Identity Theft on Campus - Protect Yourself!
October 12, 2008
The Black Collegian Online
By Sheryl Nance Nash
College students are a hot target for identity thieves.
Those aged 18-29 make up the demographic most often victimized by identity theft, says Robert Siciliano, chief security analyst of OneYouSecurity.com.
Data Security Tips
October 10, 2008
Grand Forks Herald
Kroll Inc., a global risk-consulting company, serves more than 10,000 businesses and millions of individuals on matters concerning identity theft and recovery, and warns that academic institutions are increasingly vulnerable because of their ever-growing databases of personal information on students, alumni, applicants, faculty and staff.
Police Learn Tools To Prevent ID Theft
September 23, 2008
News Channel 5
Hundreds of police officers from across the state met to discuss identity theft, one the nation's fastest-growing crimes.
Compliance Officer's Report
August, 2008
Welcome to the second issue of the new Compliance Officer's Report, a terrific expansion of your subscription to HIPAA Compliance Alert, providing fuller, richer coverage of the topics you have told us you need as compliance officers, such as education & training (as with the anonymous CO and monthly quizzes), selection and use of EMRs (see this issue's story on data breaches), regulatory issues (check out the news inside on private payer crackdowns), quality and patient satisfaction, EMTALA and much more.
Security Breach: More Laws Needed. Let's Add Health Care
August 26, 2008
InformationWeek
By George Hulme
Earlier this week, colleague Thomas Claburn covered the unfortunate trend that the tally of data breaches this year already has surpassed all breaches recorded for the entire year in 2007. This isn't entirely bad news, as I'll explain.
Medical data breach insurance offered in US
August 20, 2008
E-Health Europe
Members of a US healthcare purchasing alliance are now able to take out insurance to cover the financial costs of data breaches.
Red Flag Rules FAQ
August 1, 2008
Kroll Fraud Solutions
On October 31 2007, a joint committee of the OCC, Federal Reserve Board, FDIC, OTS, NCUA and the Federal Trade Commission passed the final legislation for Section 114 of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA), also known as the Identity Theft Red Flags and Notices of Address Discrepancy or "Red Flag Rules." The rules require that all organizations subject to the legislation must develop and implement a formal, written and revisable "Identity Theft Prevention Program" to detect, prevent and mitigate identity theft. This legislation was effective January 1, 2008 and the final deadline for compliance is November 1, 2008.
Be extra vigilant with personal, financial information while traveling
June 30, 2008
The Dallas Morning News
By Pamela Yip
It goes without saying that the threat of identity theft and fraud has made it imperative for consumers to guard their personal information.
10 Data Security Tips for the Worry-Free Traveler
June 25, 2008
Vagabondish
By Mike Richard
It seems Americans have given up on the true getaway vacation. According to a recent study by Expedia, Americans receive — and use — less vacation time than their European counterparts. And for those who do get away, many often take the office with them on the road. We simply can't unplug. Unfortunately, data breaches and identity theft don't take holidays either. Given that the loss of a laptop, thumb drive, or even a wallet is all too common when traveling... maybe relaxing too much isn't such a good thing after all.
Consumer's edge: Safe data banking
July 18, 2008
San Antonio Express-News
By David Uhler
Safe data banking
Replacing a lost or stolen laptop, thumb drive or PDA often is just the beginning of a personal or professional nightmare. The data on those devices could provide the keys to the castle for thieves and other con artists.
10 Tips for Travelers: Data Security and the Worry-Free Traveler
Don’t Let Identity Theft Ruin Your Summer Travel Plans
June 11, 2008
Johnny Jet's Travel Blog
By Johnny Jet
It seems Americans have given up on the true getaway vacation. According to a recent study by Expedia, Americans receive – and use – less vacation time than their European counterparts. And for those who do get away, many often take the office with them on the road. We simply can’t unplug. Unfortunately, data breaches and identity theft don’t take holidays either. Given that the loss of a laptop, thumb drive, or even a wallet is all too common when traveling … maybe relaxing too much isn’t such a good thing after all.
Health Insurance at a Crossroads
Small Businesses Still Offer It, But is Breaking Point Near?
