truck. Photographed in ..." width="300" height="158" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">FedEx driver reports meeting a guy whose behavior was suspicious </p></div>
<p>This post is dedicated to all law-abiding citizens. Without them, this world would be  a chaotic place. Even the Police force draws strength from them and at times use their help. If we stay alert and keep the police informed of suspicious activities,  thieves will think twice before stealing. In today&#8217;s digital world, staying alert and securing data is of utmost importance. This post shares an interesting story of a FedEx driver whose suspicion is helping the police in tracking a thief.</p>
<p><strong>FedEx driver helps in identifying thief</strong></p>
<p>A FedEx driver&#8217;s alertness helped him identify a thief who was planning to steal a few laptops.</p>
<p>According to the FedEx driver, a black man in his late 20s to early 30s driving silver Audi with New York license plates, on Tuesday afternoon, May 8, before 12:25, approached him in the Land Rover Darien parking lot, 90 Post Road. The man told the FedEx driver he wanted to pick up packages scheduled for delivery on Prospect Avenue and that he was the addressee. Nevertheless, the driver had a great memory and he immediately recognized the man as the same one who had made a similar request on Friday, May 4. The FedEx driver flatly denied handing over the packages and the man sped off.</p>
<p>The thief’s strategy is to approach a FedEx driver and have computers shipped to homes in town and trying to intercept them before they are delivered.</p>
<p><strong>The first incident</strong> &#8211; The first incident took place on May 4. The driver was parked in a parking lot on Parklands Drive. A black man approached him and asked him for packages that were to be delivered to a home on Bayberry Lane. He showed the driver a New York license with the recipient’s name. The driver took a long look at the license and believed it was a fake.  He did not hand over the packages to him, which were to be delivered to the Bayberry Lane house. It contained four laptop computers. The owner of that address had not ordered the computers and was going to be the victim of an identity theft.</p>
<p><strong>The second incident </strong>- The same man approached the same driver in the parking lot of 90 Post Road on May 8. He used the same modus operandi and asked for a package to be delivered on Prospect Avenue. This time the man claimed to be the owner of the package. The FedEx driver recognized the man and refused to give the packages. The man then sped away from the area.</p>
<p><strong>The Police are on the hunt</strong></p>
<p>The man on the run is described as a black man in his late 20s to early 30s. He was seen driving a silver Audi with New York registration. The case is currently under investigation.</p>
<p><strong>Alertsec can catch thieves</strong></p>
<p>Protecting your laptop via encryption software would be your best bet. That is where Alertsec steps in.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.alertsec.com/index.php?page=ov_why&amp;menu=0">Alertsec </a>is the frontrunner in offering hard disk encryption as a fully managed service. We provide protection for all information stored on laptops and PCs in an easy, convenient, and cost-effective way.</p>
<p>By using industry leading Check Point Full Disk Encryption (former Pointsec) software, <a href="http://www.alertsec.com/index.php?page=ts_comprehensive_data_protect">Alertsec </a>has created a web based encryption service that radically simplifies deployment and management of PC encryption.</p>
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		<title>Tel Aviv&#8217;s D.A. charges six people with a massive data theft: Personal details of millions of Israelis exposed</title>
		<link>http://blog.alertsec.com/2012/05/tel-avivs-d-a-charges-six-peopl/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.alertsec.com/2012/05/tel-avivs-d-a-charges-six-peopl/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 14 May 2012 06:37:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Computer security]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.alertsec.com/?p=3454</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Data breach/ data theft can take place in multiple ways. By accessing unauthorized data, by stealing diskettes or USB sticks. By stealing documents, by copying data and selling it to another vendor without authority. Also what is disturbing but true is that the perpetrators are often people who are of a decent background, earning good money. Some [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Great_Synagogue_of_Tel_Aviv_from_the_air.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" title="Great synagogue of Tel Aviv- View from the air" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/Great_Synagogue_of_Tel_Aviv_from_the_air.jpg/300px-Great_Synagogue_of_Tel_Aviv_from_the_air.jpg" alt="Great synagogue of Tel Aviv- View from the air" width="300" height="205" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Tel-Aviv - A massive data theft surfaces. The DA charges six people of stealing and selling data</p></div>
<p>Data breach/ data theft can take place in multiple ways. By accessing unauthorized data, by stealing diskettes or USB sticks. By stealing documents, by copying data and selling it to another vendor without authority. Also what is disturbing but true is that the perpetrators are often people who are of a decent background, earning good money. Some of them do just because it gives them a &#8216;technological high&#8217;, some do it because they think it will help them in their career.</p>
<p>The latest data theft news from Israel proves that the perpetrator was somebody who came from a good educational background but wanted to make a fast buck.</p>
<p><strong>Data theft news from Israel &#8211; In brief</strong></p>
<p>Tel Aviv&#8217;s District Attorney charged six people with a major data theft that leaked the personal details of millions of Israelis.</p>
<p>The stolen data contains full names, ID numbers, and addresses, dates of birth, family status, and names of siblings. In addition, it includes an extensive search engine allowing users to determine extended family relations of any Israeli in the database.</p>
