This Boring Headline Is Written for Google

April 9, 2006

PORTLAND, Ore. - Providence Health System said thieves have once again walked away with carelessly handled records containing patients' personal data, this time in Washington state. 
The security breach is on a smaller scale than the one announced in January. 

Then, the company said a car burglar had stolen computer disks and tapes holding records on 365,000 patients across Oregon and Washington.

In the latest thefts, the company announced Monday that in two car break-ins, one on Feb. 27 and the other March 3, thieves took laptops containing records on 122 hospice and home-care patients in Snohomish County, Wash.
 Read the full article here...

More Providence patient data theft cases in Washington

March 6, 2006

PORTLAND, Ore. - Providence Health System said thieves have once again walked away with carelessly handled records containing patients' personal data, this time in Washington state. 
The security breach is on a smaller scale than the one announced in January. 

Then, the company said a car burglar had stolen computer disks and tapes holding records on 365,000 patients across Oregon and Washington.

In the latest thefts, the company announced Monday that in two car break-ins, one on Feb. 27 and the other March 3, thieves took laptops containing records on 122 hospice and home-care patients in Snohomish County, Wash.
 Read the full article here...

Undisclosed number of Verizon employees at risk of identity theft

CNet-News
March 8, 2006

A theft of two laptop computers has put a "significant number" of Verizon Communications' employees at risk of having their identities stolen, the company said Wednesday.

The computers were pilfered from a company facility and may contain important personal information, such as Social Security numbers, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Verizon executives told employees in a March 1 letter that the theft appears to be "a random criminal act" and that the laptops were password-protected, according to the Journal.

Verizon executives told the Journal that both current and former employees could be at risk. Verizon is offering affected workers free use of a credit monitoring service to help them watch out for identity theft.

Other companies that have suffered similar data losses are Bank of America and ChoicePoint.

Stolen laptop had clients' private data, says Ernst & Young

February 25, 2006
In a letter dated Feb. 13, Ernst & Young warned clients that their Social Security numbers were on a laptop that was stolen from an employee's locked car. The letter didn't say how many clients were affected. Ernst & Young spokesman Charles Perkins offered a prepared statement saying that the laptop was password protected, and appeared to have been stolen in a random criminal act. 

> Read the full story here...

McAfee Mauled By Deloitte And Touche

Feb. 24, 2006
It seems the accounting firm was doing some of their regular work for McAfee and a CD came up missing back on December 15th according to a McAfee spokesperson. The story goes that an auditor left the disc in an airline seat pocket. It was reported to McAfee on January 11th. Then the details of what was actually on the disc were revealed on January 30th. 

The information on the disc is almost amusing… almost. The disc was loaded with personal information on thousands of employees, past and present, in both the U.S. and Canada.
> Read the full story here...

Open Source Model for Security Threats

Feb. 27, 2006
These computer-related crimes cost U.S. businesses an incredible $67.2 billion a year, according to FBI estimates. A major security breach at CardSystems exposed the personal data of more than 40 million credit card holders to possible fraud. Marriott tried to explain how it misplaced personal data for some of its 200,000 customers. Other major companies including Bank of America, Citigroup, and DSW Shoe Warehouse had similar woes. 

In addition to these events, companies endured an increase in the sophistication of threats, including virus-infected e-mails, worms, spam, spyware, computer theft, and network intrusions.
> Read the full story here...