DPS-contracted Company Breached

Private records of 826 state employees were recently stolen from a home office from Wichita Falls, Texas. An employee of L-1 Identity Solution was keeping the information in a lockbox, pending to do fingerprinting, as agreed with the Department of Public Safety.

All the affected individuals are being notified by mail that their names, home addresses, dates of birth, driver’s license and Social Security numbers are missing and they are exposed to identity theft and fraud. According to KXAN.com, about 100 of those affected work for the State Board of Education. The incident comes less than a year after the Texas Legislature mandated that all education employees submit their fingerprints for criminal background checks.

Montgomery Ward Kept Customers in the Dark on Data Theft

In a security breach not yet reported to its customers, Montgomery Ward, an old-line merchant now operating as an internet retailer had 51,000 credit card numbers stolen. The private records have been stolen in December from an online database containing credit card account information.

According to SC Magazine, the furniture retailer operates on the internet on the Wards.com site and is actually owned b Direct Marketing Services.

Direct Marketing Services notified the major credit card brands of the incident but failed to alert customers. Now that the breach has been exposed, they’ve had a change of hart and are planning on letting all those affected know of the breach.

Former Employee Charged in Southeast Security Breach

A former Southeast Missouri State University employee has been charged in a security breach exposing 800 student names and social security numbers. The man has been indicted on charges of identity fraud and one charge of computer trespass after being found in possession of the private records in question.

According to the SouthEast Missourian, William Elum was the hall director of Dearmont during the 2006 to 2007 school year and was arrested May 27 in Atlanta. While no students have reported credit fraud as a result of the leak, Elum is accused of trying to access two student accounts.

“I haven’t seen any evidence that these data have been misused beyond the attempt the employee used to log on to our system in other students’ names,” said Dr. Dennis Holt, vice president for administration and enrollment management.

Nevertheless, university administrators are recommending students place a fraud alert on their consumer credit file and also a security freeze on accounts at credit bureaus.

DCA Security Breach Exposes Private Records of 5,000

The state Department of Consumer Affairs has recently discovered a security breach exposing employees, contractors and board members to identity fraud. DCA has in response sent 5,000 letters warning those affected that the breach has compromised their names and social security numbers.

According to DCA spokesman Russ Heimerich quoted by Capitol Weekly, the breach occurred on June 5 or 6 when a Microsoft Word document was improperly transmitted electronically outside of the department. The document also contained the salaries and titles of everyone on the list, but Heimerich pointed out these additional details were public information.

Heimerich said the incident is still being investigated, and that he could not disclose who had received the document. He said that so far there is no evidence that any information has been used. It was not even clear the recipient had opened the document.

6,500 CNET Networks Employees Exposed in Data Theft

Over 6,500 CNET Networks employees and relatives will soon receive notifications of a possible data breach as CNET has recently discovered the theft of computer systems from the offices used by the company to administer its benefit plans.

The information was handled by Colt Express Outsourcing Services in its Walnut Creek, California offices where the burglars broke in. According to PC Worlds’ coverage of the story, CNET was not the only company affected by the theft. While it’s not really clear which are the other companies exposed to the data theft, the Colt Express’ other customers include companies such as BroadVision, JDS Uniphase and 24 Hour Fitness.

The stolen equipment “contains the human resources data of several of their clients including CNET networks,” CNET Senior Vice President of Human Resources Jose Martin said in a June letter notifying employees of the incident.

The computers contained names, birth dates, Social Security numbers and employment information of the beneficiaries of CNET’s health insurance plans.