<p>The perpetrators sold the data to Haredi charities.<strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>Data theft news &#8211; In detail</strong></p>
<p>This data theft took place in 2006 and it contained detailed personal information on nine million Israelis including minors, deceased persons and citizens living abroad.</p>
<p>Shalom Bilik, a f<strong>ormer Social Affairs Ministry contractor, </strong>who had access to the database during his work at the ministry, copied the data and took it home without permission. Bilik&#8217;s contract with the ministry ended in 2006 and soon thereafter, he began to provide computing services to an ultra-Orthodox organization in Jerusalem. He used to install the database on computers there.</p>
<p>The persons indicted other than Bilik are Avraham Adam, Yosef Vitman, Haim Aharon, Moshe Moskovitz and Meir Leiver.</p>
<p>Adam worked at the ultra-Orthodox charity. He used the stolen data after Bilik gave it him. He later passed the data on to Vitman, who volunteered at the charity. Vitman then sold a copy of the stolen database to an independent computer consultant called Aharo who combined it with a copy of the voter registration database and eleven other databases. Aharon later sold the combined database to other people and gave it to a computer programmer, Moskovitz, who in turn sold it to other people.</p>
<p>Moskovitz then updated the database with a sophisticated search program and named the final database &#8216;Agron&#8217; (&#8216;Glossary&#8217;).  He allegedly stole it to other interested parties. The database finally ended up with Leiver who then decided to call it aRi and sold it overseas.</p>
<p><strong>The Indictment</strong></p>
<p>According to the indictment, the six men are charged with various offenses under the Privacy Protection Law, which attract a maximum five-year prison sentence. Bilik is also charged under the Penal Code with removal of a document from custody and passing it to a third party, which attracts a maximum five-year prison term and Leiver is charged with destroying evidence, after allegedly attempting to disrupt the investigation by deleting computer files.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.alertsec.com/index.php?page=ts_comprehensive_data_protect">Alertsec</a> strives hard to protect data</p>
<p>Alertsec&#8217;s encryption service helps protect data and secure your computer systems. <a href="http://www.alertsec.com/index.php?page=ov_overview&amp;menu=0">Alertsec Xpress</a> offers computer protection software from Check Point as a fully customizable and pre-packaged data encryption software solution.</p>
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		<title>Phoenix Police nab 3 in connection with laptop theft</title>
		<link>http://blog.alertsec.com/2012/05/phoenix-police-nab-suspect/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.alertsec.com/2012/05/phoenix-police-nab-suspect/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 13 May 2012 17:09:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.alertsec.com/?p=3438</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Wow! Another laptop theft and that too in less than 24 hours! When it rains, it pours but we wish this was not true in cases of thefts, right? Well, unfortunately these days it has been raining less and &#8217;stealing&#8217; more. Stealing laptops is becoming a way of life with thieves and they think they [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 210px"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Laptop_icon.svg" target="_blank"><img class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" title="Laptop icon" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/Laptop_icon.svg/200px-Laptop_icon.svg.png" alt="Laptop icon" width="200" height="160" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">3 suspects nabbed by Phoenix Police in connection with a series of laptops</p></div>
<p>Wow! Another laptop theft and that too in less than 24 hours! When it rains, it pours but we wish this was not true in cases of thefts, right? Well, unfortunately these days it has been raining less and &#8217;stealing&#8217; more. Stealing laptops is becoming a way of life with thieves and they think they can get away with it. Alas, the Police force is on the alert and suspects are getting caught sooner than later!</p>
<p><strong>Thanks to Phoenix Police for nabbing laptop thieves</strong></p>
<p>Thursday was a promising day for the Phoenix police. They were successful in nabbing Jordan Griggs, Camden Jernigan and Shawn Thompson in connection with a string of laptop computer thefts from Valley coffee shops.</p>
<p>Phoenix police arrested three 19-year-old men Thursday</p>
<p>They had stolen a man&#8217;s computer while he was using it at a Phoenix Starbucks.</p>
<p><strong>Series of Laptop thefts</strong></p>
<p>The car drove to a neighbourhood about one block southeast of the shop and Griggs and Shawn Thompson got out of the car, Jernigan waited in the driver&#8217;s seat.</p>
<p>Griggs opened a door to the shop and Shawn Thompson went in and snatched a 35-year-old man&#8217;s computer while he was working. After stealing the computer, the two young men ran from the store and jumped into the waiting car, which was then driven by Jerrigan. This was apparently the thieves modus operandi. They always stole laptops when people were actually typing out.</p>
<p>The Police were watching the scene unfold in front of them.  They tailed the car and the suspects were stopped at 4900 N. 12th St., and the computer was found in their car. The suspects were immediately arrested and taken into custody.</p>
<p>The laptop was returned to the owner and the three suspects were jailed on suspicion of felony theft and felony conspiracy charges.</p>
<p><strong>Alertsec helps curb laptop thefts</strong></p>
<p>The fact that we now buy more laptops than desktops shows that the information we all store is increasingly more vulnerable to be exposed. It is a much higher risk to lose a laptop than a desktop computer.</p>
<p>The only way to protect information stored on a PC or laptop is by using encryption. <a href="http://www.alertsec.com/index.php?page=ov_overview&amp;menu=0">Alertsec Xpress</a> offers full disk encryption and is therefore superior to other encryption methods when comparing security, performance, robustness and ease-of-use for both administrators and users.</p>
