Privacy in Belgium

Global economic crime survey

44% des entreprises belges qui ont participé à l'enquête disent avoir été victime de cybercriminalité.

hackers swiped acct numbers for 45.7 million customers over a 2 year period

The theft of millions of customer credit and debit card numbers from the parent of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and other retail chains underscores the rising sophistication of cybercriminals. TJX said late Wednesday that hackers swiped account numbers for 45.7 million  US customers over a two-year period — the biggest publicly disclosed data theft.

Full story on USA Today

Our comment: It is clear that data theft is increasing in USA. Nothing in Europe? Of course there are many data theft in Europe, but neither the legislataion nor their ethic pushes companies to make a public statement about it.  There are some disussions about it at EU level, but...

Identity Theft Keeps Top Spot in the USA

The US Federal Trade Commission once again found identity theft leading the list of the Top 10 consumer complaints, accounting for 255,000 of the 686,000 complaints filed with the agency. That is the sixth year in a row that identity theft topped the list. The FTC also found an increase in child ID theft.

source www.epic.org

our comment: where could we find statistic like that for the European market? Some national  privacy authorities publiched some yearly reports, but... in Europe how could you make a complaint as far as you don't know that the company you were giving your data does not tell you that there was some data theft?

Over 100 million data records of U.S. residents have been exposed due to security breaches since February 2005.

The privacy rights clearing house published a study about the enormous number of data stolen in USA since February 2005.

Our comment: The real question is about the same figures in Europe, as far as European companies do not generally published this type of information. But there are some discussions at EU level to implement some new regulation that will force the EU companies to communicate about data theft. For the time being we could only think that there is no reason why the figures could not be as high as in the USA.

Massive Security Breach at UCLA Puts 800,000 at Risk

One or more hackers have gained access to a UCLA database containing
personal data on about 800,000 of the university's current and former
students, faculty and staff members. UCLA officials said the database
had records containing individuals' names, Social Security numbers and
birth dates.

source: www.epic.org

ucla press release

our comment: More and more US states implemented laws that request public notifications of data theft, and there are some discussions about the same type of legislation at EU level. As far as the lack of IT security is so common, it seems that citizens do have at least the right to know that their data were stolen, even when it is too late.

compensation for data theft

ChoicePoint ID Theft Victims' Day Has Come

The victims will be paid out of a $5 million fund established by ChoicePoint as part of its January settlement with the FTC. ChoicePoint also agreed to pay a $10 million fine for failing to adequately protect the consumer information in its databases.

The Georgia-based ChoicePoint is a credit report service used by more than 50,000 landlords and merchants to conduct background checks on potential tenants and customers. It also has several law enforcement and government agencies as clients.

In February 2005, ChoicePoint disclosed that an ID theft ring gained access to the company's vital credit information. The breach involved more than 160,000 records.

In a complaint brought against ChoicePoint, the FCC said the company did not have reasonable procedures in place to screen prospective clients, turning over consumer personal data to customers whose applications raised obvious red flags.

full story

comment: the fact that data theft consequences include compensation for the victim could means that database security will become a hot topic for data owners.  (at last)

Class action suit over ID theft tossed out

A federal judge in Arkansas has thrown out a class action lawsuit against Acxiom, which exposed massive amounts of Americans' personal information in a high-profile Internet security snafu three years ago.

Even though a spammer had downloaded more than one billion records from the company, U.S. District Judge William Wilson ruled that there was no evidence that Acxiom's purloined database had been used to send junk e-mail or postal mail.

full story on cnet news

Cybercrime flourishes in online hacker forums

Criminals covet your identity data like never before. What's more, they've perfected more ways to access your bank accounts, grab your Social Security number and manipulate your identity than you can imagine.

Want proof? Just visit any of a dozen or so thriving cybercrime forums, websites that mirror the services of Amazon.com and the efficiencies of eBay. Criminal buyers and sellers convene at these virtual emporiums to wheel and deal in all things related to cyberattacks — and in the fruit of cyberintrusions: pilfered credit and debit card numbers, hijacked bank accounts and stolen personal data.

full story in USA today

Thousands of Brits fall victim to data theft

British law enforcement agents are trying to contact thousands of U.K. computer users who have fallen victim to a massive personal data heist.

The Metropolitan Police said on Tuesday that a computer seized in the U.S. had been found to contain personal information from around 2,300 PCs based in Britain. This included e-mail addresses, passwords, credit card numbers and details of online transactions.

According to the Metropolitan Police Computer Crime Unit, the data was stolen via a piece of malicious software that was secretly installed on the victims' machines.

Full story on CNET

50.000 names and social security numbers stolen in USA

Cnet.com reports that General Electric said on Tuesday september 26 that a company laptop containing the names and Social Security numbers of 50,000 current and former employees was stolen in early September.

After the laptop containing names of millions of US army veterans that was stolen recently, who will be the next?