Posts Tagged ‘Identity Theft’
New Study from ID Analytics Shows over 2.5 Million Deceased Identities Fraudulently Being Used
The identities of nearly 2.5 million deceased Americans are used improperly to apply for credit products and services each year, according to a new study released today from ID Analytics' ID:A Labs. This is the first study to examine the extent of fraudsters improperly using a deceased person's identity to establish credit accounts.
The study compared the names, dates of birth (DOB) and Social Security numbers (SSNs) on 100 million applications during the first three months of 2011 to data in the Social Security Administration's Death Master File (DMF) to find which applications used personally identifiable information (PII) associated with deceased individuals.
The study found:
Identity Theft of the Dead – Nearly 800,000 deceased Americans' identities are intentionally targeted for misuse on applications for credit products and cell phone services by fraudsters each year.
Inadvertently Misusing SSNs of the Deceased – In approximately 1.6 million applications annually, an identity manipulator inadvertently used the SSN of a deceased person.
Identity Theft of the Dying – Several hundred thousand potential misuses of dying people's identities each year.
Read more about this story here.
13 Indicted for Chase Bank ATM Counterfeit Scheme
The culprits videotaped the users password and used a skimming device to capture the account info...
From there, the gang created counterfeit cards with the stolen details. The indictment does not specify how much fraud is estimated amount to be linked to the scam.
The 13 now face charges for conspiracy and aggravated identity theft. This case is being investigated by the United States Secret Service and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly M. Frayn.
Read the rest of this story here in BankInfoSecurity Online.
Biggest Consumer Danger: Identity Theft Not Stolen Credit Cards
In the United States, if you use a credit card from MasterCard (MA), American Express (AXP), Visa (V) or Discover (DFS), typically you are protected from fraud on any amount over $50.
Almost all online retailers have become smart and store your credit card numbers separate from the rest of your information (which Zappos has done). Zappos seems to have (also) followed the standard practice of encrypting passwords. Unfortunately, even encrypted passwords or ‘hashes’ in security terminology are sought after by criminals.
In theory, hashes are difficult to crack, but in practice criminals can run hashes through computer programs and easily pick out weak passwords. Given enough computer power, even moderate and strong passwords are usually not too difficult to crack.
Read the rest of this article by Forbes, by Nigam Arora, 17 January 2012 by clicking this link.
Hackers Accessed 24 Million Zappos Customers’ Account Details
The Amazon-owned e-commerce firm has revealed that it was the target of a cyber attack that gained access to its internal network, including the accounts of 24 million of its users.
Though the company says that no complete credit card numbers were revealed in the breach, the intruders may have accessed customers’ names, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, addresses, the last four digits of their credit card numbers, and encrypted passwords. Zappos says it’s taken the precaution of resetting the passwords of all its customers and directing them to set a new password upon visiting the site.
Read the rest of this story at Forbes by Andy Greenberg on 15 January 2012 by clicking here
More than $20M Stolen from Banks, Individuals and Nassau County Government
Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice has announced that the kingpin of the largest mortgage fraud and identity theft ring in Nassau County history has been sentenced to four to 12 years in prison for his role in leading an organization that stole more than $20 million from homeowners, banks, and the Nasssau County government.
The DA explained that in order to accomplish this, Sweet Deal recruited individuals to impersonate the seller and buyer, whose identities had been stolen. Sweet Deal also assigned a member of Sweet Deal to impersonate a paralegal and also stole an attorney’s identity to set up a bank account to launder money through.
Read the rest of this Westbury Times article from 16 December 2011 by clicking here.
35 Million Steam Users Compromised in Hack
Gamers who use the digital distribution network Steam were warned that their account information may have been exposed to hackers following a compromise of the company's Web page and back end databases. The incident yielded a slew of sensitive customer information, including user’s passwords and encrypted credit card numbers, Steam said.
The warning came after an investigation of a Web site defacement that affected Steam's forums on November 6th. Hackers were able to bypass the message boards and access the site’s database, according to a message sent to the site’s users last night by Steam co-founder Gabe Newell.
Read the rest of this article at Threat Post's blog 11 November 2011, online by clicking here.
Identity Theft Suspects Nabbed At Feather Falls Casino
Deputies arrested four suspects in an identity theft ring after an incident at Feather Falls Casino. Butte County investigators looked into a report of a fraudulent check last week. They uncovered an identity theft ring involving four suspects and at least 15 victims.
A search of the suspects' vehicle turned up check-making materials, printers, computers, fraudulent identification cards and stolen property including checks, mail, bank cards and identifications.
Read the rest of this article from KRCRTV.com 10 November 2011 by clicking here.
PandaLabs Reports Trojans, Anonymous, Android Threats Dominate Threat Landscape
In a new report examining the threat landscape over the third quarter, PandaLabs researchers found that five million new malware samples were created from July through September, including a peak of new trojans.
In fact, three out of every four new strains created during the quarter was a trojan, the preferred category by which cybercriminals carry out the theft of information.
Among the report's other findings, the Anonymous group continues making headlines, albeit not for its hacktivist actions, but for the arrest of some members – 15 in Italy, 16 in the Unites States – for their alleged role in the theft of data or disruption of websites, including PayPal.
Read the rest of this report in the SCMagazine.com 4 November 2011 article by clicking here.
EMC Spends $66 Million For RSA Technology Breach
In Tuesday's earnings call, EMC Corporation announced that they spent $66 million during the second quarter on its security firm division RSA to recover from a cyberattack that compromised their SecurID product in March.
EMC VP David Goluden stated during that “we incurred an accrued cost associated with investigating the attack, hardening our systems and working with customers to implement our remediation programs.”
RSA's Executive Chairman Art Coviello stated in an open letter to RSA customers on their website that cyberhackers had mounted an "extremely sophisticated cyber attack" and put its SecurID product at risk.
Bloomberg estimates that the RSA security breach could cost bank customers $100 Million to replace the SecurID tokens. Even if RSA were to replace the tokens, the cost to redistribute still will be in the range of $50-100 million.
Feds Arrest 14 ‘Anonymous’ Suspects Over PayPal Attack, Raid Dozens More
Federal agents arrested 14 suspected Anonymous members Tuesday on charges of participating in denial-of-service attacks against online payment service provider PayPal.
The majority of the individuals were allegedly acting as part of Anonymous, a loosely connected group of online griefers who took credit for denial-of-service attacks last year against PayPal, Visa and Mastercard after the payment service providers announced they would stop processing donations intended for the secret-spilling site WikiLeaks.
... two others were arrested in connection to related crimes.... for allegedly hacking the Tampa Bay InfraGuard website in June and uploading three files to the site.
InfraGuard is a government-private sector group, with branches across the U.S., that partners private companies with the FBI and other government agencies to fight crime and share information about security.
Read the complete WIRED.com July 19th 2011 article by Kim Zetter by clicking here
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New Study from ID Analytics Shows over 2.5 Million Deceased Identities Fraudulently Being Used
The identities of nearly 2.5 million deceased Americans are used improperly to apply for credit products and services each year, according to a new study released today from ID Analytics'
