Data Leakage News

Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro has asked a court to order shoe retailer Designer Shoe Warehouse (DSW) to individually notify each customer whose personal information may have been stolen recently from DSW computer files. Ohio is the first state to sue the retailer over one of the biggest security breaches of its kind in the nation.

A laptop was stolen between May 7 and May 9 from Omega World Travel of Fairfax, Va., which is one of the largest travel companies in the Washington area and does extensive business with government agencies.

CitiFinancial, the retail finance division of Citigroup, has lost backup tapes containing sensitive personal information of around 4 million American customers.

Business community was shocked by the largest case of industrial espionage that involved several arrests of top executives at some of Israel's biggest companies, including the Yes satellite TV company, Mayer Cars & Trucks, the Pelephone Communications and Cellcom cellular networks. Israel and London police, FBI and Interpol suspects them of involvement in spying on competitors. A total of 18 people have been detained, including nine private investigators.

In the result of IT-security breach someone has intruded into Stanford University network and compromised personal data of 10,000 people.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has internal IT-security problems in dealing with critical financial information and accountancy practices. It is very important because SEC is responsible for auditing all this stuff that should prevent fraud and ensure financial accuracy in other companies.

Chicago Tribune reports that a criminal group which included insiders from Chicago hospital who used confidential data of more than 100,000 patients to steal at least $150,000 from victim's bank accounts has been arrested.

The largest bank data theft in USA affected about 700,000 customers at 4 different banks: Wachovia Corp., Bank of America Corp., Commerce Bancorp Inc. and PNC Bank NA.

9 people, including 7 former bank employees and 1 former manager of the New Jersey Department of Labor, were arrested. Police in Hackensack, N.J., are continuing their investigation into the theft by a crime ring that apparently accessed the data illegally through the former bank employees.

A new student identification method is to be developed in Oklahoma State University, where laptop computer listing Social Security numbers for more than 37,000 current and former students was stolen on April 12.

The university will track students by 8-digit student identification numbers instead of Social Security numbers. In addition officials said the university will discipline workers who don't protect sensitive information.