Information security analytics

Cellphone and broadband provider Vodafone Deutschland says it was the target of a large-scale data theft affecting the personal details of 2 million German customers. Spokesman Alexander Leinhos says the attack was conducted by an unidentified IT systems administrator who worked for a company contracted by Vodafone. Vodafone said in a statement today that the stolen data included customers' names, addresses, date of birth and bank details.

A Brewster salon owner stole more than $17,000 from customers, using their credit and debit card numbers to pay for a 10-day trip to a Georgia resort and a flight to North Carolina, the Secret Service said in court documents. Pamela Pinchbeck, 43, of Carmel, who owned Matthew David Hair Design on Danbury Road, is facing federal charges of access device fraud and bank fraud. She allegedly stole money from four customers in the first half of 2011 by either making unauthorized charges on their cards and/or writing checks to herself from their accounts.

Eleven payroll employees who were supposed to receive portions of state worker benefits information received personal data on thousands by mistake. Personal data for 13,000 state employees was inadvertently sent to 11 state human resource and payroll employees. The personal information included employee names and Social Security numbers, according to a statement from Anne Waring, Virginia Department of Human Resource Management communications manager.

The chief of the Central Bank of Turkey has sacked at least 11 bureaucrats, including three senior managers, on suspicion that they shared information with an organization involved in espionage activity.

One of the largest medical privacy breaches in recent Canadian history could see almost 700 patients sue South West Health. A Supreme Court judge has given the okay to proceed with a class action lawsuit over the health authority’s patient information leak. In April 2012, South West Health learned that an employee at Roseway Hospital in Shelburne had been inappropriately accessing patient information. In total, 707 patients were involved.

Earlier today, several top designers at HTC were arrested in Taipei under suspicion of fraudulent expense claims, as well as stealing trade secrets ahead of leaving the company to run a new mobile design firm in both Taiwan and mainland China.

Taipei, Aug. 22 (CNA) CTBC Bank, one of Taiwan's top financial institutions, was fined NT$4 million (US$134,000) Thursday for accidentally leaking the personal information of some 33,000 of its e-banking customers. The error allowed the average Internet user to view confidential data, intended for CTBC Bank staff only, for an undisclosed period of time in May, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said in meting out the fine.

NORFOLK, VA—Robert Patrick Hoffman, II, 40, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, was convicted today by a federal jury of attempting to provide classified information to individuals whom he believed to be representatives of the Russian Federation.

Hope Community Resources (HCR) of Alaska accidently exposed 3,700 disabled patients’ protected health information (PHI) in an email Monday night. The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) said it is investigating the breach.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has served the Bank of Scotland with a monetary penalty of 75,000 after customers’ account details were repeatedly faxed to the wrong recipients. The information included payslips, bank statements, account details and mortgage applications, along with customers’ names, addresses and contact details. The documents were faxed over a three year period, with the first incident reported to the bank in February 2009 by a third party organisation.