May, 2008
Nightingale's Healthcare News
By Lisa Jaffe Hubbell
The cost of providing health insurance keeps going up for businesses small and large. But despite a 30% increase in premiums between 2000 and 2005, a RAND study found that small companies with 25 or fewer employees continue to offer this benefit. Medium and large businesses also experienced increased premiums during the study period, but not as much. And oddly, large businesses suffered almost as much as the smallest companies, says study author Christin Eibner, an associate economist at RAND.
Threat of fraud often ignored
May 26, 2008
American Medical News
By Pamela Lewis Dolan
Hospitals generally are well aware of what they have to do under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act to ensure the security of patient data. They are also aware that their own employees might be the ones who breach that security.
Health Care Not Immune to Cyber Crime; Say Hi to Google
May 21, 2008
IT Business Edge
By Carl Weinschenk
The tricky topic of health care information security will get even trickier with the birth of Google Health. The online service, described well in this Telegraph story, is a portal that stores users’ uploaded health records, provides information and acts as an interface between them and their doctors.
The service, which is opening in beta, certainly will attract the wrong kind of customer – hackers trying to get into what for them represents a treasure trove of data.
Hospital Security Programs Ailing, Study Says
Patient data at risk due to lack of attention to policies, regulations
May 20, 2008
Dark Reading
By Tim Wilson
Security consultant's warning: Hospitals can be dangerous to your personal information.
From 2006-2007, more than 1.5 million patients' personal information was exposed through hospitals alone, according to a study released earlier this week by research firm HIMSS Analytics and Kroll Fraud Solutions, a risk management firm. That doesn't count insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, or individual doctors' offices.
Patient Health Care Data at Risk, Study
May 20, 2008
SC Magazine
By Greg Masters
A new report on the security of the personal information of health care patients was just released and it indicates that steps need to be taken and rules enforced.
Among the findings of the 2008 HIMSS Analytics Report: Security of Patient Data, commissioned by Kroll Fraud Solutions, is that patient data collected and stored in hospitals and health care facilities is a prime target for malicious data hunters.
Do You Know Who's Looking At Your Client Files?
Spring 2008
Real Estate Intelligence Report
By Frank Cook
Brokers who wonder what the next big headache in real estate will be may not have to look far to find the answer. In fact, it may be lurking in the file drawers where they keep their closed transactions.
With identity theft all over the headlines and bad guys increasingly finding ingenious ways of coming up with names, addresses, and bank account, Social Security and credit card numbers, the truth is that a lot of sensitive data is routinely being stored in real estate offices and it wouldn’t take a computer mastermind to extract it.
Identity Thieves Prey on Patients' Medical Records
May 7, 2008
USA TODAY
By Julie Appleby
Doctors' offices, clinics and hospitals are a fruitful hunting ground for identity thieves, who are using increasingly sophisticated methods to steal patient information, lawyers and privacy experts say.
Recent disclosures that hospital workers snooped into the medical files of Maria Shriver, Britney Spears and George Clooney highlight the vulnerability of patients to the merely curious and the criminal.
Medical Data Breaches Put Patients at Risk
Despite HIPAA, hospitals leave patient data unprotected; one CIO offers tips for getting IT security funding
April 29, 2008
CIO
By Kim S. Nash
Doctors can't cure the common cold and health care IT managers apparently can't stop the common data breach.
Twenty-one of the 101 of the breaches tracked so far this year by information security group Attrition.org occurred at health care organizations.
For example, insurer WellPoint said in early April that lax security on two servers run for it by a vendor likely exposed on the Internet some personal and medical data for 128,000 patients.
Privacy, shmivacy: How many people can see your medical records?
April 29, 2008
Medill Reports
By Erica Peterson
Hospital or first-time doctor visits all start with the same clipboard. Use it to fill out sensitive personal information and scrawl a signature on the dotted line after several pages of legal jargon.
That information may not be securely stored away, however.
Recent scandals reveal security breaches in the medical records of celebrities such as Britney Spears, George Clooney and Farrah Fawcett.
So what about us non-celebrities? How secure is our personal information? Not very may be the answer, experts say. They cite information leaks, relaxed federal controls and medical records programs operating over the Internet as potential culprits.
A Few Social Networking Privacy Tips
April 27, 2008
The Associated Press
By Martha Irvine
A few ways social networkers can help protect their privacy:
Social Networking Applications Can Pose Security Risks
April 27, 2008
The Associated Press
By Martha Irvine
Sarah Brown is unusually cautious when it comes to social networking. The college sophomore doesn't have a MySpace page and, while she's on Facebook, she does everything she can to keep her page as private as she can.
