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OIG: The Social Security Administration’s Internal Use of Employees’ Social Security Numbers. A-13-07-27164 06/09/08 “The Social Security number (SSN) was created in 1936 as a means of tracking workers earnings and eligibility for Social Security benefits. Nevertheless, the SSN has become a de facto national identifier used by Federal agencies, State and local governments, and …
Do Data Breach Disclosure Laws Reduce Identity Theft? Sasha Romanosky, Rahul Telang, Alessandro Acquisti, Heinz School of Public Policy and Management, Carnegie Mellon University “Identity theft resulted in corporate and consumer losses of $56 billion dollars in 2005, with about 30% of known identity thefts caused by corporate data breaches. Many US states have responded …
Yahoo Search Blog: “Today, we’re announcing the beta release of SearchScan, a new feature from Yahoo! Search that helps protect users from viruses, spyware and spam. We’ve heard from users that security and privacy continue to be major concerns when they are online. We’ve also learned that solutions that require downloads and constant updating are …
The Inspectors General, Journal of Public Inquiry Fall/Winter 2007/08 (96 pages, PDF) “The Journal is a semiannual publication of the Presidents Council on Integrity and Efficiency (PCIE) and the Executive Council on Integrity and Efficiency (ECIE), which together includes 64 statutory Inspectors General who oversee stewardship in the federal government..We are pleased to present over …
News release: “The Securities and Exchange Commission…took action to stop a sophisticated Internet scheme that stole the identities of unsuspecting individuals and netted more than $66,000 in illicit profits in just seven weeks. In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the SEC alleged that one or …
Inadequate Security Controls Over Routers and Switches Jeopardize Sensitive Taxpayer Information, March 26, 2008. Reference Number: 2008-20-071 “Because the IRS sends sensitive taxpayer and administrative information across its networks, routers on the networks must have sufficient security controls to deter and detect unauthorized use. Access controls for IRS routers were not adequate, and reviews to …
News release: “According to the 2007 Internet Crime Report, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 206,884 complaints of crimes perpetrated over the Internet during 2007. Of the complaints received, more than 90,000 were referred to law enforcement around the nation, amounting to nearly $240 million in reported losses. This represents a $40 million increase …
News release: “The Federal Trade Commission has released three 60-second videos to help alert consumers to phishing scams. Phishing uses deceptive spam to trick consumers into divulging sensitive or personal information, including credit card numbers and other financial data, through an email or a link to a copycat site. The goal of the videos is …
Privacy Technology Implementation Guide (PTIG), August 2007 (PDF, 36 pages): “The Privacy Office developed a new general guide for technology managers and developers to integrate privacy protections into operational IT systems. This new guide, the Privacy Technology Implementation Guide (PTIG) combines elements of privacy protection from disparate privacy compliance requirements, as well as a administrative …
News release: “In the FTCs action against data brokers Reed Elsevier (REI) and Seisint, the complaint alleges that REI – through its LexisNexis data broker business – and Seisint collect and store in databases information about millions of consumers, including names, current and prior addresses, dates of birth, drivers license numbers and Social Security numbers. …
U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Inspector General, Office of Audit Services, Audit Report, Management of the Department’s Publicly Accessible Websites, March 2008. “Our audit identified several opportunities to improve the security and management of the Department’s publicly accessible websites. Specifically: We identified over 50 significant cyber security incidents in the last three fiscal years, …
Press release: “…AirTight® Networks, the global leader for wireless intrusion prevention systems…issued the findings from its study to assess information security risk exposure of laptop users at fourteen airports in the United States, Canada and Asia. The company set out to understand the risks to business travelers and their corporate networks of data leakage while …
