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Posts Tagged ‘Police’

Data breach at ICBC, employee accessed data of crime targets

December 18th, 2011

Data breach at ICBC

Data breach incidents are getting bizarre day by day and one never knows what comes up next. These incidents are not limited to accessing information of people alone but harming these individual’s lives as well.

The following incident details account of victims of data breach whose homes and cars were set on fire or their vehicles were shot at!

The series of fires started in September in Vancouver and continued throughout the province. When the RCMP started investigating these incidents, they realized that people who were associated with the Justice Institute of British Columbia were the targets of this crime.

Police work laid to arresting the perpetrator last week who apparently is an ICBC employee. This alleged employee accessed personal data of 65 individuals out of which 13 became a victim of arson and shooting. The victims were employees and past students.

According to the Chief Supt. Janice Armstrong of the Lower Mainland District Regional Police Service ”We can now state the investigation revealed a link to an ICBC employee, who allegedly accessed personal information of 65 individuals, including the 13 identified victims,” . “That employee, along with other individuals, is under continued police investigation.” She also added further “Additionally, police continue to pursue significant investigative avenues to determine if others could be at risk,”. “We recognize this is very disturbing for the victims and the individuals we warned.”

ICBC president CEO Jon Schubert’s statement: “We are appalled that one of our employees inappropriately accessed the information of so many customers without any apparent business reason to do so. Our main concern is for the customers who have suffered as a result of this privacy breach.”

The employee in question has been fired with no severance. The data breach victims are being informed about the breach and measures are being taken at the ICBC to prevent from such incidents happening in the future. ICBC CEO Jon Schubert said “We have conducted a thorough internal and an independent external review of our systems as a result of the privacy breach and have taken steps to better guard against this type of incident from happening again,”.

RCMP Sgt. Peter Thiessen is looking at another angle which might explain these crimes “Whether there’s organized crime links or whether it’s a disgruntled employee or someone who had a negative interaction at the Justice Institute, none of those have been eliminated at this particular time”.

Fortunately no one has been physically injured in these incidents.

More about Justice Institute of British Columbia

JIBC is a public post-secondary institution based out of New Westminster. It is into training people into a variety of disciplines related to justice. Professionals such as police officers, paramedics, social workers and correctional staff are trained at this Institution.

Alertsec strengthens security

Alertsec has created a web based encryption service that radically simplifies deployment and management of PC encryption by using industry leading Check Point Full Disk Encryption (former Pointsec) software.

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.

Alertsec Xpress is used by organizations that have recognized the need to protect their information. Customers range from single-user sole traders and consultants to multinational companies with a large number of offices around the globe. Over 4 million users worldwide use Alertsec Xpress’s Check Point Full Disk Encryption.

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

Tags: Check Point data breach Employment Justice Institute of British Columbia Lower Mainland New Westminster Personally identifiable information Police RCMP Royal Canadian Mounted Police Vancouver

Coppers Cove: Police trying to track down laptop thief

October 21st, 2011

A great opportunity to make $1,000 ! Help the police track down Raheem Amaud Townsend, 21, and you are in for a reward!

Laptop thief from Copperas Cove on the run

Why is Raheem Amaud Townsend wanted by the police?

He is wanted in connection with the theft of the computers from 913 Davie Lee Street. Charges on him: misdemeanor and felony warrants. There is a strong possibility that he may have moved to another state.

How can you help?

Copperas Cove Police are reaching out to the community for locating a criminal in connection with two separate theft cases. Raheem Amaud Townsend is a resident og Copperas Cove and is alleged to have done away with two laptop computers from 913 Davie Lee Street in Copperas Cove on September 20th, 2011

Coppers Cove Police dept has offered tips related to the above case

The police would like to inform you that tips can be made anonymously through the Copperas Cove Crime Stoppers tip number (254)547-1111 .

Copperas Cove Crime Stoppers request you to help in locating the offender. Any information related to this case is valuable. Do not hesitate to get in touch with Crime Stoppers. They need your call today. Crime Stoppers are ready to pay up to $1,000.00 in cash if your information leads to the suspect. We will keep your name in the wraps. . Call Crime Stoppers today at (254)547-1111 or post a tip on-line at www.tipsubmit.com

What detectives have to say about laptop thefts in general?

