Long Delay in Notification of Data Breach Concerns Employees of Michigan Goodwill

Goodwill of Greater Grand Rapids in Michigan is just now notifying employees of a data breach that occurred when a safe was stolen from the Goodwill location in Kent County. This safe contained, instead of cash, data tapes that include personal information, including Social Security numbers, of the employees that work in the store.

The concern arises because of the delay in reporting this incident to the store employees–letters were not received by employees regarding this situation until almost one month after the theft occurred.

Although the company says there have been no signs of misuse of the data, employees are taking their own precautions by signing up for identity theft services and by monitoring their credit reports and bank accounts for suspicious charges or activities.

Oakridge Oregon City Employees’ Personal Data on Back of Monthly Water Bill Newsletter

City employees in Oakridge, Oregon are receiving free credit monitoring after a printing error caused their personal data to be printed on the back of the company newsletter that is included in residents’ monthly water bills.

Gordon Zimmerman, city administrator, put it perfectly in his letter to the Oakridge City Council and KVAL news: “Sometimes technology can be your friends. Sometimes the print buffer in the copy machine can betray you.” Due to confusion with a document that didn’t print correctly, followed by someone using the copy machine, the city employee information was inadvertently printed on the back of the newsletters.

Although the mayor would not accept an interview, city officials are taking the steps to protect their city employees. Credit monitoring services are being provided for all those who may have been affected, but even so, the chances of identity theft are extremely high for those who work for the city.

You’re not the only one screening your mail

We all get too much mail these days, both in electronic and in paper form. If you’re anything like me, you’ve taken to sorting through it quickly and making pretty much instant keep and toss piles just judging by envelope shape. Those long, skinny envelopes are probably bills. The boxy ones are cards. And so on. Well guess what? Identity thieves do the same thing. And they may be going through your mail too.

The thieves are looking for your bills, but not because they want to pay them for you. They know that they contain account numbers that can be very valuable to them. Other things they look for are bank and credit card statements, unsolicited credit card offers, checks, pay stubs and any communication from the government. (It may have a Social Security number on it.)

Of course, you don’t invite identity thieves to look through your mailbox. They just seize the opportunity whenever it presents itself. If they can’t find mail in your mailbox, they may also check the trash can and the recycling bin. If you’d rather keep prying eyes off of your post box, here are some things that can help:

*Take important mail (i.e. any with sensitive information) to a locked mailbox to send it out. The post office is best since you are cutting out the middlemen. That’s less people to lose or drop things.
*Get your mail as soon as you can. Don’t let it languish lonely in the mailbox and give thieves a “red flag” that it’s arrived.
*Have someone you trust pick up your mail when you’re out of town or ask the post office to place a hold on it.
*Switch to e-statements for your bills and have your paper statements stopped.
*Report any mailbox tampering to your local post office as soon as you notice it.
*Shred any documents even remotely personal in nature before you throw them out or recycle them.

If you frequently have problems getting your mail promptly because you work long hours, consider having the address of the most important correspondence changed to that of your business. That may give you some peace of mind as you toil into the night knowing your information is safe on your desk. Of course, check with the boss first to make sure this is okay.

Good news is all of these things will help. Bad news is it still may not be enough. Although the U.S. Postal Service is fairly reliable, we’ve all had things lost, stolen, misdirected or shredded at some point, so we know there are no 100% guarantees that every piece of mail will reach its destination without being intercepted. Even with diligent shredding, you really have no idea where some of your information may end up.

That’s where an identity theft protection plan comes in. It can give you that extra ounce of security. Follow the tips above and get a plan, and some thieves will be sorely disappointed. They may even have to get real jobs, hopefully not as postal workers.

Though Not Technically Identity Theft, Illegal Aliens Can Spell Credit Problems

An interesting identity theft case is currently headed to the Supreme Court. At issue is the fact that illegal aliens often use forged identification and Social Security numbers in order to appear eligible to work in this country. The difference between this case and a typical one regarding identity theft is that the workers, or organizations that they hire in order to obtain the paperwork they need, usually simply create Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, etc. for the workers to use out of thin air, just picking most any string of digits that will work.

The defendant in this case is Ignacio Carlos Flores-Figueroa, a Mexican immigrant who was caught using the Social Security number of one legitimate individual and the green card number of someone else in order to get and maintain a job at an East Moline, Illinois, steel plant, according to the Associated Press. So far, the courts have sided with the prosecution and have sentenced Flores-Figueroa to prison time. The appeal reached the Supreme Court in 2009.

It will be interesting to see how this case finally turns out. The verdict may be more of a high-profile one for immigration advocates than for those interested in information security, but it is sure to impact both arenas in the long run.

This case is a different take on the identity theft crime than we are used to hearing since these individuals are not in essence “stealing” information and there is some likelihood that the numbers they use do not belong to anyone. (If they do, it is often not known at the time they are issued on the fake ID forms.) However, the law of odds states that at least some of these numbers are legitimate and registered to other individuals legally.

Of course, in most cases, the undocumented workers do not mean any harm, but if the Social Security number does happen to belong to someone else and the undocumented individual gets into monetary trouble, the victim still has the same credit problems to deal with as he or she would if targeted by a thief with malicious intentions.

This situation is just one more reason why you need to protect yourself from identity theft. You never know what could happen to your personal information if you don’t keep a close eye on it. Whether the theft of your personal information was intentional or not, you need to find out if someone is “pretending to be you” as soon as possible so that you can put a stop to it.

First, check your credit report and make sure that it is clean – free of errors, whether they be in your address, the spelling of your name, or more importantly, the charges and payments made on your credit account. If it’s not accurate, correct any errors by contacting the credit bureau in question and giving a detailed description of the problems. Next, enroll in a credit monitoring service or a full-fledged identity theft protection service. Taking these steps should be enough for you to know that you’re in good shape.

Medical Data At Risk After Storage Device Was Stolen From Employee’s Vehicle

The first of December, an employee of Kaiser Permanente Northern California found that an external drive from their place of employment was stolen for their vehicle. The information on this drive was not password protected or encrypted, and included the personal medical data of approximately 15,000 of the hospital’s patients.

This information did not, however, include Social Security numbers or financial information, which lessens the risk that this data can be used for identity theft purposes. There has been no record of misuse of this information at this point in time, but there is still a risk that the information can be used incorrectly.

The employee who had the data stored in their vehicle was fired because the employee had stored personal data on the drive and did not protect the information according to Kaiser’s employee policies and rules.

The patients of Kaiser Permanente were notified by mail of the incident, but they state that there should be not further action taken by patients, although placing fraud alerts and signing up for identity theft protection is always a step one should take to protect their financial information.

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