Information security analytics

Columbia. Columbian officials reported the theft of information on 31 million citizens of the country. They blame the police for the incident. The story of the disappearance of two hard drives containing detailed information about the country’s populace from the national registry began with elections in the famous Cauca resort region. Violations were documented during the elections and the authorities involved the police department on fighting cybercrime to investigate them.

Panasonic is suing a model for over $1 million for leaking information about a new camera model being prepared for release.

Russia. Communications provider Vimpelcom has officially announced that it is undertaking an active investigation, together with law enforcement authorities, in connection with several cases where a former employee of the company was found to have handed over confidential information to a third party.

Germany. An employee of Swiss bank Credit Suisse has handed over data about citizens who have evaded taxes to German authorities. The amount of hidden capital is estimated to be several billion euros. Searches of apartments belonging to German clients of Credit Suisse are being conducted across Germany. The searches have been prompted by new data regarding fictitious insurance contracts, so-called Bermuda products, which have enabled billions of euros to elude the German tax authorities.

Credant Technologies announced the results of their survey of top airports in the United States. In the last year, travelers left behind 8,016 mobile devices at seven of the largest airports in the country, including: Chicago O’Hare, Denver International, San Francisco International, Charlotte Douglas, Miami International, Orlando International and Minneapolis/St. Paul. Of the seven airports surveyed, only one reported that they transfer their mobile devices over to the authorities.

A stolen USB-stick containing citizens' personal data will cost Alaska's Department of Health and Social Services (Alaska DHSS) USD 1.7 million. It is one of the biggest fines ever given out for a violation of the HIPAA. The investigation into the flash drive stolen from Alaska DHSS has come to an end after almost three years. The court instructed the state agency to pay USD 1.7 million for the compromise of citizens' personal data and the violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

The New South Wales Office of the Privacy Commissioner has accused the government rail network RailCorp of compromising the data of its customers and employees. RailCorp was selling off unclaimed flash drives. According to officials, the process for deleting data did not meet legislative requirements, since the information on the devices could be restored with the use of inexpensive software. The actions of the rail company were assessed to be a violation of the law on safeguarding the right to a private life and personal information.

USA. Bethpage Federal Credit Union (BFCU) has informed 86,000 of its customers that their credit card information has been compromised.

A news story has appeared on the Russian Internet segment about the theft of passwords belonging to LinkedIn users. The media are referring to the incident as a ‘leak’, but analysts at InfoWatch maintain it was caused by a hitch in the system.

Canada. Durham Region Health, an organization that provides medical services to the local population, must pay a fine of $500,000, 3 years after a data leak occurred. In December 2009 a female employee of Durham Region Health lost an unencrypted flash-drive containing patients’ personal data. The flash drive contained information that was highly confidential: surnames, first names, addresses, birthdays, telephone numbers and medical card numbers, and also some medical data. As a result of the loss, 83,524 patients had their data compromised by the organization.