Apparently some customers have been threatened with having their stolen personal data revealed unless they pay up. Kroll is assisting Express Scripts in running down the would-be extortionists.

-- MDT

Labels: data breach, Kroll

Details here...

-- MDT

Labels: data breach, hacking

A little make-it-right goes a long way when it comes to exposing your students and faculty's personal data.

-- MDT

Labels: data breach, Kroll, Stanford University

Let this be a lesson HSBC...when you send a disk containing the personal details of 370,000 of your insurees, always, always get a tracking number. And the data wasn't encrypted? D'oh!

-- MDT

Labels: data breach, FSA, HSBC

A few summers back corporate and public sector data breach stories were a weekly event it seemed. The press was all over the issue and The Daily Caveat spilled paragraphs and paragraphs on the subject. It has been a while since we've touched the issue but this slide show from EWEEK running down the worst data beaches of all time made it worth whipping that horse one more time.

-- MDT

Labels: data breach, EWEEK

As you saw in this space earlier in the week, along side that other more sensational student loan scandal, there have been increasing calls for greater vigilance regarding how student loan companies utilize theNational Student Loan Data System.

It has been suggested that lenders have used this database, which includes the full range of personal information on tens of millions of students, well beyond its prescribed purpose and have done so for some time without adequate enforcement or oversight. Members of congress have also been loudly critical of the Department of Ed's failure to shore up protections for the sensitive data the system contains.

Last night the Department of Education, while defending its internal practices and personnel, shut off outside access to NSLDS. The shut down was described as temporary, and no doubt would never have happened if the student loan conflict of interest scandal wasn't heating up the papers.

Further details here, via the NYT.

-- MDT

Labels: data breach, data brokers, student loans

Student lending companies in many cases have access to a vast database of student information - the National Student Loan Data System, which was created in 1993 and houses data on some 60 million of young borrowers.

The data includes social security numbers, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and loan balances. Theoretically this database is safe behind the wall of government security and privacy law protections.

The reality is somewhat less comforting...and a congressional investigation may be in the cards.

Read all about it at The Washington Post.

-- MDT

Labels: data, data breach, data brokerbase, student loans

TJX, home to such retail chains as Bob's Stores, HomeGoods, Marshalls, T.J. Maxx and A.J. Wright announced this week that in December 2006 the company discovered a massive data breach. The overall damage is still uncertain but hacker-thieves have almost certainly obtained credit and debit card numbers from TJX transactions from across North America. TJX is already working with law enforcement to resolve the situation. Meanwhile as many as 10 Massacusetts banks have already reported illegal account access. Mor on the aftermath of the TJX breach here. (Via The Consumerist)

-- MDT

Labels: data breach, The Consumerist, TJX