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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

TRICARE in trouble for data breach

October 11th, 2011

TRICARE data breach affects millions

Data breach incidents are on the rise and even though effects of some of them many not be that serious, data loss and identities are at stake.

A data breach involving personal health information of an estimated 4.9 million military clinic and hospital patients made headlines last week. The report was about Tricare Management Activity, the federal government’s health care coverage for active and retired military personnel and their families.

What Tricare had to say?

According to TRICARE the data was stolen from a backup system that contained electronic patient data from 1992 through Sept. 7, 2011 from patients that were treated at San Antonio area military treatment facilities (MTFs) (including the filling of pharmacy prescriptions) and some of them whose laboratory data was processed in these same MTFs although the patients had received treatment somewhere else.

A total of 4.9 million patient’s documents were affected. The stolen data includes Social Security numbers, addresses and phone numbers, and some personal health data. Fortunately no financial data, such as credit card or bank account information was compromised.

The incident is still under investigation and it could take anywhere between 4 to 6 weeks for Tricare to notify those who have been affected by the breach. Tricare further stated that the risk of harm to patients is fairly low. Affected Tricare beneficiaries will receive personalized letters with details about the data breach.

In the past Tricare contractors had received free credit monitoring but in this case TRICARE has not promised anything.

TRICARE releases statement

“Reading the tapes takes special machinery. Moreover, it takes a highly skilled individual to interpret the data on the tapes. Since we do not believe the tapes were taken with malicious intent, we believe the risk to beneficiaries is low.”

How was the data stolen?

The data was stolen from the car of an employee of Science Applications International Corp. It contained backup tapes of electronic health records. According to the police report the car was parked at 300 Convent from 7:53 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sept. 13. Along with the backup tapes a stereo system valued at $300 and a GPS device were stolen.

Apparently the employee was planning to transport this data between federal facilities.

According to a SAIC spokesman the data was partially encrypted.

What users had to say?

“The fact that the tapes were encrypted should go to show how important it is to keep the information safe. That is not a way for the Govt employee or contractor transporting to feel safer about leaving them unattended in a vehicle. Had this happened in the military equivalent with secret media, they would be run through. The lack of disciplinary action is somewhat disturbing”.

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

Tags: data breach Electronic health record Encryption Facilities Health Health care Hospital Medicine Personally identifiable information SAIC San Antonio Science Applications International Corp Social Security number TRICARE Tricare Management Activity United States

Former senior analyst for Countrywide Home Loans behind bars for data theft

September 29th, 2011

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

Following the essential guidelines is very necessary for data security in any organization. This news exemplifies the need for data protection applications. In an incident, which highlights the need of Data encryption software and recovery software, the threat could have simply been reduced to an insurance matter by a mere investment of $13/month. The information would have been secure with no loss what so ever. That is certainly a small price to pay compared to what can happen if you lose confidential or sensitive data. Alertsec Xpress offers a very good and easy-to-use laptop security. There are no short cuts to Data security in any organization. Alertsec offers ervice that includes more than the traditional software licensing model.

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

Tags: $1.2 million Bank of America Bank of America Home Loans Christina A. Snyder Countrywide Data theft Federal Bureau of Investigation Mortgage Poverty Rene Rebollo Social Security number United States United States federal judge

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approves three Democrat-proposed data breach bills

September 26th, 2011

Sen. Patrick Leahy's bill wins approval

Breach notification and data security are now closer to reality, thanks to the three bills three bills, proposed by Chairman Leahy(D-VT), Senator Blumenthal (D-CT), and Senator Feinstein (D-NH).

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill on Sept 22. The committee’s 10 Democrats voted in favor and its eight Republicans voted against it. Leahy was disappointed that no Republican supported the measures.

About the three bills

As per the three bills, businesses are required to develop data privacy and security plans and set a federal standard for notifying individuals of breaches of sensitive personally identifiable information (SPII).