<p>The following preventive measures can be done to increase laptop security with <a href="http://www.alertsec.com/index.php?page=ts_full_disk_encryption">Alertsec </a>and reduce damage if your laptop is lost or stolen:</p>
<p>a. Always have a fresh back-up on a server or back-up device</p>
<p>b. Use Laptop encryption to protect your valuable data</p>
<p>c.Full disk encryption software encrypts the entire disk sector by sector, including the system files, temporary and deleted files, and the operating system</p>
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		<title>Payroll data of home-care workers goes missing in the mail &#8211; Los Angeles County news</title>
		<link>http://blog.alertsec.com/2012/05/payroll/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.alertsec.com/2012/05/payroll/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 12 May 2012 11:39:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.alertsec.com/?p=3423</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Another breach where data of home-care personnel goes missing! We cannot stress enough the importance of protecting health-care data. It is so crucial and sensitive and the chances of it getting misused is very high, especially data belonging to ill people and vulnerable children.
Payroll data goes missing
700,000 people who offer or get home care for the elderly [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Los_Angeles_County_flag.gif" target="_blank"><img class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" title="Flag of County of Los Angeles" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c4/Los_Angeles_County_flag.gif/300px-Los_Angeles_County_flag.gif" alt="Flag of County of Los Angeles" width="300" height="198" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Data breach of home-care personnel in the County of Los Angeles</p></div>
<p>Another breach where data of home-care personnel goes missing! We cannot stress enough the importance of protecting health-care data. It is so crucial and sensitive and the chances of it getting misused is very high, especially data belonging to ill people and vulnerable children.</p>
<p><strong>Payroll data goes missing</strong></p>
<p>700,000 people who offer or get home care for the elderly and disabled have become victims of data breach. Their payroll data has lost its way in the mail, as told by an internal government email.</p>
<p>According to the email, the breach was found out on Wednesday. Hewlett Packard handles the payroll information for workers in California&#8217;s In-Home Supportive Services program. According to them the data disappeared en route in the mail to a state office in Riverside.</p>
<p>&#8220;While we continue to investigate, at this time we can’t confirm whether the information was damaged, lost or stolen,&#8221; the email said.</p>
<p>As soon as it was learned that the package had disappeared, an investigation started and as of now the Police are looking into the theft. The affected parties are being notified via email. The spokesperson for the California Department of Social Services, Oscar Ramirez, has confirmed the breach.</p>
<p>Security policies are being changed to avoid such mishaps.</p>
<p><strong>Comment by lobbyist, Deborah Doctor</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s unbelievable,&#8221; said Deborah Doctor, a lobbyist at Disability Rights California. &#8220;This will be very worrying.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to Ms Doctor the worst hit are the low-income people in the program for whom English is often not their first language, while others are too blind to read notices from the government about the missing data.</p>
<p>Approximately 40% of employees and recipients in the program are based out of Los Angeles County.</p>
<p><strong>Late night update</strong></p>
<p>According to<strong> </strong>a news release sent out late Friday said, &#8220;The package containing the information was reported as damaged while being shipped by the U.S. Postal Service and the information contained in the package was incomplete upon delivery.&#8221;</p>
<p>The package that contained the data was mailed on April 26 and arrived May 1. The state was not notified for another week. The breached data from October to December 2011, for 375,000 workers included names, Social Security numbers and wages. State identification numbers may have been leaked for about 326,000 recipients.</p>
<p><strong>Time to use <a href="http://www.alertsec.com/index.php?page=ov_company&amp;menu=5">Alertsec</a> to protect your vulnerable and sensitive data</strong></p>
<p>Data encryption is the key here. Alertsec is into data protection and it does a fine job of securing data.</p>
<div>
<p>Alertsec Xpress includes <a href="http://www.alertsec.com/index.php?page=ts_boot_prot">pre-boot authentication</a>, which ensures that only authorised users are allowed to access the computer. A common misconception is that a bios password conveys the same level of security as the pre boot protection included in Alertsec Xpress. This is not the case.</p>
<p>BIOS level protection schemes only protect the actual BIOS settings.</p>
<p>To secure stored data, it must be encrypted. Once encrypted with full disk encryption, the files will be inaccessible to any unauthorized person and immune to the widely available password cracking tools.</p>
<p>Get Alertsec and leave the data security to us!</p>
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		<title>Two Murrieta men arrested in connection with the theft of a laptop</title>
		<link>http://blog.alertsec.com/2012/05/two-murrieta-men-arreste/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.alertsec.com/2012/05/two-murrieta-men-arreste/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 11 May 2012 06:15:36 +0000</pubDate>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.alertsec.com/?p=3406</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Just when we thought laptop thefts are on the decrease, here comes one that shows nothing can be relied on in the digital world. You go to be extra careful with mobile devices. You don&#8217;t know when they might fall prey to a theft. Especially if you leave them in your vehicles.
