PHYSICIAN’S STOLEN LAPTOP NOT BELIEVED TO BE FOR PURPOSE OF IDENTITY THEFT BUT RATHER ISOLATED INCIDENT

Some 1,000 patients of the Oregon Health and Science University are being contacted due to a laptop being stolen from a physician’s car outside his Washington County home.

It is believed that the laptop computer was stolen as a random, isolated incident, and that the laptop was not targeted specifically for the information stored on it. Although the laptop was password-protected, fear of misuse of the patient names and medical treatment information is still a major concern for OHSU.

Those who may have been affected are being contacted by mail, and the theft is still being investigated. In the meantime, it is suggested that those who have been contacted look into identity theft protection services.

Identity Theft Happens to Children Too

Linda Raker recently received some troubling information from a collection agency, according to the Greensboro News Record, a newspaper in North Carolina. The agency sought payment for a telephone and natural gas bill. The name on the bill belonged to her three year old granddaughter. Since toddlers don’t have a habit of ordering utility service, it was easy to tell that the child had been the victim of identity theft. You may think it’s strange for this crime to affect someone so young. You may not even have known that it is possible. But sadly, it is all too common.

Pretty much all identity thieves need to go on to create a false account is a valid Social Security number. Most children have these soon after they’re born. And, according to Javelin Strategy and Research, over 1 million American children were affected by data breaches in 2006, so this gives thieves a lot of numbers to work with. A study by Debix also showed that one child in every classroom will become the victim of identity theft.

So what can you do to protect your children and grandchildren? First of all, get copies of their credit reports. This will be a bit more difficult than requesting your own, which is a good thing. That means that the credit bureaus are working to safeguard the children’s security. You will need a copy of your child’s birth certificate and Social Security card, plus your personal identification and proof of address. See the FAQ section of annualcreditreport.com for exact instructions. Each credit bureau operates somewhat differently, so it’s good to check the website for Experian, Equifax and TransUnion for updates before you make your request.

Most likely each bureau will respond that your child or grandchild has no credit history. This is absolutely what you want to hear. If the child hasn’t opened any credit accounts there should be nothing on record. The problem arises when the bureaus do find something; however, be grateful that it’s discovered and you now can do something about it.

The first thing you should do is contact the company that issued the credit and explain that it was obtained illegally. It should be obvious to the company that your child didn’t actually authorize the purchase, and hopefully a refund will soon be in order. Second, put a fraud alert on your child’s credit report. Again, each credit bureau’s website will be your best recourse for how to get this done in a timely fashion. When you talk to one bureau, the representative may tell you that they all three share information. But call the other two anyway. You want all of your bases covered just in case.

Finally, report the crime to law enforcement. Though it can be difficult to catch identity thieves at times since they often operate internationally, you’d be surprised how many are actually just around the corner. For example, in the case of Linda Raker’s granddaughter, the thief was actually a family member, which explains the access to the child’s personal information. He was charged with identity theft and obtaining property under false pretense, which may not have happened if Raker hadn’t contacted the local sheriff’s department. Consider protecting your child’s identity with one of the credit protection services listed on our comparison chart.

INDIVIDUAL STEALS AND RETURNS STORAGE DEVICE, CHARGED WITH FIFTH DEGREE THEFT

The Skills to Employment office in Iowa City’s Kirkwood Community College had a visiting individual steal a data device from a workforce counselor’s office. After noticing the mobile storage device missing, the employee contacted authorities and the individual returned the item within hours from the time it was removed from the office.

Although experts were unable to assure that none of the data was compromised or copied within this period of time, they are still taking the steps to protect those 1600 individuals and businesses that may be affected by this incident.

Kirkwood Community College is offering free credit monitoring services for one year to those individuals who had their sensitive information exposed. In the meantime, employees are being trained on data security and are no longer using portable storage devices in their offices.

STOLEN DESKTOP COMPUTER CONTAINS SOME 17,000 STUDENTS INFORMATION

A desktop computer that was in a locked, secure area was stolen sometime in April and was discovered missing less than a day after the theft occurred.

This computer contained information that may contain Social Security numbers of past and present students of the Virginia Commonwealth University.

The thief has been identified, but the computer has not been found at this time by the campus police. It has been discovered the computer has been thrown away after being used for personal use, but has not yet been recovered.

Students are being notified of this incident and are being offered free identity-theft insurance for a year from the date of the incident.

