Identity Theft at Southwest Mississippi

About 1,000 former student of the Southwest Mississippi Country College were warned against identity theft threats after having their private details exposed on the internet. The breach was quickly fixed by the college’s representatives.

Steve Bishop, vice president of student affairs, quoted by WXTV, stated that the breach was unintentional and it was fixed in about 12 hours after being discovered. The exposed data included names, addresses, and only in some cases social security numbers.

Caught in the Act: IT Contractor Stole Shell Oil Employee Data

If you’re thinking to prevent inside threats by hiring consultants from outside your company, think again! They’re drive to make money using others’ identities is a genuine concern. Take Shell Oil for example, who caught one of its IT contractors stealing personal data on its employees from one of the US databases of the company.

After descovering the unnamed employee of a vendor working on said US database used the social security numbers and other info of four employees to file bogus unemployment claims, Shell Oil warned all its former and current personnel they have been exposed to identity theft. More on the ongoing investigation in the Register.

Data Breach Effects: Advice on How to Rebuild Credit Ratings

As more and more data breaches are revealed and debated online, the number of victims of such incidents increases. From never-ending sales calls to having items charged on your card to seeing credit ratings go down the drain to identity theft, these people are the ones who feel the most powerful consequences, not the companies where the breaches occur.

So what are these people to do to protect themselves and get back to how things were? In what credit ratings are concerned, UK victims are advised to use the Data Protection Act to rebuild them. According to E-Victims org, a former support group for cybercrime victims quoted by the Register, even after establishing fraud and absolving themselves of liability to fraudulent debt, data breach victims still have poor credit ratings.

As credit agencies rely on data from lenders, not on corrections communicated by those who borrow money, the organization says the Act could be used to force lenders to correctly communicate the status of fraud and data breach victims. Otherwise, even if they get a new credit, victims of such breaches will still have to pay higher interest rates. The Register also directs victims to a factsheet published by E-Victims.org aimed to help them with their credit reports.