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Credit Card Theft Put Miami on the Map

Miami is a fun place to live and work (there are actually people who work here). Its a great vacation spot, people enjoy the nightlife and now we have something else to crow about. The largest credit theft ring was based here!

According to Bloomberg, “Albert Gonzalez, a 28-year-old Miami resident, and two hackers living “in or near Russia” were indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury in Newark, New Jersey, for stealing data from Heartland Payment Systems Inc., 7-Eleven Inc., Delhaize Group’s Hannaford Brothers Co. and two unidentified national retailers.”

It always amazes me when really smart computer folks insist on hacking from the US. Why not just head down the the Caribbean and hack from there, let likely to get caught.

My question about this is whats the value of regulations such as PCI or HIPAA.  A PCI Security Audit and Hipaa Security policy are supposed to prevent this type of thing when the companies being hacked usually come out after the fact and say they were compliant?

Privacyrights.org has this list of breaches in the month of August alone. I wonder what the compliance or network security audit was like for these companies? I dont suppose there really is a good answer to what to do about compliant companies getting breached. They will just keep giving you a year of free credit monitoring I guess.

Aug. 1, 2009 Williams Cos. Inc.
(Tulsa, OK)
A laptop containing personal and compensation information for more than 4,400 current and former employees was stolen from a worker’s vehicle. The computer had names, birth dates, Social Security numbers and compensation data for every Williams employee since Jan. 1, 2007. 4,400
Aug. 3, 2009 National Finance Center
(Washington DC)
An employee with the National Finance Center mistakenly sent an Excel spreadsheet containing the employees’ personal information to a co-worker via e-mail in an unencrypted form. The names and Social Security numbers of at least 27,000 Commerce Department employees were exposed. 27,000
Aug. 4, 2009 New Hampshire Department of Corrections
(Laconia,NH)
A 64-page list containing the names and Social Security numbers of about 1,000 employees of the state Department of Corrections ended up under the mattress of a minimum security prisoner. The prison contracts with vendors to shred documents and investigators are trying to find out why documents were not destroyed. 1,000
Aug. 11, 2009 Bank of America Corp.
(Charlotte, NC)
Charlotte-based BofA (NYSE:BAC) and Citigroup (NYSE:C) each recently issued replacement cards to consumers, telling them that their account numbers may have been compromised. Account information from certain Bank of America debit cards may have been compromised at an undisclosed third-party location. Bank officials are not certain if this is a new breach or a previously disclosed one. Unknown
Aug. 11, 2009 Citigroup Inc.
(New York City, NY)
Citigroup (NYSE:C) each recently issued replacement cards to consumers, telling them that their account numbers may have been compromised. Citigroup told credit-card customers in Massachusetts “your account number may have been illegally obtained as a result of a merchant database compromise and could be at risk for unauthorized use.” Bank officials are not certain if this is a new breach or a previously disclosed one. Unknown
Aug. 11, 2009 University of California-Berkeley School of Journalism
(Berkeley, CA)
Campus officials discovered during a computer security check that a hacker had gained access to the journalism school’s primary Web server. The server contained much of the same material visible on the public face of the Web site. However, the server also contained a database with Social Security numbers and/or dates of birth belonging to 493 individuals who applied for admission to the journalism school between September 2007 and May 2009. 493
Aug. 13, 2009 National Guard Bureau
(Arlington, VA)
An Army contractor had a laptop stolen containing personal information on 131,000 soldiers. on the stolen laptop contained personal information on soldiers enrolled in the Army National Guard Bonus and Incentives Program. The data includes names, Social Security numbers, incentive payment amounts and payment dates. 131,000
Aug. 14, 2009 American Express
(New York, NY)
Some American Express card members’ accounts may have been compromised by an employee’s recent theft of data. The former employee has been arrested and the company is investigating how the data was obtained. American Express declined to disclose any more details about the incident. The company has put additional fraud monitoring and protection controls on the accounts at issue. Unknown
Aug. 14, 2009 Calhoun Area Career Center
(Battle Creek, MI)
Personal information from 455 students at Calhoun Area Career Center during the 2005-2006 school year was available online for more than three years. The information included names, Social Security numbers, 2006 addresses and telephone numbers, birth dates and school information. There were about 1,000 students at the career center during that time, but an investigation by the Calhoun County Intermediate School district found that information for 455 students was available. 455
Aug. 15, 2009 Northern Kentucky University
(Highland Heights, KY)
A Northern Kentucky University employee’s laptop computer – which contained personal information about some current and former students — was stolen from a restricted area. The personal information stored on the employee’s computer included Social Security numbers of at least 200 current and former students. 200

Gary Bahadur

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