So, our headline may be a bit misleading. It turns out that Acholonu was able to gain access to a massive amount of mail when he worked for a private contractor to the U.S. Postal Service. He was actually seen leaving work holding piles of credit card offers from the mail. He did not actually do any dumpster diving. But, he did get busted when investigators searched the trash bin outside of his apartment building and found the incriminating evidence.

It is ironic. We really do think…

Rise In Child Identity Theft Prompts Push For Solutions
When Jennifer Andrushko applied for public aid two years ago, a state employee entered her son Carter’s Social Security number into a computer and discovered something strange: The boy appeared to have been earning wages for the past eight years. “I thought, ‘How could this be happening? He’s only three years old,’” Andrushko said. It turned out an undocumented immigrant had been using Carter’s number to acquire jobs since before he was born. But Carter proved relatively fortunate. Unlike many child identity theft victims who do not realize their credit is ruined until they reach adulthood, his case was caught while he was young, giving him time to recover his good name. Read the full Huffington Post article here.

Lax Security Exposes Voice Mail to Hacking, Study Says
It may be tempting to view the illegal interception of telephone voice mails, a practice that has roiled Britain and the News Corp. media empire of Rupert Murdoch, as an arcane tool employed by scofflaw journalists with friends in Scotland Yard. But according to a study to be presented Tuesday, cellphone users in Europe and the rest of the world may be just as vulnerable as the actor Hugh Grant and other celebrities to having their personal voice mail hacked — or worse — because of outdated mobile network security. Read more from the NY Times here.

Insurance Against Cyber Attacks Expected to Boom
Sony is still awaiting the final tally for losses related to its data breaches earlier this year. At last count, it had compromised 100 million customer accounts, and Sony anticipated the debacle would cost $200 million. With 58 class-action suits in the works, that may be wishful thinking. Now for the really bad news: Sony’s losses aren’t insured. In a lawsuit, Sony’s insurer, the Zurich American Insurance Company, reminded the company it does not own a cyber insurance policy. Sony’s policy only covers tangible losses like property damage, not cyber incidents. Read more from the NY Times here.

Stratfor Targeted by Hacking Group Anonymous
he loosely-associated band of hackers known as Anonymous claims to have targeted the global intelligence think tank Strategic Forecasting, known as Stratfor, boasting on the microblogging site Twitter that personal information, including credit card numbers, belonging to Stratfor clients had been stolen. As of Monday morning, Stratfor’s Website was down, with a placeholder page saying the site was undergoing maintenance and asking visitors to “check back soon.” Read more from eWeek here.

Medical Data Breaches Affected More Than 10 Million Americans In 2011
2011 has been a bad year for medical data breaches. The medical records of more than ten million Americans were exposed this year. The San Diego-based Privacy Rights Clearinghouse has issued a list of this year’s six most significant data breaches. The insurer Health Net suffered one of the worst, when nine data servers went missing from a Northern California data center in January. The servers contained records of nearly two million current and former policy holders. Read more from KPBS here.

Enterprise Data Breaches: Insider Threats That Cause Most Losses
Organizations are beefing up their network and data defenses to protect sensitive information and intellectual property from attackers. But enterprise management often forgets that their own employees and contractors can also pose a threat. A recent Symantec report found that approximately 65 percent of malicious data thieves are on their way out the door to join a competitor or start their own company. More than half of the data theft occurs within a month before an employee’s departure, according to the study. Check out more from eWeek here.

Welcome to the Monday Morning News Kick Off post from the ITAC blog. What do the Iowa Caucus, Gene Simmons and Malcolm X’s daughter all have in common? They are popping up in major stories about cyber security, data breaches and identity theft right now. Who would have thought that a simple blog that focuses on identity theft would have so much celebrity new to share? So, check out these stories and more in the following post. Happy Monday!

Iowa Caucus Polling System Threatened By Hackers
Republican Party officials in Iowa are taking new steps to secure their vote counting systems after an anonymous threat suggested computer hackers could attempt to disrupt next month’s presidential nominating caucuses. A video uploaded to YouTube features a computer-generated voice denouncing a corrupt political system and calls on supporters to “peacefully shut down” the Jan. 3 caucuses. The video claims to be from Anonymous, a loosely organized group of hackers who have successfully conducted past computer attacks. Investigators aren’t sure whether the video is authentic, but party officials have instructed precinct caucuses to use paper ballots as a backup system and taken other steps to protect the database and website that displays caucus results. Read the full Fox News piece here.