Murrieta Police were kept [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 190px"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47117845@N00/69496101" target="_blank"><img class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" title="laptop" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/9/69496101_b8a3f7b65f_m.jpg" alt="laptop" width="180" height="240" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Laptop and other items stolen from cars in Murrieta</p></div>
<p>Just when we thought laptop thefts are on the decrease, here comes one that shows nothing can be relied on in the digital world. You go to be extra careful with mobile devices. You don&#8217;t know when they might fall prey to a theft. Especially if you leave them in your vehicles.</p>
<p><strong>Murrieta Police were kept busy</strong></p>
<p>A laptop and other items were stolen from vehicles in the last few weeks in Murrieta.</p>
<p>The cars, from which these items were taken, were parked near the California Oaks Road corridor between April 29 and Sunday. The missing laptop appeared as a sales item on Craigslist and that’s how the police tracked down the thief. The stolen items were found at a residence on Via Diamante.</p>
<p>The recovered items included devices, sunglasses and phone chargers. The police are trying to track down the owners of these recovered items.</p>
<p>Andrew Ortiz is a student at Temecula Preparatory School in French Valley where he was arrested Tuesday.</p>
<p>Albert Clarke was an accomplice in the theft and the detectives tracked him to his home on Breckenridge Court. Clark admitted his connection with the theft as well as multiple other thefts from vehicles (between April 29 and May 6).</p>
<p>According to Murrieta police Sgt. Steve Dyer &#8220;Some of the recovered property includes GPS navigation devices, sunglasses and phone chargers,”.</p>
<p><strong>The arrests</strong></p>
<p>The Murrieta PD arrested Justin Albert Clarke, 19, and Andrew Philip Ortiz, 18 in connection with the theft. Both the young men were put into the Southwest Detention Center in French Valley on suspicion of grand theft and receiving stolen property.</p>
<p><strong>Update &#8211; Suspects released on bond</strong></p>
<p>Both suspects posted $5,000 bonds and were released from the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta on May 9.</p>
<p><strong>Dial for theft</strong></p>
<p>Sgt. Dyer has asked anyone with information related these thefts or might have items stolen from their cars during the time frame of April 29 and May 6 to contact Detective Steve Whiddon at 951-696-3615.</p>
<p>If one wishes to stay anonymous, one can use &#8220;We Tip&#8221; at 1-800-78-CRIME.</p>
<p><strong>Moral of the story</strong></p>
<p>The above story shows that not all laptops are stolen for want to information. Thieves simply steal it to sell it off and make money.  Most laptops end up in a pawn shop or on Craigslist.</p>
<p><strong>What can companies and individuals do to protect their laptops?</strong></p>
<p>The easiest and the most cost-effective way is to physically secure the laptop with a cable so that a thief cannot grab it.</p>
<p>However, the above has limitations; hence protecting your laptop via encryption software would be your best bet. That is where Alertsec steps in.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.alertsec.com/index.php?page=ov_why&amp;menu=0">Alertsec </a>is the frontrunner in offering hard disk encryption as a fully managed service. We provide protection for all information stored on laptops and PCs in an easy, convenient, and cost-effective way.</p>
<p>By using industry leading Check Point Full Disk Encryption (former Pointsec) software, <a href="http://www.alertsec.com/index.php?page=ts_comprehensive_data_protect">Alertsec </a>has created a web based encryption service that radically simplifies deployment and management of PC encryption.</p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
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		<title>Beware of posting on Twitter: It has been hacked!</title>
		<link>http://blog.alertsec.com/2012/05/twitter-hacke/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.alertsec.com/2012/05/twitter-hacke/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 10 May 2012 19:33:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.alertsec.com/?p=3391</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Did you get a message saying that your Twitter account has been hacked? Well, you better believe it because it is true. According to Twitter most of these are &#8217;spam accounts. Well, go figure..