The Leahy bill

This bill is also known as the Personal Data Privacy and Security Act of 2011,. It is a cyber-security and online-privacy measure introduced to deal with threats from hackers and malicious software.

Three important points about Senator Leahy’s bill:

a. ‘Data minimization’ provision, requiring businesses to establish a plan to minimize the amount of SPII the business retains and to delete SPII that is no longer needed to fulfil a (unspecified) business purpose or legal obligation.

b. Previous iterations of Leahy’s bill had several sections on government access to commercial data. These have now been stricken off.

c. An important addition during markup was a provision designed to ensure that the CFAA is not used against people who merely violate website terms of service

Is this time any different?

Cyber security bills have been introduced before but not much was done about them. Data breach cases are growing at an exponential speed and hopefully this time is different.

Senator Chuck Grassley and the EFF concerned about the new bills

Here is what Senator Grassley had to say “Americans want and need the Congress to work with private businesses to create jobs,” “However, under this bill, we may end up with more burdensome regulations, small businesses forced into bankruptcy, jobs lost, and consumers still going unprotected because the over-notifications will be ignored.”

EFF and a group of civil liberties organizations and scholars have requested the committee to ensure the CFAA doesn’t punish ordinary computer users who happen to breach terms of use.

Discrepancies in the bill

According to the current bill, government employees who violate employment agreements remain vulnerable to contract-based prosecutions under the CFAA. All computer users should be protected against such charges irrespective of their work place.

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 Bkis, Hackers, Identity and Information loss, Security Flaw, full disk encryption, identity theft

Tags: CFAA Check Point Chuck Grassley Computer crime Computer Fraud and Abuse Act data security disk encryption Electronic Frontier Foundation Enter your zip code here Federal Emergency Management Agency Harry Reid Patrick Leahy United States United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary United States v. Lori Drew

Data of one out of every three people in the state of MA has been compromised in the past 20 months

September 25th, 2011

State of Massachusetts has seen the maximum number of data breaches in the past twenty months. Personal information of about two million Massachusetts residents i.e. one in every three people who are residents of Massachusetts, has been breached through electronic data breaches.

According to the 2007 state laws all companies doing business in Massachusetts must inform consumers and state regulators about security breaches that might result in identity theft. The list includes leaks of individual names along with sensitive data like Social Security numbers, bank account, credit card and debit card numbers. The law came into being in 2007 as a result of a 45 million hack of credit card numbers from Framingham-based retailer TJX Cos.

Martha Coakley, Attorney General, said that nearly 1,200 data breaches have been reported. Quarter of these were the result of intentional hacking.

The largest breach in the time period was the hacking of information of about 800,000 people that was lost by a vendor hired to destroy it. In addition, information on 210,000 residents entrusted to a state agency was put at risk.

These data breaches contained information from names and addresses to medical histories.

What MA residents had to say?

Daniel Paul, a courier, gets the jitters when he thinks about it. He made online purchases with his credit card but started getting charged for things he didn’t buy: his credit card had been hacked. It was a nightmare to get things back on track.

Here is what he had to say ”Just going through getting everything changed back, changed over, getting charges off your account, your credit– it was awful,” said Paul. ”I hope I never have to go through it again.”

Mike Paquette, Chief Strategy Officer for Corero Network Security in Hudson, MA said ”In today’s internet world there are so many opportunities where information can be disclosed, as an individual, unfortunately there is very little that you can do,”said.

Consumers do have the option of suing, but it really doesn’t get them anywhere as it is very difficult to prove data theft.

Consumers must carefully keep a track of their online transactions. It is always advisable to deal with well-known companies and do your homework about the company’s info.

Data security with Alertsec

Alertsec is here to take care of our security issues especially for anyone working with PCs. Alertsec Xpress is the service that automatically protects ALL information you store on your PC. 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.

Encryption is the only secure method for complete protection of data stored on your hard disk. Today laptops are overtaking desktop PCs as the major source of computing and media storage, laptops frequently store an organization’s most valuable information. Thus laptop encryption is becoming more and more important.

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.

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