Many people are under the impression that because laptops have serial numbers they can be traced as stolen property. This is a false sense of security. In real life very few stolen laptops are returned or traced.

Alertsec can save your laptops

Save your company from countless problems related to laptop thefts and data security down the road. Imagine one of your laptops containing all of your company’s current pricing structure, sales leads, and customer orders, were lost and there was no backup data! Or worse: what if your competitor got his hands on your data?

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.

The only way to protect information stored on a PC or laptop is by using encryption. Alertsec Xpress 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.

The following preventive measures can be done to increase laptop security and reduce damage if your laptop is lost or stolen:

a. Always have a fresh back-up on a server or back-up device

b. Use Laptop encryption

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Posted in Identity and Information loss, Lawsuits and settlements, Uncategorized, identity theft, laptop encryption, laptop theft

Tags: Copperas Cove Copperas Cove Texas Crimestoppers Fort Hood Harker Heights Texas IPhone laptop Law Law Enforcement Manchester Nolanville Texas Police Theft United States YouTube

Laptop Theft at Oklahoma State Department of Health

April 17th, 2011

Laptop Theft - Yet Again

There is no denying the fact that the laptop theft is an extremely significant threat to businesses or individuals irrespective of the nature of the threat. The theft becomes all the more significant when government bodies or institutions become victims.

Being in the business of computer protection software we have been constantly voicing concerns about our practices and ways to secure data as well as protect laptop thefts. Today we are going to look at another case which is clear demonstrates what can happen if you are not using laptop encryption software.

OSDH i.e. the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) has sent notification letters to almost 133,000 individuals that they could be potentially at risk due to the loss of the agency’s laptop which contained their personal information. The laptop was stolen from the car of OSDH’s employee in broad daylight.

The computer contained a database related to the Oklahoma Birth Defects Registry. The Oklahoma Birth Defects Registry is the provider of statewide surveillance of birth defects which reduce the birth defects through prevention education, monitoring trends and analysis of data. The laptop was used to record data from hospital medical records. An additional 50 paper files containing abstracted medical information were also taken in the theft.

The State Health Commissioner Dr. Terry Cline has offered apologies over the incident, “We are mindful that Oklahoma’s citizens trust the OSDH to do all it can to protect the personal data we acquire as part of our disease prevention services,”. “We offer our apologies to those who may be affected.”

Dr. Cline added “We are reviewing our administrative policies to strengthen safeguards to better protect the confidentiality of the data we collect. We recognize our obligation to make any changes that will ensure a similar incident cannot happen again,”.

OSDH has taken immediate steps towards protection of personal information. They have filed a police report and have also launched an internal investigation apart from coordinating with the cops at Yukon police department for their own investigation process. In addition, the staff is also reviewing its administrative policies to safeguard and assure that future occurrence of such incidents can be avoided.

If you have questions or any specific concerns about the incident you can call the toll free number 1-866-278-7134 between 8 am to 5 pm from Monday through Friday. You can also email the OSDH at contactosdh@health.ok.gov or visit their website http://www.health.ok.gov for more information.

The address of OSDH is as follows:

Oklahoma State Department of Health
1000 NE 10th St.
Oklahoma City, Ok 73117
Attn: Privacy Officer

If you are interested, you can also register for a free fraud alert with the three credit bureaus listed here:

Experian (888)397-3742, www.experian.com, P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013

TransUnion: (800)680-7289, www.transunion.com, Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834

Equifax: (800)685-1111, www.equifax.com, P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374

About Alertsec

Alertsec 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. Alertsec Xpress is powered by Check Point Full Disk Encryption – the global leader in data encryption software with millions of users worldwide!

