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Posts Tagged ‘Crime’

Goldman Sachs programmer Sergey Aleynikov’s data theft conviction overturned

February 21st, 2012

Goldman Sachs programmer Sergey Aleynikov’s data theft conviction overturned

Today’s new story is a classic case of data theft wherein an employee on his last working day stole code and transferred it to his new employer! Does it not sound like the last story we covered about SunPower Vs SolarCity? What is it with employees who think they can get away by stealing data from their employer’s office? Are they trying to get even in some way?

Well, let us see what made the judges overturn Sergey Aleynikov’s data theft conviction!

It all started in June 2009

On his last day at work, Aleynikov stole trade secrets from his employer, Goldman Sachs. Apparently he sent hundreds of thousands of lines of source code for Goldman’s high frequency trading system to a server in Germany, in order to build a HFT system for his new employer, Teza Technologies. Aleynikov also sent copies of these files to his home computer. He was found guilty of data theft and was sentenced to eight years in prison. He was lucky enough to be released last week after a panel of judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals reversed his conviction. Why was the conviction overturned is a question yet to be answered by the court.

The case is U.S. v. Aleynikov, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 11-1126. The lower court case was U.S. v. Aleynikov, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 10-00096.

Kevin Marino, Aleynikov’s lawyer’s argument

According to Kevin Marino the only code taken by his client was open source was orginally written by him. Marino further added that Aleynikov only intended to use the code as a ‘cheat sheet’. “There is no trade secret,” Marino said in court. “He took it to make his new job easier; he never intended to harm Goldman.”

Sergey Aleynikov’s comes out of prison

“Justice occasionally works,” was what the Russian-born programmer, Sergey Aleynikov, had to say.

According to him he “just jumped all over the place” at 6 a.m when he read an email from his lawyer informing him that the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan had reversed his conviction. The words were, he said, “‘we won!’”

“This is such big news to me that I don’t have time to think about what will happen tomorrow,” said Aleynikov, dressed in a gray sweat suit and white sneakers. “Today, it’s a victory.”

What this news means for the intellectual property world?

The court’s reversal of Aleynikov’s conviction is a major setback for organizations who are fighting to curb intellectual property crime that includes computer code.

“The government wanted to send a very strong message about online economic espionage,” said Joel Reidenberg, a professor at Fordham University School of Law and director of the Fordham Center on Law and Information Policy.

“This is a fast-growing crime, not just from theft of trade secrets but also the hacking into computer systems of American companies,” he said. “It poses increasingly significant risks to the U.S. economy.”

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Posted in Computer security, Data Protection, Encryption, Hackers, Hard Disk, Identity and Information loss, Lawsuits and settlements, Security Flaw, computer security software, data breach, data encryption, identity theft

Tags: Aleynikov business Crime Data theft Employment Fordham University School of Law Goldman Sachs identity theft Insurance policy Kevin Marino Manhattan Marino Sergey Aleynikov Theft United States Court of Appeals University of Victoria

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

SCRA breaches data for the second time exposing children’s details

September 7th, 2011

Sensitive info papers lost from filing cabinet

Data breaches are online as well as physical

Data breaches are not restricted to online or soft copy data loss. They also include theft or loss of physical documents.

Here’s a look at a recent case of physical and digital data theft.

Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) breaches Data Protection Act for the second time

The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) is in breach of data security related to children’s data twice in the last 6 months. The SCRA is an organization dedicated to protect children in the judicial system. The body investigates the care of Scotland’s most vulnerable children.

Details of the two breaches

In January 2011 the Scottish body sent documents containing a child’s personal data to the wrong email address. The documents carried sensitive information like child abuse related to the legal case which had the contact information of the child’s mother and witnesses.

Later, in September 2010, the body somehow lost 9 case files which contained personal data such as birth dates, names and social report. Apparently the files got lost when the filing cabinet which contained these files was moved and later sold to a second-hand furniture shop.

Mishandling of sensitive information

Ken Macdonald, assistant information commissioner for Scotland, is concerned that data had been breached twice by the same organization.

“On both occasions the personal data which was compromised related to young children and was caused by human errors that could easily have been avoided,” said Macdonald. He further added “I am pleased that the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration has taken action to make sure that the personal information they handle is kept secure and would urge other organizations, particularly those handling sensitive information relating to young people, to follow suit,”. Fortunately both times the information was not circulated.

Information handling post breach

Neil Hunter, chief executive of the SCRA, is renewing the organization’s data protection policy and training employees about data security.

The ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) is holding workshops related to raising awareness of data protection obligations among staff.

About ICO

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) upholds information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals. The ICO has specific responsibilities set out in the Data Protection Act 1998, the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003.

