Fellow Veteran’s: Soldiers’ Data Still Being Downloaded Overseas; Probe Targets Archives’ Handling of Data on 70 Million Vets

October 2, 2009 by Terry.

To my Veteran Comrades who help me share the solution to the IDentity Theft & Data Breach crisis’s with others:

As veteran’s, we need to be concerned, but not as bad as fellow vets and their families who don’t have the premier no-contract service plans we have - but we need to let them know what they and their families can have, can afford, and would be among the wise.

Fellow Veteran’s: Soldiers’ Data Still Being Downloaded Overseas; Probe Targets Archives’ Handling of Data on 70 Million Vets

I just received this Data loss breach notification from front line sources!  Items 2 and 3 are important to share.  We have the solution; let’s respond to those who ask, quickly!

Terry Kohler

Certified IDentity Theft Risk Management Specialist

http://talksolutionstoday.com

——– Original Message ——–

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Today’s Topics:

   1. Extortion of 700,000 ? (Al)
   2. Soldiers’ Data Still Being Downloaded Overseas, Firm Says (lyger)
   3. Probe Targets Archives’ Handling of Data on 70 Million Vets (lyger)

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Message: 1
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2009 12:37:02 -0500
From: “Al” <.com>
Subject: [Dataloss] Extortion of 700,000 ?
To: <.org>
Message-ID: <.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=”us-ascii”

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9138723/Express_Scripts_700_000_notified_after_extortion

[..]

Last November, the company reported that someone had threatened to expose millions of customer prescription records, but it has come under criticism for being vague about how many of its customers’ records were accessed. Now the company says that about 700,000 have been notified.

[..]

the St. Louis-based company in October 2008, received a letter containing the names, birth dates, Social Security numbers and prescription data of 75 patients. The extortionists threatened to turn the information public if they weren’t paid. Express Scripts refused and instead notified the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. The company is now offering a US$1 million reward for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators.

[..]

In a June court filing, the company said that three of its customers have also been approached by the extortionists. Toyota is one of those companies. In November 2008 it received a letter that was similar to the October Express Scripts threat from extortionists who threatened to release information on Toyota employees and their dependents.

[..]

In late August 2009, Express Scripts was informed by the FBI that the perpetrator of the crime had recently taken action to prove that he possesses more member records from the same period as those identified in the 2008 extortion attempt.

-

Al Macintyre

 
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Message: 2
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2009 14:07:59 +0000 (UTC)
From: lyger <.org>
Subject: [Dataloss] Soldiers’ Data Still Being Downloaded Overseas, Firm Says
To: dataloss <.org>,   dataloss-discuss
        <.org>
Message-ID: <.org>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/01/AR2009100104947.html?hpid=moreheadlines

The personal data of tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers — including those in the Special Forces — continue to be downloaded by unauthorized computer users in countries such as China and Pakistan, despite Army assurances that it would try to fix the problem, according to a private firm that monitors cybersecurity.

Tiversa, which scours the Internet for sensitive data, discovered the data breaches while conducting research for private clients. The company found, as recently as this week, documents containing Social Security numbers, blood types, cellphone numbers, e-mail addresses, and the names of soldiers’ spouses and children.

The availability of such data, security experts say, exacerbates the threat of identity theft and retaliation against troops on sensitive missions. In addition to using the information to drain financial accounts, hackers could pose as soldiers in an effort to ferret out sensitive data, including passwords to government systems.

[…]

——————————

Message: 3
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2009 14:13:10 +0000 (UTC)
From: lyger <.org>
Subject: [Dataloss] Probe Targets Archives’ Handling of Data on 70 Million Vets
To: dataloss <.org>,   dataloss-discuss
        <.org>
Message-ID: <.org>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/10/probe-targets-archives-handling-of-data-on-70-million-vets/

The inspector general of the National Archives and Records Administration is investigating a potential data breach affecting tens of millions of records about U.S. military veterans, Wired.com has learned. The issue involves a defective hard drive the agency sent back to its vendor for repair and recycling without first destroying the data.

The hard drive helped power eVetRecs, the system veterans use to request copies of their health records and discharge papers. When the drive failed in November of last year, the agency returned the drive to GMRI, the contractor that sold it to them, for repair. GMRI determined it couldn’t be fixed, and ultimately passed it to another firm to be recycled.

The incident was reported to NARA’s inspector general by Hank Bellomy, a NARA IT manager, who charges that the move put 70 million veterans at risk of identity theft, and that NARA’s practice of returning hard drives
unsanitized was symptomatic of an irresponsible security mindset unbecoming to America’s record-keeping agency.

[…]

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End of Dataloss Digest, Vol 14, Issue 1
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