The last week of December didn’t bring peace to the world of breaches. This week’s largest incident happened at the RBS Worldpay. The breach has been discovered pretty late – about 100 of vote fraud cases has been initiated. Another two incidents also brought serious financial damage: one breach at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the one at the Cedars-Sinai medical center.
Breaches of the week:
Date Data loss Organization Canal Cause 2008-12-26 1500000 RBS WorldPay Internet Intentional 2008-12-25 16000 Pulte Homes Magnet Tape Intentional 2008-12-24 16857 Federal Emergency Management Agency Internet Accidental 2008-12-23 1000 Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Unknown Intentional Sum 1533857Former Cedars-Sinai employee held in identity theft
On December 23, Los Angeles Times reported a sophisticated privacy-connected crime. More than 1,000 patients at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center had their personal information taken by a former employee in the hospital's billing department. James Allen Wilson allegedly used clients’ identities to steal from insurance companies by filing workers' compensation claims through a fictitious lab.
FEMA data on Katrina evacuees leaked: Data on 16857 compromised
On December 24, The Times Picayune published a story of accidental release of private information by FEMA. The leaked excel file contained names, Social Security and phone numbers, and other private details of people who had applied for benefits. Nearly all the affected individuals lived in Louisiana at the time of the storm.
Identities of 16,000 Pulte Homes customers stolen
On December 25, Las Vegas Sun told about the breach in Las Vegas. Computer tapes holding private customer information including names, addresses, driver's license numbers and financial account numbers were stolen from a Pulte Homes office. The overall number of customers compromised: 16000.
RBS WorldPay Data Breach Hits 1.5 Million
On December 26, InternetNews reported the biggest week’s incident. A hacker got into the computer systems of electronic payment processing services provider RBS WorldPay, compromising more than a million customers' records. Personal and financial account information of about 1.5 million cardholders and other individuals, and the social security numbers (SSNs) of 1.1 million people, may have been accessed by the hacker. Since the break-in was discovered on November 10, about 100 payroll cards, which are reloadable stored value cards companies use to pay their employees' wages, have been fraudulently used.
Return to the high level of breach emergency
