Computer Tapes with over 20,000 Social Security Numbers Lost

Several computer backup tapes containing thousands of social security numbers of Tinley Park residents have been lost during a common moving procedure aimed to insure they wouldn’t be destroyed in a village hall disaster.

According to the Chicago Tribune, officials doubt there’s any real chance of identity theft, as the tapes contained 15 year old information. Village Manager Scott Niehaus said letters describing the incident will be sent out to about 19,000 residents and another 1,400 current, former or retired village employees.

Private Data on 300 Vets Stolen along with Backup Server

Burglars breaking into the Minneapolis Veterans Home stole a backup computer server containing private records of over 300 residents. The server stored telephone numbers, addresses, next-of-kin details, social security numbers and other private medical details or the 336 residents, according to the statement of an official with the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs quoted by StarTribune.com.

It appears the burglars broke into the facility early on a Sunday. According to Gil Acevedo, deputy commissioner for Veterans Health Care, the thieves also took a tool kit, a laptop computer, a guitar and a computer game, and are unlikely to have targeted the private records.

“We don’t suspect the burglars came in looking for that specifically,” he said. “They broke in, kicked in several doors, and took a series of things. There’s no pattern.”

The case is currently investigated by the Minneapolis police together with the Veterans Affairs department. The residents, their families and credit bureaus have all been informed of the data theft in order to prevent subsequent identity theft and fraud attempts.

Secuirty Threat Caused by Lost USB Sticks

Yet another data breach caused by lost hardware has been reported by a governmental institution. The U.K.’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has released information on 121 USB sticks, including five containing classified information that have been lost or stolen since 2004.

As reported by DarkReading, these troubling figures became public four years later in response to an official question from Sarah Teather, a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament. They are the latest yet not the only embarrassing breach involving the UK government. The MoD’s missing USBs come after the loss of two disks containing welfare private data on 25 million U.K. citizens and loss of an extensive number of laptops and mobile phones.

“Far from the problem getting better, it seems actually to be getting worse at the moment,” said Teather. “I think that the government has a duty to come clean and say whether or not anyone has been put at risk as a result of this – we need reassuring, for example, that none of our troops have been put at risk.”

The British government’s latest storage snafu comes less than a year after Her Majesty Revenue and Customs (HMRC), which is the U.K’s equivalent of the IRS was at the center of the country’s largest ever data loss.

This recent events begs a mind blowing question: how many such breaches actually happened but were never released to the public? And how long would it have taken until UK authorities informed the public on these national security breaches if there hadn’t been a formal inquiry?

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Brand New Security Breach Reported by the US Army

Ever since 2006, several cases of exposed sensitive data surrounding the US Army have kept the newspapers busy. A new such case has recently hit the papers, when a laptop computer was reported stolen from an Ary employee’s truck. The laptop contained personal information on about 900 soldiers from Fort Lewis. The information was released by Lacey police officials and quoted by The New Tribune.

As the theft might expose the Army employees to identity theft risks, the involved soldiers have been notified of the breach, said a post spokeswoman. According to Army officials, the employee, a civilian military personnel specialist, from whom the laptop has been stolen appears to have violeted Army standards and policies for protecting personal information and government property.

The Army is assisting Lacey police with the theft investigation and conducting its own review, said Catherine Caruso, a Fort Lewis spokeswoman.

“We’re not releasing anything more about what information was inappropriately compromised or about the soldiers whose information was involved,” Caruso said. “Clearly it was personal information regarding 800 to 900 soldiers from Fort Lewis. Beyond that, we’d rather not specify.”

Daily Mail Loses Laptop With Staff’s Private Info

The latest security breach involving a stolen laptop has recently been reported by Northcliffe Media, owner of the Daily Mail. The lost computer contained sensitive information on the company’s employees, such as names, addresses, bank accounts and sort codes of Mail and General Trust staff.

According to company representatives quoted by the Register, the said laptop was password protected but most likely not encrypted. Northcliffe Media warned its staff of the risk they were exposed to advised them to contact their bank in order to prevent future problems.

The letter, signed by group finance director M J Hindley, said:
The likelihood is that this theft was carried out in an opportunistic manner by a thief who will not realise that there is any personal data on the laptop and who may just erase what is on the hard disk in order to disguise the fact that the laptop is stolen.

Insider Attacks Double in the First Half of 2008

Security attacks caused by insiders have doubled in the last year, according to the latest report released by the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC). The Center found that almost 16 percent of breaches reported so far in 2008 were insider-born and went up from 6 percent in 2007. 11.7 percent of the attacks came from individuals outside the company, down from 14.1 percent in 2007.

According to Dark Reading, the ITRC’s data is consistent with other reports on insider incidents showing an increase of such attacks. Additionally, many experts believe that disclosure of all incidents is also on the rise, mostly due to the legal requirements put in place by many states over the last year.

Data stolen from laptops, thumb drives, and PDAs accounted for 20.2 percent of this year’s breaches so far, followed by accidental exposure by the organization (15.2 percent), and loss or theft by a subcontractor (13.5 percent).

Public Access vs. Private Records Protection

The European Data Protections Supervisor Peter Hustinx stated he was unhappy with the proposed law aimed at improving public access to EU documents. The European Commission proposed the law as a means to improve European government transparency.

Yet according to Computing.co.uk, Hustinx is concerned the security measures to protect personal data from public documents are inefficient. His concern was trigger when a reference to possible harm to “the privacy and the integrity” of the individual was deleted from the initial proposal.

“Public access on the one hand and privacy and data protection on the other are fundamental rights which represent key elements of good governance,” said Hustinx.

We’ll just have to wait and see what the will happen, and if the right to right to public access will win the battle, we could recommend some DLP solutions :).

UK SMEs Warned To Improve Security

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) warned that small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are most likely to fail at effectively securing their data, which could subsequently lead to compromising a large portion of the UK economy.

Based on figures provided by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and quoted by Computing.co.uk, SMEs make up 51.9 per cent of annual turnover in the UK and over 99.3 per cent of businesses of existing businesses.

Meanwhile reported fraud cost UK businesses over £705m in the last six months, 74 per cent up on the same period last year and hitting £317m in April 2008 alone, says research from accountant BDO Stoy Hayward.

Banks and insurance firms saw suffered costs of more than £636m, or 90 per cent of the total cost of fraud in the first half of 2008 and management fraud accounts for 46 per cent of fraud cases, third party fraud accounts for 32 per cent, costing businesses a total of £541m.

Stockbrokers Get Fine for Poor Security

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has recently fined a firm of stockbrokers for failing to adequately protect their customers from the risk of identity fraud. FSA, quoted by the Register, said the company’s poor security included failing to manage, among others, the risks posed by staff using instant messaging and web-based email.

London-based Merchant Securities Group Limited also failed to verify the identities of customers contacting the firm by telephone. They instead relied on being able to recognize customers’ voices and informally asking them about personal matters such as holidays or hobbies. The firm also had the habit of including private account numbers in routine letters which could then lead to fraud or identity theft.

The FSA also found that back-up tapes containing unencrypted customer information were stored overnight in a bag at the home of a member of staff.

The London-based firm also failed to implement adequate controls “to mitigate the risk of customers’ personal data being transmitted outside the firm by failing to prevent the use of instant messaging and web-based email,” according to the penalty notice (pdf) served by the FSA.