ID Theft Ring Targeted Charitable Donors
A crime ring used corrupt employees in banks, an Audi car dealership, and the nonprofit United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York to steal identities of well-heeled customers, clients, and donors and defraud them of more than $2 million, New York authorities said on Friday. The indictment of 55 defendants on a variety of grand larceny, identity theft and other charges marked the fourth major cybercrime prosecution announced in as many weeks, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said at a news conference, underscoring his contention that “the Internet is the crime scene of the 21st century.” Read the full Reuters story here.

Square Enix to Reopen Hacked Site, Says No Private Data Lost
Japanese game developer Square Enix said Monday that no private data was stolen when a server for a fan site was hacked last week, and it plans to reopen the site to users by the end of the year. The company shut down the “Square Enix Members” site for the U.S. and Japan last week immediately after finding unknown parties had accessed its server. The hacked machine stores registration details including e-mail addresses, names, addresses and phone numbers on 1.8 million users, but no credit card information. The European version of the site was not affected. Read the full PC World article here.

Anonymous Hacker Arrested for Attack on Gene Simmons’s Website
A member of the international hacker group Anonymous was arrested this morning after he conducted a sophisticated cyberattack on a website operated by KISS rocker and Family Jewels star Gene Simmons. Kevin George Poe, 24, was taken into custody by federal authorities at his home in Manchester, Conn. He is charged with two federal counts of conspiracy and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer. If convicted, Poe could face up to 15 years in federal prison. Read the full Daily Beast post here.

Malcolm X Youngest Daughter Behind Bars in Identity Theft Case
Malikah Shabazz, the youngest daughter of black civil rights leader Malcolm X, is in prison for failing to start paying back money stolen in an identity theft case, law enforcement sources confirmed on Thursday. Shabazz, 46, pleaded guilty in June to stealing the identity of a longtime family friend and using it to make $55,000 in credit card purchases. She was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to pay restitution of $1,229.45 each month, beginning in September, to repay the full amount of illegal charges. Read the full Reuters story here.

NYC Officer Arrested in ID Fraud Scheme
Prosecutors say a 23-year-old New York City police officer has been arrested on grand larceny and forgery charges as part of massive identity theft takedown earlier this year. Officer Raymond Gumti who works at the Police Academy is accused of giving his mother’s credit card numbers and other identification to men accused of running a mass ID theft scheme. The arrest Thursday is related to an October takedown in which more than 100 people were arrested. Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said at the time that five separate criminal enterprises operating out of Queens were dismantled. They were hit with hundreds of charges. Read the full WSJ article here.

Smartphones Blamed for Increasing Risk of Health Data Breaches
The number of physicians using smartphones has reached a near-saturation point. Meanwhile, the number of data breaches is going up. Coincidence? Leading experts think not. Recent reports by Manhattan Research have found more than 81% of physicians use a smartphone, up from 72% in 2010. Also on the rise have been data breaches, which, according to research released in December by Ponemon Institute, have risen 32% in the past year. Ponemon found that 96% of all health care organizations surveyed said they had experienced at least one data breach in the past two years. Read the full American Medical News article here.

Twenty-three shoppers at the Lucky Supermarket chain were not so lucky when these types of skimming devices stole their identities.  When the store did “routine maintenance” at 19 of their locations, suspicious devices were attached to the self-service scanners.

One thing is for sure.  We will be exercising patience by waiting it out in the traditional check-out line.  As they say, patience is a virtue.

Well it seems that a Philadelphia man who had similar prowess with the ladies used his talents to bilk 24 victims out of $2 million in a pretty aggressive identity theft ring.

Between Sept. 1, 2005, and October 2009, Miguel Bell used the victims’ names, dates of births, addresses, Social Security numbers, and bank account numbers, which Bell obtained from romantic relationships with bank and insurance company employees.

Well no matter how suave you are, law enforcement will catch up to you. Bell faces a two-year mandatory minimum prison sentence and has to pay restitution in the amount of $1.7 million.

First up.  It was reported that a group of hackers has posted more than 100 email addresses and login details, which it claimed to have extracted from the United Nations.  Yes, it was a typical tactical move by “hactivist” group Team Poison who wanted to flex its muscles and show that no global organization is immune to being exposed.  In a funny twist, Team Poison posted this on a Pastebin: “United Nations, why didn’t you expect us?”  So, yes, nobody is immune.