The story that’s making the rounds
On Tuesday, users of the micro blogging site, Twitter, found out that thousands of user names and [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Twitter_2010_logo.svg" target="_blank"><img class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" title="Twitter" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1e/Twitter_2010_logo.svg/300px-Twitter_2010_logo.svg.png" alt="Twitter" width="300" height="69" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">American Television Personalities also victims of Twitter hack</p></div>
<p>Did you get a message saying that your Twitter account has been hacked? Well, you better believe it because it is true. According to Twitter most of these are &#8217;spam accounts. Well, go figure..</p>
<p><strong>The story that’s making the rounds</strong></p>
<p>On Tuesday, users of the micro blogging site,<a href="https://twitter.com/"> Twitter</a>, found out that thousands of user names and passwords of the site were leaked by a hacker. The good news is that most of these leaked accounts are supposedly spam.</p>
<p>News and activist hub Airdemon posted an update stating that 55,000 accounts had been compromised. It linked to Pastebin pages containing the allegedly compromised user names and passwords. The investigation is under way. The company is apparently downplaying the episode.</p>
<p><strong>What is Twitter spokesman Robert Weeks saying about it?</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s worth noting that, so far, we&#8217;ve discovered that the list of alleged accounts and passwords found on Pastebin consists of more than 20,000 duplicates, many spam accounts that have already been suspended and many login credentials that do not appear to be linked (that is, the password and username are not actually associated with each other),&#8221; said. &#8220;We are currently looking into the situation. In the meantime, we have pushed out password resets to accounts that may have been affected,&#8221; Weeks said.</p>
<p><strong>Twitter has been hacked before</strong></p>
<p>There was pair of data breaches in 2009 where the hackers had gained control of Twitter accounts. The FTC had managed to get a settlement with Twitter.</p>
<p>Couple of months ago, Twitter had to temporarily suspend the Web version of its TweetDeck software after a bug allowed some users to access other users&#8217; accounts. The bug was fixed the day after it was publicly exposed.</p>
<p><strong>Recent Update</strong></p>
<p>Some crazy tweets by American Television Personality, Kris Jenner, made the rounds yesterday night. And they were like super-gross! It was something about the way she “sharted”. The tweets read “This is real bad”, “Holly shit stains”. Well, keeping her usual personality and show in mind, the tweet world did not think much about it. But when the ‘real’ Kris logged in, she realized someone had hacked into her accout and had posted all those   trashy tweets.</p>
<p>The next in line of popular personality to get hacked was ‘Hulk’ aka Mark Ruffalo. A hacker took over his identity @MRuff221 and changed it to @Mark_Ruffalo, and put on some nasty posts: “The women of Hollywood sure have some great boobs. Here are the top 15!” Once Ruffalo actually logged in, he realized his account was hacked and he immediately informed his fans about the same. “Okay, I’m back up. The existential battle raged on my keyboard between me and my silly hacker has ended and it seems I lost @Mruff221,” he said, but eventually wrote, “Guess what. I am one and the same!! I am both identities. @mruff221 and @Mark_Ruffalo. So everyone wins.”</p>
<p><strong>Alertsec comes to the rescue</strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Organizations 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.</p>
<p>Alertsec Xpress is backed up by <a href="http://www.alertsec.com">Check Point Full Disk Encryption</a> and is used by over 4 million users worldwide, with single deployments exceeding 150,000 laptops and PCs. This is the most deployed software of its kind and is seen as today&#8217;s market leader.</p>
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		<title>Pentagon-run TRICARE admits to breach bigger than initially reported</title>
		<link>http://blog.alertsec.com/2012/05/tricare-admits-to-data-breac/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.alertsec.com/2012/05/tricare-admits-to-data-breac/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 07 May 2012 19:08:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.alertsec.com/?p=3377</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Carol Keller’s nightmare started last December when she was informed that her personal and medical information had been stolen almost four months earlier, thanks to a Pentagon contractor who had left 25 computer tapes in the back seat of a Honda Civic in Texas. Keller finally knew what had caused the fraudulent purchases from her [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 160px"><a href="http://www.daylife.com/image/0gU7cDY38V14k?utm_source=zemanta&amp;utm_medium=p&amp;utm_content=0gU7cDY38V14k&amp;utm_campaign=z1" target="_blank"><img class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" title="WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 03:  U.S. Rep. Ed Ma..." src="http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0gU7cDY38V14k/150x101.jpg" alt="WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 03:  U.S. Rep. Ed Ma..." width="150" height="101" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 03:  U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) demands data security from Pentagon</p></div>
<p>Carol Keller’s nightmare started last December when she was informed that her personal and medical information had been stolen almost four months earlier, thanks to a Pentagon contractor who had left 25 computer tapes in the back seat of a Honda Civic in Texas. Keller finally knew what had caused the fraudulent purchases from her debit account.</p>
<p><strong>Pentagon Health Insurance Program &#8211; <a href="http://www.tricare.mil">Tricare</a></strong></p>
<p>Keller is among the 70,000 military personnel, retirees, and their families across New England who are victims of one of the largest-ever breaches of medical data. Approx. 4.7 million people may be in deep trouble because of this breach. These military families are dependent on Tricare for their insurance.</p>
<p>Victims such as Keller have filed a class-action lawsuit seeking unspecified damages. It is frustrating that Pentagon relies on contractors and outdated computer storage technologies to house and transport personal information.</p>
<p><strong>Representative Edward J. Markey comments:</strong></p>