"I don't want to have to worry about all the different online scandals and problems," says Brown, an education major at St. Joseph College in Connecticut. She'd like to control her personal information and keep it out of the hands of identity thieves or snooping future employers. "It's just common sense."
Consumers Take Steps to Thwart ID Thieves
April 21, 2008
Bankrate.com
By Sheyna Steiner
According to media reports, identity theft is a widespread problem -- but do Americans think this applies to them personally? Bankrate's most recent poll reveals that the answer is a resounding yes. In fact, eight out of 10 Americans express worry about having their identities stolen.
In many cases, their concern may be validated by personal knowledge of a victim. One-third of Americans (34 percent) know someone who has been a victim of identity theft. In the Northeast, it's closer to one in four (28 percent) while in the West almost one in two people (44 percent) know an ID theft victim.
The Costs of ID Theft
April 21, 2008
Bankrate.com
By Sheyna Steiner
From one-time credit card fraud incidents to sophisticated organized crime syndicates, identity theft's reach is expansive. It's far from a victimless crime: Consumers, businesses, government and law enforcement all suffer.
According to an annual survey released in February by Javelin Strategy and Research, the incidence of identity fraud has steadily declined over the past three years in most parts of the country. But the scope of the problem still scrapes the stratosphere. "The total cost (in 2007) was $45 billion," says James Van Dyke, president and founder of Javelin. That's down from $51 billion the previous year. "It's a huge crime, the number of victims is 8.1 million," he adds.
3 Signs You May be a Victim of Tax-Related Fraud
April 13, 2008
Chief Family Officer
Hospitals Often Fail to Notify Patients of Data Breaches; Regulatory Loopholes Keep Patients in the Dark, Report Says
April 11, 2008
Network World
By Jon Brodkin
If your medical records were exposed in a security breach, would you expect the hospital to tell you? You shouldn’t. Because of regulatory loopholes, only 56% of healthcare organizations that have exposed medical records notified the patients involved, survey results issued this month found.
“There are loopholes in almost every law regulating patient data management, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) that have enabled breach cases to go unreported, preventing an accurate report on frequency,” says the 2008 HIMSS Analytics Report: Security of Patient Data, commissioned by Kroll Fraud Solutions.
’Security’ For Sale
Third-party identity theft prevention services are growing with consumer fears that thieves will misuse their personal and financial data
April 1, 2008
Cards & Payment
By Louis Berney
GE Money, which issues and manages credit cards for hundreds of retailers, disclosed in mid-January that a computer backup tape containing identity data on 650,000 cardholders had disappeared. Though it is unclear whether the tape was stolen or just misplaced, the news chipped away a little more confidence of many American consumers already edgy about the security of their personal and financial information.
Preventing identity theft, particularly involving credit cards and online transactions, has become a growing consumer obsession. And that obsession, which some experts say is based on fears more imagined than real, has spurred the growth of dozens of services and products that claim to protect consumers from fraudulent misuse of their personal data.
Signs You May be a Victim of Tax-Related Fraud
March 31, 2008
Generation X Finance
Teach a Man to Phish and He'll Feed on Fools for a Lifetime
March 29, 2008
TechNewsWorld
E-Mailers Beware: Phishers Never Sleep
March 27, 2008
TechNewsWorld
Keep Identity Thieves at Bay during the 2008 Tax Season
March 19, 2008
Fight Identity Theft Blog
Harvard hacker exposes personal information of applicants, others
March 13, 2008
The Boston Herald
By Donna Goodison
The personal information of some 10,000 Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences students and applicants may have been breached by a hacker who gained access to the school's Web server.
Harvard said it discovered the data breach last month but that its initial investigation did not reveal its full extent. It's now notifying all students whose information may have been compromised.
Tax Guru-Ker$tetter Letter
March 13, 2008
Tax Guru
Identity Thieves Target Tax Refunds
>Scammers Snag Personal Information to File Bogus Returns;
Florida Girl Scout Troop Falls Victim to 'Hotmama983'<
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March 12, 2008
The Wall Street Journal
By Tom Herman
Doing your taxes is painful enough. But it can be especially so when a scam artist files a phony tax return with your name, Social Security number and other personal information in an attempt to collect a refund.