For the second feature, we have a story about how hackers can give a printer instructions to overheat and catch on fire.  Wow.  Talk about a great headline that would certainly generate those highly coveted Internet eyeballs that make or break an online news organization.

The problem is that hackers could never actually do this.  HP has stepped up and implemented a laudable (and may say credible) PR campaign to counter this story.  Can they catch fire?  No.  Are their printers vulnerable to breaches by hackers?  Yes.  Though HP has reported that no customer has reported unauthorized access of its printers.

So, why double up a hactivist story with a sensational piece design to strike fear in the heart of the average soccer mom?  We wanted to showcase how hacking and data breaches have penetrated pretty much every part of life – from the highest echelons of government down to the average U.S. homeowner.

But don’t worry…your printer won’t explode.

Crystal Thorne, a coordinator at the Jewish Community Services of South Florida, offered to sell the allegedly stolen Holocaust victims’ IDs to a confidential police informant.  Thorne’s job gave her access to the personal information of clients –names, addresses, dates of birth and Social Security numbers — who regularly seek help from the Holocaust Survivors Assistance Program.

Kudos to law enforcement for arresting Thorne on identity theft charges.  And, while this may seem like a small case, it reinforces that the criminals will continue to sink lower and lower.  We will be covering this case in the coming months. Stay tuned for more …

This is exactly what Mike Winder, the mayor of West Valley City, Utah did, as he wrote stories under the name of Richard Burwash.  Here’s the kicker though: the real Richard Burwash lives in Cape Coral, Florida and had this to say to the Washington Post:

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. . . . I haven’t written any stories,” says the real Richard Burwash after a quick explanation of the circumstances. After a bit more discussion, the real Richard Burwash quips, “I’m famous and I don’t even know it.”

What is even crazier about this story is that Mayor Winder is not at all remorseful for is actions.  He told the told the Deseret News: “There will be people who will be disappointed in me because of this, but there will also be people who respect me for putting my neck on the line to get good [news] coverage for our city.”

In the end, all that matters, we suppose, is good press.

• Ignore scammers who say veterans need to update their credit card information or other records with the Veterans Administration. The information is used to commit identity theft.

• Be wary of bogus charities with names that reference the armed forces and seek donations.

• Hang up on fraudsters who pose as advocates and claim they can get veterans more benefits by transferring their investments into irrevocable trusts, which may contain unsuitable financial products.

• “Military loans” offers that promise “up to 40 percent of your monthly take home pay” or say they are “guaranteed loans,” offer ”instant approval” or ”no credit check” for ”all ranks approved” often have sky-high interest rates and hidden fees that will bilk borrowers of their cash and weaken financial security.

• Housing ads that promise military discounts and too-good-to-be-true incentives will use stolen photos of legitimate rental properties to bait renters out of security deposits in money transfer schemes.

• Low-priced vehicles posted on classified ad websites tout discounts for military personnel, or claim to be from soldiers who need to sell fast because they’ve been deployed. Schemers convince buyers to wire money but vehicle data may be stolen.

• Job-seeking veterans can be approached by fraudsters who pose as online representatives of firms that claim to hold government contracts.  Applicants are asked to supply a copy of his or her passport, but no job offer comes and the con artist will use personal information from the passport for identity theft.

• Never wire transfer money to strangers.

• Research charities and companies.

• Defend your computer, don’t visit unfamiliar sites or open emails from unknown senders. Install a firewall and update anti-virus software.

• Actively deployed military personnel can place an “active duty alert” on credit reports to help prevent identity theft. With this alert, the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires creditors and businesses to verify identities before issuing or granting credit. The Federal Trade Commission also offers tips to help military families avoid fraud.

• Report Scams by filing complaints with BBB at www.bbb.org, the FTC at www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov or the Internet Crime Complaint Center, which partners with the FBI, at www.ic3.gov.

• If you get a pitch from a veteran’s organization that seeks a donation, research it.  Many veterans organizations use professional fundraising organizations that may keep up to 85% or more of donations received, the BBB says.

• If a charity won’t provide the information, ask if the caller is a professional telemarketer.  By law, they must disclose this information, the BBB says.  Also, many of these veteran organizations are not tax deductible.  A legitimate charity will allow donors to check them out.

• Federal agencies do not contact veterans via email or text. If they do call someone, they won’t request personal information.