<p>“The bottom line is that people in charge of safeguarding our service members’ personal data need to transition from the 20th century to the era of iPads,’’ said Representative Edward J. Markey, who is demanding more answers from the Pentagon on its medical privacy policies. “TRICARE had given me no assurance that it is moving toward such a modern system.’’</p>
<p><strong>The contractor &#8211; Science Applications International Corp</strong></p>
<p>The contractor receives about $20 billion a year in Pentagon contracts.</p>
<p>Apparently the contractor “has experienced no fewer than six security failures’’ since 2005. These failures include privacy data, the suit alleges, including a break-in at a company facility in California in 2005 in which the Social Security numbers and financial transactions of 45,000 top military and intelligence officials were stolen.</p>
<p><strong>What the Spokesman for Science Applications International Corp had to say?</strong></p>
<p>“We don’t know what specific instances that they are talking about, whether they are SAIC, whether they might be a vendor of some kind to us, and we don’t want to get into a dialogue about pending litigation,’’.</p>
<p>“Reading the data on the tapes would require knowledge of and access to specific hardware and software, which is commercially available, but would also require knowledge of the system and data structure on the tapes,’’.</p>
<p>He further added that the company has no evidence that the information on the computer tapes stolen last year from a San Antonio parking garage was accessed by outsiders and that it would be difficult to decipher the tapes.</p>
<p><strong>The Plaintiffs</strong></p>
<p>Plaintiffs in this case are Ms Keller, the spouse of a decorated war veteran, the 5-year-old daughter of an Air Force officer, and a retired major. According to them their credit cards were canceled without their knowledge for suspicious transactions; unauthorized withdrawals were made from their bank accounts; and telemarketers hound them.</p>
<p><strong>Data security with Alertsec</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.alertsec.com">Alertsec Xpress</a> is used in all organizations that have recognized the need to protect their information. Customers range from single-user sole traders and consultants to large multinational companies with offices around the globe.</p>
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		<title>Global Payments Inc. may have been breached months earlier than initially reported.</title>
		<link>http://blog.alertsec.com/2012/05/global-payments/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.alertsec.com/2012/05/global-payments/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 05 May 2012 06:32:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.alertsec.com/?p=3359</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We have an update on our last past about Global Payments Inc. Let us quickly referesh your memory and then get on to the update.
Previous post: A massive data breach at Global Payments has exposed 1.5 million credit card accounts. Visa, MasterCard and American Express firms process their payments through Global Payments. Thieves managed to access [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 250px"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/68751915@N05/6629062223" target="_blank"><img class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" title="Credit Card" src="http://farm8.static.flickr.com/7017/6629062223_6ed032f4d5_m.jpg" alt="Credit Card" width="240" height="240" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Global Payments breach much higher than initially reported</p></div>
<p>We have an update on our last past about Global Payments Inc. Let us quickly referesh your memory and then get on to the update.</p>
<p><strong>Previous post:</strong> A massive data breach at<a href="http://http://www.globalpaymentsinc.com/worldwide.html"> </a>Global Payments has exposed 1.5 million credit card accounts. Visa, MasterCard and American Express firms process their payments through Global Payments. Thieves managed to access credit card numbers, security codes and expiration data. This breach has led Visa to think twice about Global Payment being its vendor.</p>
<p><strong>Present: </strong>Global Payments Inc&#8217;s situation has gone from bad to worse. The talk in the town is that Global Payments may have been breached a lot earlier than reported. Two of the aggrieved card members said that the window for compromise dates back to June 2011. The issuers names have been kept anonymous.</p>
<p>As per Visa&#8217;s alerts the breach occured between Jan 2012 and mid February. According to Global it communicated this to the affected people on March 30. The possibility that a much higher number of credit cards had been affected (approximately 10 million) by the breach cannot be ruled out.  Hackers had  managed to steal customer names, credit card numbers, expiration dates and the security number.</p>
<p>Looking at the current picture, the fact cannot be denied that they were aware of the scheme since June 2011, eight months ago. The new investigation leads confirm this. It further confirms that not 1.5 million but 7 million records were breached!</p>
<p>According to Global Payments CEO <strong>Paul Garcia</strong> the company found out about the breach internally on March 8 and immediately alerted the card associations. Garcia further added that their initial disclosure was “forced by wild speculation in the press regarding this matter and our company.”</p>
<p><strong>Global Payments spokeswoman </strong><strong>Amy Korn</strong><strong>’s comment</strong></p>
<p>Ms Korn declined to comment but said the company would be releasing additional information about the breach in a statement on its Web site soon.</p>
<p><strong>Statement by Global</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;We have not publicly communicated any time periods and there is a full investigation underway. It would be premature and inappropriate for us to speak to or confirm any timeframes until the investigation is complete,. &#8220;The company sincerely apologizes for any concern this has caused, and please know that we continue to work with industry third parties, regulators and law enforcement to assist in all efforts to minimize cardholder and customer impact,&#8221; it said.</p>
<p><strong>Shareholder Lawsuit</strong></p>
<p>There is a strong possibility that Global Payments may face a shareholder lawsuit. Law firm, Robbins Umeda, specializing in securities litigation, released a statement saying that it was &#8220;investigating possible breaches of fiduciary duty and other violations of the law by certain officers and directors at Global Payments.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Alertsec offers measures to combat data security issues</strong></p>