Growing numbers of victims are complaining to the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Trade Commission about this and similar scams, and one senior IRS official is urging the agency to do more to help victims.
Identity theft has become one of the "most serious problems" facing taxpayers, said IRS National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson in a report to Congress early this year. Among the major problems that can arise are delays or denial of refunds, the report said. Taxpayers could also face "the assessment of tax debts resulting from income" reported on the fraudulent return. Ms. Olson is scheduled to testify about the subject tomorrow at a hearing of a House Ways and Means subcommittee.
The Federal Trade Commission received 20,782 complaints on tax-related identity-theft issues in 2007, up from 15,442 in 2006 and 8,041 in 2003. But Ms. Olson of the IRS believes those numbers "significantly understate" the size of the problem and the number of taxpayers hurt by it because, she says, the agency doesn't have a comprehensive method of tracking the various types of identity-theft cases.
Keep Identity Thieves at Bay during the 2008 Tax Season
March 11, 2008
Free Money Finance
103,000 Doctors' Social Security Numbers Posted on Website by Accident
February 27, 2008
WEAU-TV
The risk involves a national health insurance company and more than 100-thousand doctors in Wisconsin and ten other states.
The Vice President at Marshfield Clinic confirmed Wednesday afternoon that social security numbers for his doctors and thousands of others all over the midwest were posted on a website, accidentally.
Dr. Doug Reding tells us the numbers were posted to a website by a company called Health Net Federal Services based in Rancho Cordova, California.
The company is a government contractor that deals with health insurance for military families and veterans.
Health Net Federal Services representatives told us Wednesday night the company notified 103-thousand doctors in eleven states that their personal information was openly posted on a company website.
Identity Theft Gets Personal
When a Debit Card Number Is Stolen, America's New Crime Wave Hits Home
January 13, 2008
The Washington Post
By Nancy Trejos
It had been a pleasant Saturday afternoon until I got the dreadful cellphone call. The woman on the other end said she was from Bank of America. I immediately thought she was going to offer me another credit card. I told her I was busy.
Wait, she said. Are you at a Pacers Running Store in Arlington trying to buy $812.18 worth of merchandise?
No, I said.
Someone claiming to be you is there doing just that, she told me. My heart raced. The rent was due soon -- this was not a good time for money to disappear.
Suddenly I was a personal-finance writer whose finances were a mess thanks to an identity thief.
I took solace in the fact that millions of other people have had the same sinking feeling. In fact, 8.3 million, or nearly 4 percent, of American adults were victims of identity theft in 2005, according to the latest figures from the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces identity theft laws. Of those victims, 1.8 million had accounts opened or other types of fraud committed with stolen information. The rest had their credit cards or other financial accounts hijacked.
State, local agencies say they’re protecting residents’ data
January 7, 2008
The Tennessean
By Micheal Cass and Clay Carey
State and local government agencies say they’re securing citizens’ most sensitive information by keeping it off laptop computers — or encrypting it when it does need to go on a portable machine.
Two laptops containing 337,000 Metro voters’ Social Security numbers were stolen from the county election commission offices at Christmastime and are still missing. Thousands of Nashville voters are now concerned that their identities could be stolen.
Other Nashville-area government agencies that deal with such information, from school districts to county clerks, say they don’t put it on computers that are easily stolen.
Security at many of those offices is also more intense than at the Metro Office Building in south Nashville, which has no alarm system and, at the time, had only a part-time security guard on weekends.
In Williamson County, voters’ Social Security numbers reside solely on one central computer server, said Ann Beard, the county’s administrator of elections. If someone stole a PC from the office, she said, they still couldn’t get at the voter information, unless they also had a server using the Linux operating system.
The information on Metro’s laptops was protected by passwords, but those passwords were taped to the laptops’ exteriors, and the data wasn’t encrypted to prevent intruders from reading the data.
Experts and Speakers
Kroll Fraud Solutions employs globally recognized experts with extraordinary knowledge of the many physical, procedural and electronic security gaps through which confidential data is breached, as well as the criminal landscape where stolen identities are bought, sold and used fraudulently.
Your Identity Is Your Business. Protecting It Is Ours .