MISSING HARD DRIVE LEADS MEDICAL SOFTWARE COMPANY SUPPLYING CREDIT MONITORING SERVICES FOR THOSE AFFECTED

A hard drive containing information such as names and Social Security numbers was stolen from an employee of CS Stars, LLC, a company that provides medical billing software and services to many employers.

In an attempt to help protect those who may have been affected, CS Stars, LLC is working with ID TheftSmart, Kroll Inc. and idintegrity.com for credit monitoring services with the three major credit reporting agencies.

At this time, the investigation has not turned up the missing hard drive.

LPL FINANCIAL CLIENTS ARE WORRIED ABOUT IDENTITY THEFT AFTER COMPUTERS WERE STOLEN FROM THEIR NEW HAMPSHIRE OFFICES

With the theft of two desktop computers from the offices at LPL Financial in New Hampshire comes the worry, for an unknown amount of their clients, of identity theft.

After the theft occurred sometime in March, and the company became aware of the situation on April 29th, an investigation followed as well as the process of notifying their clients of the incident and the company sent letters to their clients along with information to set up a credit monitoring service for their personal security.

LPL Financial is working with law enforcement to investigate the theft, and at this time, have not come up with any leads.

CREDIT PROTECTION STRONGLY ADVISED FOR OVER A HALF MILLION PEOPLE WHOSE INFORMATION IS BEING HELD FOR 10 MILLION DOLLARS IN RANSOM BY A HACKER

A hacker is holding the information of over a half million customers of the Virginia Department of Health Profession’s Prescription Monitoring Program computer system for $10 million in ransom, leading to a heavy investigation of the situation and the worry of numerous customers. We can’t stress enough how important it is for these customers to purchase identity theft protection.

The computer hacker accessed the database, which contains records of highly used prescription drugs, on April 30th. The information obtained includes names, addresses, drug information and identification numbers, some of which could be Social Security numbers. Credit protection is highly recommended for those who are at risk especially those who had included their Social Security number..

Since the hacker attack, the prescription database has been shut down and additional security measures are being put into place with new and additional information coming in to their system. A criminal investigation is still underway.

If your information was exposed please take some steps to protect your identity as your personal information is now in the hands of a criminal who will very likely sell it to the highest bidder.

Applicants for jobs at health insurance company Aetna may see unapproved credit activity on their reports

If you’ve applied for a job with the health insurance company Aetna Inc. recently, you should be receiving a letter regarding a recent data breach on their website.

Some 65,000 applicants’ information is at risk after a data breach on their web site application program. The information at risk includes personal information such as Social Security numbers, personal addresses, phone numbers and employment histories.

At this point and time, Aetna Inc. spokespersons says that there has been no reports or evidence that the information was copied, but are taking the necessary precautions to ensure the safety and protection of all those who may have been affected by this loss of data, taking extra precautions and notifying past applicants to enroll in credit monitoring services to keep an eye on suspicious activity.

Pitney Bowes and Indiana Department of Workforce Development investigating misdirection of personal data

Similar to the recent New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development data breach, the Indiana Department of Workforce Development has also recently sent unemployment benefit information to the wrong companies.

Indiana’s Department of Workforce Development is working with print vendor Pitney Bowes in order to investigate the situation and notify those who may have been affected.

With this information in the wrong hands, identity theft can occur and ruin these unemployed residents’ credit and financial future.

Letters are being sent to those collecting unemployment from the Indiana Department of Workforce Development notifying them of the data misdirection and encouraging them to use credit monitoring services to ensure their data has not been use incorrectly.

White House staff and visitor information at risk after loss of government hard drive

White House staff and visitor information is at risk after the loss of a computer hard drive at the National Archives and Records Administration.

It is currently unknown whether the hard drive was simply lost or was actually stolen with the purpose of using the information, which includes Social Security numbers, personal data, and logs of events, social gatherings and political records. This information could put former presidents and their families at risk, since the data on these drives was highly sensitive and could be used in committing identity theft.

The National Archives and Records Administration is located in College Park, Maryland, a suburb in Washington. It is unknown when the drive went missing, but it is estimated to have been lost sometime between October of 2008 and March of 2009. With 1 terabyte of data stored on the drive, a lot of personal information is at stake.

The FBI is currently conducting a criminal investigation, but at this time, no one appears to have been victimized by the data loss. Identity theft protection is recommended.

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