<p><em><a href="http://www.alertsec.com">Alertsec Xpress</a> is a very easy and convenient service which enables securing valuable information on laptops. </em></p>
<p><em>Alertsec Xpress is powered by Check Point, the market leader in the field of mobile data protection. The software was launched 16 years ago and is the most robust software on the market today.</em></p>
<p><strong>Alertsec Xpress provides:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Fully managed service for      your convenience.</li>
<li>Very cost effective service.</li>
<li>Market leading laptop      protection service.</li>
<li>Quick and easy      implementation.</li>
<li>Easy to use protection.</li>
<li>Transparent solution.</li>
<li>Global 24/7 helpdesk.</li>
<li>100% secure and reliable      encryption</li>
</ul>
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		<title>Google employees were aware of Street View data breach</title>
		<link>http://blog.alertsec.com/2012/05/google-employees-wer/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.alertsec.com/2012/05/google-employees-wer/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 02 May 2012 18:39:07 +0000</pubDate>
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		<category><![CDATA[Google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google Street View]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ICO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jill Hazelbaker]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marius Milner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New York Times]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personally identifiable information]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Search Engines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Searching]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Street View]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wi-Fi]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.alertsec.com/?p=3340</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[These days &#8216;googling around&#8217; or have you &#8216;googled&#8217; has become a part of English vocabulary although the word does not really have any meaning! But google is synonymous with search and we have almost stopped using the word search and easily use the word &#8216;google&#8217; ! Such is the power of this search engine and [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Google_Street_View_Car_in_Chinatown%2C_Toronto.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" title="Google Street View Car in Toronto's Chinatown,..." src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/Google_Street_View_Car_in_Chinatown%2C_Toronto.jpg/300px-Google_Street_View_Car_in_Chinatown%2C_Toronto.jpg" alt="Google Street View Car in Toronto's Chinatown,..." width="300" height="225" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Google Street View Car  - Is it snooping around collecting personal data?</p></div>
<p>These days &#8216;googling around&#8217; or have you &#8216;googled&#8217; has become a part of English vocabulary although the word does not really have any meaning! But google is synonymous with search and we have almost stopped using the word search and easily use the word &#8216;google&#8217; ! Such is the power of this search engine and the company that has coined this term &#8211; Google Inc. It is clear that we just can&#8217;t do without Google and consider it to be perfect and flawless! Well, Google just recently made a mistake and is under scrutiny. Let us read how.</p>
<p><strong>Google&#8217;s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Street_View">Street View cars</a> were collecting personal data</strong></p>
<p>According to the FCC report, one of Google&#8217;s engineers, Marius Milner, informed colleagues and a Senior Manager about collecting unencrypted Wi-Fi data.</p>
<p>T<strong>he history</strong></p>
<p>In May 2010, the ICO found out that Google had not collected any personal data. However, later in 2010, ICO claimed that Google had in fact collected personal details and thus had broken the law. Nevertheless, at that time ICO decided not to fine Google.</p>
<p><strong>Present</strong></p>
<p>The FCC report says that personal data was very much collected by Google and that Google was fully aware of it.</p>
<p><strong>ICO’s statement</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;We will study the Federal Communication Commission&#8217;s report and consider what further action, if any, needs to be taken,&#8221; said the statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;Google provided us with a formal undertaking in November 2010 about their future conduct, following their failure in relation to the collection of Wi-Fi data by their Street View cars. This included a provision for the ICO to audit Google&#8217;s privacy practices. The audit was published in August 2011 and we will be following up on it in June to ensure our recommendations have been put in place.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>What does Google have to say about this?</strong></p>
<p>Google spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker, informed that the company was willing to make the entire document available but withhold the names of individuals.</p>
<p>&#8220;While we disagree with some of the statements made in the document, we agree with the FCC&#8217;s conclusion that we did not break the law,&#8221;Hazelbaker said.</p>
<p>&#8220;We hope that we can now put this matter behind us.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>FCC’s investigation</strong></p>
<p>The engineer, Milner, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and declined to testify.</p>
<p><strong>What personal data did Google collect?</strong></p>
<p>Google&#8217;s Street View cars collected names, addresses, telephone numbers, URLs, passwords, e-mail, text messages, medical records, video and audio files, and other information from Internet users in the US.</p>
<p><strong>Public reactions to the scandal</strong></p>
<p>Some people think that the engineer who collected this data, should be sent to jail as this was a grave error. A few think FCC should be fined big time as it failed to report this in time to the ICO. The agency should have immediately reported this issue to the public, the media and the Congress.</p>
<p><strong>Adding to the public&#8217;s confusion</strong></p>
<p>The above is a raging debate. Some feel a mountain has been made out of a molehill as Google has always been &#8217;snooping&#8217; on people&#8217;s data. It does it with Gmail, so what&#8217;s the big deal now?</p>
<p><strong>Alertsec understands privacy and protects it</strong></p>
