Free Republic

PITTSBURGH —As many as 27,000 UPMC employees may have had their personal information exposed in a data breach and nearly 800 have been victimized by tax fraud, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit confirmed Thursday evening. "We want to assure our patients that no patient information was breached," media relations director Gloria Kreps said in a statement. Employees of the several Pittsburgh-area hospitals told Pittsburgh's Action News 4 that they received a packet in the mail, telling them that their information was stolen and what they need to do to protect themselves. "We're telling our employees that they should take steps...

Identity theft, one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States, can include credit card fraud, government identity theft and medical identity theft. It can also include stealing the identity of someone who has died, as Ohio fraud victim Lindsey Reichheld recently discovered. While the family of Amy Reichheld mourned her death, the identity thieves got busy. Their strategy was to simply spend $10 to purchase a copy of her death certificate. When Reichheld inquired about who was behind the purchase, she said a town official told her, "Anyone can walk in and they don't keep track of it."...

Without personally knowing any cyber criminals (I think using hackers is unfair to… well, hackers), we can probably assume they are not very different from other criminals in that they do what they do for a few basic reasons: •Ego: defacing websites to gain street cred •Ideology: wreaking havoc to make political statements or wage asymmetric warfare •Money: engaging in good old-fashioned criminal capitalism (to the tune of $3 trillion) It’s this third motivation that is in the news the most, and it’s not because these criminals are infiltrating banks and making off with the loot. In fact it’s...

NEW YORK (MYFOXNY) - Credit card reading devices and tiny hidden cameras attached to ticket vending machines were discovered at the Baldwin train station during a routine inspection last week, said the Long Island Rail Road. MTA police are investigating and have reportedly identified a suspect.

In what could be one of the biggest data breaches in history, the federal government and authorities in several states are investigating the criminal sale of Social Security numbers, bank account data and other personal information for up to 200 million U.S. citizens.

Is identity theft a real enough problem to warrant $10/month monitoring service? I must decide whether or not to get the service but to initiate it I must trust the service with a lot of personal data.

Link only. Read article at source.

A British man accused of hacking into U.S. government computer networks was charged in a new indictment unsealed Thursday with infiltrating the Federal Reserve’s computers. Lauri Love, 28, of Stradishall, England, was charged with computer hacking and aggravated identity theft, which carry a potential penalty of up to 12 years in prison. He initially was arrested in Great Britain in October and released on bail after he was charged under a United Kingdom law that permits the arrest of anyone who starts attacks from the U.K. on computers anywhere in the world. …

Last December, Target announced up to 40 million credit cards and debit accounts may have been stolen in a sophisticated cyber theft intrusion of the corporate computer system; since then, other retailers have reported break-ins with similar hallmarks. Could this be the work of organized criminals? “There is certainly a real element of sophistication here,” said Michael Sutton, a cyber security expert with Zscaler who's monitoring the Target case. “There would have needed to be some reconnaissance up front to understand the network that was being targeted, the hardware and software that they were going after. They would have had...

Most identity theft in the United States is medical-related, according to a recent report from the Identity Theft Resource Center. The survey was released even as certain aspects of Obamacare enrollment have raised concerns about identity theft and consumer privacy.

A Virginia man’s personal information has been stolen after he signed up for Obamacare on the healthcare.gov website. Now, he’s questioning if the website is the reason why. “There’s a possibility someone got my personal information from your website,” Virginia Beach resident Rich Guillory said in a video shot by WVEC-VA while speaking on the phone. “They knew my name and they had my number” — along with his address and social security number as well. he day after he signed up on the website, he got a call from someone claiming they could help him with finding health insurance....

The data breach that struck our company spotlighted the sophistication of criminal hacker networks operating across the globe. We know the attack created significant concerns for millions of customers. We will learn from this incident and we will work to make Target, and the wider business community, more secure in the future. One step American businesses could now take that would dramatically improve the security of all credit and debit cards: adoption of chip-enabled smartcards. The technology is already widely used throughout the world. For many reasons, the United States has been slow to embrace the technology at home. We...

