Sony, Citigroup, Michael’s stores, Epsilon, Massachusetts unemployment recipients, Texas state retirees, etc., etc.  Data breaches this year have affected hundreds of millions of accounts of all stripes and it might just be time for a new law.

OK, new law haters, there’s some rationale here. Wildly inconsistent reporting by companies (and government agencies) has left consumers ignorant of their status as victims. And wildly inconsistent levels of security of personal data has caused some companies to give up their customer records to thieves by the million.

Data breach news tends to trickle out and usually those affected find out quite some time after their information has been sent to parts unknown. Citi

Full Article…

Six people in California have been charged with defrauding banks out of more than $3 million dollars.

An indictment handed down by a federal grand jury charges the six individuals with 29 felony counts of bank fraud.

The suspects stole the identities of people with good credit scores to establish lines of credit and used the money for personal expenses.

According to the FBI, the group obtained personal information including dates of birth, Social Security numbers, credit profiles, FICO scores and driver’s license numbers.  They then used this information to complete fraudulent applications for business lines of credit at Bank of America and Wells Fargo Bank branches.

The stolen identities also were used to create phony corporate officers of shell corporations that did not exist, the FBI said.

To fool bank employees who made on-site inspections, the defendants created fake offices where they posed as employees to make it look like the corporations were legitimate.

Once the applications were approved, banks deposited money into the accounts, usually in amounts of $100,000.

The defendants liquidated accounts in a few days, making checks payable to themselves. The

Full Article…

For the new breed of underground hacker bent on vigilante justice – or just interested in messing with the establishment – there is no target that is off limits.  Corporate America as well as international governments have been under siege for the past several months.  But the next step has been taken.  A group of hackers called Lulz Security went after the U.S. Senate.

It was confirmed to the media by a Senate representative that Lulz broke into the Senates Web site, and gained access to the servers directory and file structure.  Of course, they did not stop there.  They also published this information on their web site.  Check it out here.

The word is that the government initiated a security review and (to date) determined that network security was not compromised and that no user information was breached.  Here’s a statement that from the Sergeant at Arms of the U.S. Senate on th

Full Article…

Getting rid of credit card debt is one of the most demanding financial objectives of all cardholders in America and many people are still struggling to reduce their credit card debts, sometimes with the help of professional debt relief programs. They also consider taking advice from debt counselor to define what kind of debt programs will be the most effective in this case. These companies provide a very important service, but they are not designed to help everyone.

First of all you need to understand what these companies offer, how they charge for their services and laws for this sector are very important. Knowing how the industry works, you’ll be able to make an informed decision when considering debt relief service. These specialists are working as negotiators. They may request that the membership fees removed and reduced interest rates. Full Article…

Welcome to the Tuesday Morning News Kick Off post from the ITAC blog. Typically, we do this post every Monday, but since most of us observed the Memorial Day holiday weekend, we we pushing this post back one day. And, as always, there is not shortage of news. While many of us were enjoying the long weekend and taking time to honor those who served our great nation, the news cycle was humming along in full force. Be sure to check out this full post for more identity theft, data breach and cyber security news.

Sony and Epsilon Agree to Testify Before Congress Sony has finally agreed to testify before a Congressional hearing that will be held by Representative Mary Bono Mack, the chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade.

Full Article…

Sony estimates the massive data breach affecting 100 million PlayStation Network, Qriocity, and Sony Online Entertainment customers have cost $171 million so far.   However, lawsuits and regulatory fines could push that figure much higher.

The money has been spent on providing identity theft protection to affected customers, costs from welcome back programs that offer services for free, customer support costs, network security enhancement costs, legal and consulting costs, as well as lost revenue, Sony said.

Sony stressed that it has not received “any confirmed reports of customer identity theft issues, nor any confirmed misuse of credit cards” from the data breaches.

The company acknowledged that class action lawsuits have been filed against the company and some of its subsidiaries and regulatory inquiries have been initiated. These

Full Article…