<p>Whatever the matter, privacy breach and collecting personal data without informing the individual, amounts to breaking the law. Let us try to protect our personal data. <a href="http://www.alertsec.com">Alertsec </a>protects data via data encryption. It also encrypts business laptops. Why wait?</p>
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		<title>Update &#8211; Catholic priest, Father McVeigh, releases statement regarding porn images</title>
		<link>http://blog.alertsec.com/2012/04/update-catholic-priest-father-mcveigh-releases-statement-regarding-porn-images/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.alertsec.com/2012/04/update-catholic-priest-father-mcveigh-releases-statement-regarding-porn-images/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:48:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Computer security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Encryption]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Identity and Information loss]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lawsuits and settlements]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[computer security software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[identity theft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[laptop encryption]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[laptop theft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cardinal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cardinal Brady]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cardinal Sean Brady]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[laptop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mary]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[McVeigh]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Northern Ireland]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Police Service of Northern Ireland]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Priesthood (Catholic Church)]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sabbatical]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Seán Brady]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.alertsec.com/?p=3326</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We did a post last week about a laptop being stolen from a Priest&#8217;s house. Here is an excerpt: Northern Ireland’s police force was investigating the case of a Catholic priest who had managed to project pornographic gay images to a room of primary school parents instead of a presentation on Holy Communion. These were 26 [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cardinal_Sean_Patrick_Brady.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="zemanta-img-inserted zemanta-img-configured" title="Cardinal Sean Baptist Brady photographed at St..." src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6a/Cardinal_Sean_Patrick_Brady.jpg/300px-Cardinal_Sean_Patrick_Brady.jpg" alt="Cardinal Sean Baptist Brady photographed at St..." width="300" height="390" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Cardinal Sean Baptist Brady  approves Father McVeigh&#39;s sabbatical leave.  Father McVeigh releases statement in the light of the laptop theft</p></div>
<p>We did a post last week about a laptop being stolen from a Priest&#8217;s house. Here is an excerpt: Northern Ireland’s police force was investigating the case of a Catholic priest who had managed to project pornographic gay images to a room of primary school parents instead of a presentation on Holy Communion. These were 26 parents of pupils of St Mary’s school in Pomeroy.</p>
<p>Father Martin McVeigh had maintained that he destroyed the memory stick containing offensive material.<strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>Update on this news item</strong></p>
<p>The catholic priest, Father Martin McVeigh, released a statement in his church bulletin.</p>
<p>He said the last month had been &#8220;the most difficult of my life&#8221;.</p>
<p>&#8220;I deeply regret my failure to check, in advance, my presentation,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>The priest explained how he had immediately removed the memory stick from the laptop.</p>
<p>&#8220;In my shock and upset and in my concern to ensure that the images would never be shown again, I destroyed it later that evening,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>Fr McVeigh reiterated his innocence and said he recognized the incident &#8220;was very serious in nature&#8221; and had &#8220;caused much anxiety and distress&#8221;.</p>
<p>&#8220;I apologize unreservedly for the hurt caused,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;I want to assure you however, that I was not responsible for the presence of the offending images and in this respect I ask you to accept my innocence.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Cardinal Sean Brady approves Father McVeigh’s leave</strong></p>
<p>Father McVeigh had requested Cardinal Sean Brady to allow him to leave the parish of Pomeroy and to take sabbatical leave. Cardinal Brady had agreed to the request for leave on the understanding that Fr McVeigh would return to the diocese.</p>
<p>According to the Cardinal the diocese would now work to make sure that procedures and policies were put in place for the proper monitoring and use of computers in parishes.</p>
<p>Cardinal Brady further added that there had been an investigation into the computers used by Fr McVeigh.</p>
<p>&#8220;These have been forensically examined by an independent technical expert and no inappropriate imagery has been found,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;However an additional laptop, which was located in the sacristy, was stolen in the period following the 26 March meeting with parents.</p>
<p>&#8220;This stolen laptop did not form part the technical examination and its theft was reported to the PSNI.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Learning from the scandal</strong></p>
<p>Moving ahead, it is important to learn a lesson from this scandal. Laptops and mobile devices need to be well secured and protected from thefts and hacking. Tight security policies need to be put in place, be it for a church, a small business unit or a giant organization like Sony.</p>
<p><strong>Alertsec offers data encryption option</strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Organizations 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.</p>
<p>Alertsec Xpress is backed up by Check Point Full Disk Encryption and is used by over 4 million users worldwide, with single deployments exceeding 150,000 laptops and PCs. This is the most deployed software of its kind and is seen as today&#8217;s market leader.</p>
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