Tuesday News Round Up: FedEx Loses 138,000 Patient Records and Much More

Welcome to the Tuesday news round up post from the ITAC blog. What is the perfect medicine for getting back into the professional world after a long, relaxing weekend? If you said, a round up of identity theft, data breach and cyber security news then you are correct! We have pulled together all the news you need to get this short work week started on the right foot. And, as always, please be sure to stick around as we will be posting our ever-popular Best and Worst person in identity theft posts later this week.

FedEx Loses 138,000 Patient Records
New York City Lincoln Hospital has suspended sending CDs via courier after a package containing seven containing detailed patient data was lost en route from its bill processing supplier Siemens Medical Solutions to the hospital. Siemens notified the hospital in early April that the package had gone missing some time between 16 and 24 March. Siemens said it was attempting to locate the CDs, which had been sent via FedEx and was lost while in its possession. Read the full IT News article here.

Cyber Threats Command Congressional Attention
mid amplifying alarms that the U.S. is unprepared for a cyberattack that could cripple electricity grids, shut down water and sewage systems or freeze up the financial system, momentum is building in Congress to pass major legislation to boost the country’s cyber defenses. But as lawmakers appear poised to act within months, privacy advocates are concerned about how much control a new law would vest in the federal government to monitor communications over private networks or to control the Internet in the event of an attack. Yet with CIA Director Leon Panetta recently calling a potential cyberattack one of the most underappreciated national security dangers, the need to do something is not in dispute. “A full-scale cyberattack,” Sen. Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said at a June hearing, “could lead to the death and injury of thousands of people, and could cost our economy billions of dollars.” Read the full San Jose Mercury News article here.

Ten Arrested in Multi-Million Dollar Mortgage Fraud and Identity Theft Enterprise
Attorney General Bill McCollum and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) Commissioner Gerald Bailey today announce the arrest of 10 members of a criminal mortgage fraud and identity theft operation. The group is charged with defrauding numerous financial institutions out of more than $8 million, and using the identities of unsuspecting individuals as part of the conspiracy to obtain the mortgages and properties. The arrests are the result of a four-year investigation conducted by FDLE’s Miami Regional Operations Center and the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution. The individuals arrested face charges including racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, grand theft, and title insurance fraud. Read the full RealEstateRama post here.

UPDATE: Connecticut Investigating Data Breach At Insurer WellPoint
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced Friday his office is investigating an online security breach that may have exposed personal information about nearly 500,000 WellPoint Inc. (WLP) customers, including thousands in his state. A Democratic candidate to succeed Sen. Chris Dodd (D., Conn.), Blumenthal is requesting details about the breach and steps the largest health insurer in the U.S. by members has taken to protect the affected people and prevent future breaches. He also wants WellPoint to provide at least two years of credit monitoring and $25,000 in identity theft insurance to each person while saying they should be allowed to place a “security freeze” on their credit reports and be able to remove them at WellPoint’s expense. Read the full WSJ post here.

Security Breach Exposes Sensitive University of Maine Student Data
Hackers have compromised two University of Maine servers, hosting personal and clinical information of 4,585 students who received counseling services in the last eight years. The university plans to offer all affected individuals at least twelve months of credit monitoring services. The first server was breached at the beginning of March, the intruders using the newly gained access to compromise the second one shortly thereafter. The methods employed to carry out the attacks successfully have not been disclosed due to an ongoing investigation led by the University of Maine police department. Read the full Softpedia post here.