A 19-year-old who lived at home with his mom and worked at a local call center stole the identities of America's rich and famous — including Kim Kardashian and the head of the FBI — and took over their financial accounts..... ...Earlier this week, Flores learned he'll spend the next 3 1/2 years in federal prison for his identity theft scheme..... ....At the time, Flores was already facing criminal charges in state court, where he was accused of taking private information from a coworker's personnel profile and having his colleague's paycheck directly deposited into his own bank account. Flores was...

You may recall when Kathleen Sebelius said this, under questioning from Texas Senator John Cornyn: (VIDEO-AT-LINK)Cornyn: “Isn’t it true that there is no federal requirement for navigators to undergo a criminal background check, even though they will receive sensitive, personal information from individuals they help to sign up for the Affordable Care Act?” Sebelius: “That is true. States could add an additional background check and other features but it is not part of the federal requirement.” Cornyn: “So a convicted felon could be a navigator and could acquire sensitive personal information from an individual, unbeknownst to them?” Sebelius: “That is...

At least 43 convicted criminals are working as Obamacare navigators in California, including three individuals with records of significant financial crimes. Although some of the offenses are decades old, and although convicted criminals account for only 1 percent of the 3,729 certified enrollment counselors in the state, Californians still have good cause to be concerned about their privacy. Even a single crooked navigator could do significant harm to the public. That’s because when navigators sign consumers up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, they have access to lots of private information, including Social Security numbers, home addresses, and...

Police have arrested two Mexican illegal aliens on fraud charges in the first arrests tied to the December Target credit card breach -- a stark reminder of the frequent involvement of illegal immigration and identity theft in the U.S.On Sunday, Police arrested 27-year-old Mary Carmen Garcia and 28-year-old Daniel Guardiola Dominguez both from Monterrey as they tried to cross into the U.S. from Reynosa with 96 fraudulent credit credit cards in their possession, said Police Chief Victor Rodriguez. Account information stolen during the Target security breach was used to produce the credit cards. The illegals, both from Monterrey, Mexico, used cards...

Police in South Texas say account information stolen during the Target security breach is now being divided up and sold off regionally as evidenced by the arrest of two Mexican citizens in connection to 96 fraudulent credit cards. McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez said Monday that 27-year-old Mary Carmen Garcia and 28-year-old Daniel Guardiola Dominguez, both of Monterrey, Mexico, used cards containing the account information of South Texas residents. The chief says they were used to buy tens of thousands of dollars' worth of merchandise at national retailers in the area. The two were arrested on Sunday morning trying to...

The Obamacare website is even less secure than it was in November, David Kennedy, head of computer security consulting firm TrustedSec LLC, told Fox News Sunday. Kennedy testified before Congress Thursday that the site was “100 percent” insecure and personal information for consumers at healthcare.gov was at risk, Reuters reports: Before the hearing, Kennedy told Reuters the government has yet to plug more than 20 vulnerabilities that he and other security experts reported to the government shortly after HealthCare.gov went live on October 1. Hackers could steal personal information, modify data, attack the personal computers of website users and damage...

We’re from the government and we’re here to help. One in seven Obamacare navigators in New Mexico is listed in the FBI’s crime information database.But these “experts” are here to serve you.New Mexico Watchdog reported: An investigation by the National Review, one of the leading conservative media outlets in the country, reports that one in seven navigators in New Mexico hired to help consumers work their way through the Affordable Care Act appeared on the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database.But an official with the state’s Affordable Care Act Implementation Projects emphasizes that while a person’s name may turn up on the FBI database, it does not mean they pose any risk to...

It took years for Watergate to unravel fully. The controversy over Barack Hussein Obama and his past, along with fraudulent documents continues to make headlines. Yet, the items needed to actually verify who Obama is continue to be kept from the public eye. Well, that all may be about to change. Attorney Orly Taitz may have just found a chink in the federal government’s armor in protecting Barack Obama from scrutiny, following a judge’s ruling over her Freedom of Information Act request from the Social Security Administration.