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Posted in Data Protection, Identity and Information loss, data breach, identity theft

Tags: business Crime data breach Data theft identity theft Information Commissioners Office security Theft

California data breach law revised

September 2nd, 2011

Gov. Jerry Brown signs Senate Bill 24

Breach after breach is forcing lawmakers to make changes in the security policy.

A California lawmaker has come up with a bill that would update the state’s data breach notification law, SB-1386, to help prevent sensitive data.

About Senate Bill 24

Existing law requires any agency, and any person or business

conducting business in California, that owns or licenses

computerized data that includes personal information, as defined,

to disclose in specified ways, any breach of the security of the

system or data, as defined, following discovery or notification of

the security breach, to any California resident whose unencrypted

personal information was, or is reasonably believed to have been,

acquired by an unauthorized person

Existing law requires any agency, and any person or businessconducting business in California, that owns or licensescomputerized data that includes personal information, as defined,to disclose in specified ways, any breach of the security of thesystem or data, as defined, following discovery or notification ofthe security breach, to any California resident whose unencryptedpersonal information was, or is reasonably believed to have been,acquired by an unauthorized person

Bill Update

Senator Simitian had submitted three versions of his security breach notification to former Governor Schwarzenegger in 2008, 2009 and 2010. But they were vetoed all three times.

This time though, he was lucky. The current Governor, Jerry Brown, signed the bill which helps consumers with information to help prevent identity theft.

SB 24 defines key details that must be a part of the notification letter and forces the Attorney General to take cognizance of the breach. In case a social security number or drivers license details get compromised, the notice letter explains how to contact major credit agencies. This is very important as consumers can keep a track of their accounts and get proof of identity theft (if one takes place). The bill further empowers to prevent identity theft, including freezing your credit report.

As per the update the breach notification letters will contain details of the incident i.e. the type of personal information compromised, a description of what happened, and steps to be taken to protect oneself from identity theft. The law also makes it compulsory for organizations to submit a copy of the alert letter to the state attorney general’s office in case the breach has affected 500 or more people

What are the other States doing about ID theft?

Taking a cue from California law, over 40 states have adopted security breach notice laws. Some of them are Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia.

Will hackers stop?

Cyber thieves will continue breaking the law but businesses and agencies will take more precautions to protect their data henceforth and if they ever become a victim of data breach, they will know who to turn t0.

It was high time California got the added protection that SB 24 will provide.

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Posted in Computer security, Data Protection, Identity and Information loss, Lawsuits and settlements, Uncategorized, data breach, data encryption, identity theft

Tags: California Consultants Crime data breach identity theft Jerry Brown Notification system Personally identifiable information security security policy

Albright College in Reading Data Breach Incident

April 15th, 2011

Image by Don Hankins via Flickr

Albright College is a public, co-ed, liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1856 and is located in Reading, Pennsylvania. Apparently, Albright College is in news for a massive data breach incident. On the discovery of breach the college has sent out alert notice to its current and prospective students, former students about a possible data breach. The alert was sent after it was discovered that several computers have been stolen from the school’s financial aid office in the month of February.

The letter was distributed earlier this week on Wednesday.

It is still not clear as to why the public disclosure of theft was made only on Wednesday although this sensational theft incident happened almost two months ago in February. As far as the College officials are concerned they have stated the reason for delay due to hiring of a risk management firm to sift through the data which was located on the computers. The idea behind hiring a eisk management firm was to provide free credit monitoring with identity theft protection to the affected individuals.

Gregory E. Eichhorn, vice president for enrollment management and dean of admission at Albright, said in the letter, ”The information on the stolen computers includes name, address, date of birth, and Social Security number, may include data supplied by students or parents, and may affect not only the supplying parties but also spouses or joint account holders, among others,”

News Update:

An update posted on news portal www.wmfz.com states that the cops have been able to recover one of the stolen computers which were stolen from the Albright College in Reading. The information was provided by the school security and the state police acted on their information to recover the stolen computer and other misc. items. It is believed that the stolen computer comprised of most of the personal information.

It is believed that as many as 10,000 people could have been affected by the theft incidents which includes current and prospective students, graduates, college faculty, and staff.

Security Beefed up at School

Eichhorn, an officer at school said: ”We have increased evening and weekend patrols by Public Safety,”. “Information Technology Services will be working with departments across campus to reduce the use of confidential information in their processes and better protect necessary information, including the use of enhanced encryption technology. We are also examining policies pertaining to retention and use of documents and information.”

How can you help?

If you are anyone in your network have information which can help with the investigation process, please contact Tom McDaniel, the school’s director of public safety, or Crime Alert Berks County. The contact number of Crime Alert is 877-373-9913. The organization is also offering a cash reward of up to $5,000 for information that could lead to an arrest.

Secure your Data with Alertsec

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