It is not only the poverty-stricken folks who steal data in order to make money. High-salaried, well-to-do personnel are trying their hands at stealing too ! The money made by sellers of stolen personal data continues to be high. Credit card information is the most sought data as it generates $0.06 to $30.00 per record.

The recent case of data theft involves a former senior analyst for Countrywide Home loans.

The case of Rene Rebollo

A former senior analyst for Countrywide Home Loans was sentenced Wednesday in connection with data theft and for selling personal data of some 2.5 million customers in a scam that in turn cost the mortgage lender some $30 million. U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder sentenced Rene to eight months in prison. He is also expected to serve 10 months in a community correctional facility. In addition, Rene will also have to pay $1.2 million in restitution to Countrywide, now Bank of America. He also cannot access further customer data.

Data theft took place in the year 2008

Rene was charged in 2008 for downloading company data, planning an elaborate scam to steal customer information and selling it to loan officers from other companies. He had access to many of Countrywide’s databasesthat held information about clients from different parts of the United States.

He downloaded and stored reports on pen drives and distributed financial information and contact information of about 2.5 million people. In addition, he sold Social Security numbers of some 50,000 people. He opened a bank account for depositing money that he made from data selling. As if this was not enough, he sold the information to Wahid Siddiqi, 28, from Thousand Oaks, for $500 and earned around $50,000. The men sold the identity batches for $500 a piece.

Rene had pleaded not guilty but in January changed his mind to guilty.

As far as Siddiqi is concerned, he is jailed for 3 years since pleading guilty to fraud and selling the information to third parties.

How did Countrywide react?

Countrywide spent $1.2 million notifying customers whose data was compromised. It spent another $15.75 million to provide free credit monitoring to these customers. It also spent $13.4 million in civil litigation, that included class action lawsuits. Bank of America settled the suits last year.

The question is – How did an IT Audit miss such a big breach?

Data security with Alertsec

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