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“The Federal Trade Commission released the list of top consumer complaints received by the agency in 2008. The list, contained in the publication Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book for January-December 2008, showed that for the ninth year in a row, identity theft was the number one consumer complaint category. Of 1,223,370 complaints received in 2008, …
News release: “The U.S. Small Business Administration issued a scam alert today to small businesses, warning them not to respond to letters falsely claiming to have been sent by the SBA asking for bank account information in order to qualify them for federal tax rebates. The fraudulent letters were sent out with what appears to …
News release: “…experts from more than 30 US and international cyber security organizations jointly released the consensus list of the 25 most dangerous programming errors that lead to security bugs and that enable cyber espionage and cyber crime. Shockingly, most of these errors are not well understood by programmers; their avoidance is not widely taught …
Guide to Protecting the Confidentiality of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) (Draft), Recommendations of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, January 13, 2009. “Breaches of personally identifiable information (PII) have increased dramatically over the past few years and have resulted in the loss of millions of records. Breaches of PII are hazardous to both individuals …
“The IRS does not initiate communication with taxpayers through e-mail. Before identity theft happens, safeguard your information…IRS Identity Protection Specialized Unit, toll-free at 1-800-908-4490.”
News release: “Reports of data breaches increased dramatically in 2008. The Identity Theft Resource Center’s 2008 breach report reached 656 reported breaches at the end of 2008, reflecting an increase of 47% over last years total of 446. In terms of sub-divisions by type of entity, the rankings have not changed between 2007 and 2008 …
News release: “The federal bank, credit union, and thrift regulatory agencies today announced publication of a revised identity theft brochure You Have the Power to Stop Identity Theft to assist consumers in preventing and resolving identity theft. The updated brochure focuses primarily on Internet “phishing” by describing how phishing works, offering ways to …
The Role of the United States Postal Service in Public Safety and Security – Implications of Relaxing the Mailbox Monopoly, By Lois M. Davis et al. “The United States Postal Service (USPS) has long held statutory monopolies to deliver mail and to require that only U.S. mail be delivered to the mailbox. While the USPS …
“Thirty privacy, consumer, and civil liberties organizations sent a letter to President-elect Barack Obama on the importance of protecting privacy in the next administration. The organizations support the incoming presidents expressed on privacy, consumer rights, and civil liberties. President-elect Obama stated support for strengthening of privacy protection by harnessing the power of technology to hold …
News release: “The Federal Trade Commission issued a report today recommending five measures to help prevent Social Security numbers from being used for identity theft. Principal among the reports recommendations is that Congress consider taking action to strengthen the procedures that private-sector organizations use to authenticate their customers identities…The FTC report states that adopting nationwide …
News release: “The total number of breaches in on the Identity Theft Resource Centers 2008 breach list surpassed the final total of 446 reported in 2007, more than 4 months before the end of 2008. As of 9:30 a.m. August 22nd, the number of confirmed data breaches in 2008 stood at 449. The actual number …
OTS 08-051 – OTS Issues New Examination Procedures on Identity Theft Red Flags and Address Discrepancies: “This Regulatory Bulletin transmits revised Examination Handbook Section 341, Information Technology Risks and Controls, and revised Examination Handbook Section 1300, Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The revised Handbook Sections contain new guid-ance and examination procedures for the final rules …