Related articles

Credit Repair After Identity Theft (creditrepair.org)
Oklahoma Department of Health Says 133,000 Medical Records Taken in Laptop Theft (spectrum.ieee.org)

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Posted in laptop encryption, laptop theft

Tags: Law Law Enforcement Oklahoma Oklahoma State Department of Health Police Terry Cline Theft TransUnion

Laptop Theft Incidents at Schools in Australia

July 6th, 2010

: Bunch of Laptops via Flickr

In two separate incidents, laptops have been reported to be stolen from school premises. In the first incident, burglars hit the Glen Osmond Primary School on 29th June at about 2.30am and managed to steal eight Apple laptop computers.

In another incident, the ABERFOYLE Park High School also suffered a theft incident. According to the reports, on Monday, June 28 around 30 laptop computers were stolen overnight.

According to the principal of the school, Liz Mead the hospital has implemented measures to although she didn’t share the details of the security methods.

According to Liz Mead, “You just feel very disappointed because the school does have very good security”. “These laptops are there for our young people to work on so it’s disappointing when we have people who want to interrupt the learning of others.”

Ms Mead also mentioned that the school had ordered new laptops which were supposed to be delivered after the school holidays.

Laptop theft incidents at schools is a matter of high concern, because not only does it impact the working, causes financial damage but also creates a spot on our education ecosystem. These laptops are being used for educational purposes, so obviously the loss is more than the theft of a physical device or data loss. This creates an urgent need for appropriate laptop encryption measures !!

If you have information related to either thefts please contact BankSA Crime Stoppers on 1800333000 or online at www.sa.crimestoppers.com.au

Security against Laptop Theft

Today, information is often an organization’s most important asset. As laptops are overtaking desktop PCs as the major source of computing and media storage, laptops frequently store an organization’s most valuable information. Most laptops are stolen at the work place, conference centers, hotel rooms, cars, airports and train stations. As statistics show, it is just impossible to be able to prevent theft to occur as opportunists are everywhere in our society. Alertsec Xpress offers a very good and easy-to-use laptop security service that includes more than the traditional software licensing model. Feel free to subsribe for your personal 30-day free trial.

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Posted in Uncategorized

Tags: ABERFOYLE Park High School Apple Education Hardware laptop Notebooks and Laptops Police Theft

Laptop Theft at George Washington University

June 8th, 2010

: George Washington University

According to the latest new reports by an independent news paper of George Washington University, atleast four laptops have been stolen from the cars that were parked inside the campus garages or from University-owned buildings over the course of last two weeks. These reports have been official confirmed by a University spokeswoman and the police department at George Town university.

As a data security focussed company, we have always emphasized on ways to prevent laptop theft incidents and secure your data.

First Incident

The University spokeswoman Michelle Sherrard confirmed that the car windows were smashed and two laptops were stolen. It was on May 26, that a contractor told the University Police that he had parked his car in the the Medical Faculty Associates building garage. On his return, the passenger-side rear window was smashed and his laptop was found missing from the vehicle.

Second Incident

The next laptop theft incident happened on June 1 in the Academic Center. The university police department were told by a faculty member that her laptop and wallet were stolen from the secured office.

Third Incident

On 3rd June, another car window was smashed at the Marvin Center garage and the laptop was stolen from the back seat of the car. The incident was confirmed by a student who logged a complaint with the George Town university police department.

As a matter of fact, the UPD officers were also approached by a second complainant, who said that his car window was also smashed and his GPS unit had been stolen. It is obviously quite shocking that no suspects or witnesses were found.

How do you protect yourself?

What has happened with the university students could actually be a real time case with you? There are many times when we carelessly leave our laptop in our unattended office or probably in the backseat of car. While there is not much you can do to prevent laptop thefts, what you can certainly do is prevent the theft of data present inside the laptop.

What we really need to understand is the loss of laptop not only means the loss of physical device but actually the real loss is of critical data that is inside the laptop.

The real issue that we need to solve is how do we secure our data?

By using a data encryption software from Alertsec.

Use Alertsec Xpress

A theft would simply be reduced to an insurance matter and cost of the hardware plus time to rebuild the laptop. That is certainly a small price to pay compared to what can happen if you lose confidential or senstive data. Alertsec Xpress offers a very good and easy-to-use laptop security service that includes more than the traditional software licensing model. Feel free to subscribe for your personal 30-day free trial.