Security Breach For Faculty of the University of Virginia

According to a recent press release, the University of Virginia has suffered a massive security breach. Investigators believe hackers accessed a database with sensitive faculty information on 54 different occasions between May of 2005 and April of 2007. The information for more than 5 thousand current and former faculty members has been compromised, and the information included Social Security numbers and dates of birth. No student or non-faculty employee records were exposed.

This issue is under investigation, and currently no suspects have been identified. For more information, check out the link above to the University's press release. If you are a current or former faculty member of the University of Virginia, check out this informational link and contact the University at the phone number or email address listed on that page with questions.

Military Spouses Targeted For Identity Theft

Just when you think scammers can't stoop any lower, some new scam surfaces to prove that nothing is sacred. Like this more recent one.

According to a recent news report, the American Red Cross is warning military spouses about a recent scam that targets spouses of deployed troops. The scammer calls the military spouse, claiming to be calling on behalf of the Red Cross, and tells the spouse that his/her husband/wife has been injured in Iraq. The caller then proceeds to ask for the military member's Social Security number and date of birth to complete the necessary paperwork so the injured spouse can receive proper treatment.

First of all, the Red Cross does not contact families to report injuries. The Defense Department does that.

It should surprise me that identity thieves could be so cold. This is another scam that truly sickens me. If you are a military member's spouse and receive one of these calls, please report it.

NETELLER linked to Identity theft

According to a recent news report, Neteller is allegedly linked to an identity fraud scam. Recently, 200 Vancouver residents received letters from a Vancouver collection agency demanding the payment of a $822.75 debt they never incurred with Neteller's Calgary office.

According to the collection agency, CBV Collection Services, numerous residents who received these letters said they didn't owe this money, and after investigating, this proved to be the case. These identity theft victims, fortunately, will not have their credit reports flagged for this debt.

For those of you who are not familiar with this company, Neteller is a British company used for online money transfers believed to be popular with online gambling firms.

Identity Theft and Deleting Stored Data

What does your bank do with their computers when they upgrade their equipment? What about your doctor or dentist? Why is this important? The computers used by your bank, your doctor, and other places where you do regular business have important information stored in databases on their computers. When they upgrade and move this data to another machine, are the proper precautions taken to completely format these hard drives so that this information can not be retrieved by a tech savvy computer user who might purchase this now used computer. If files are not permanently deleted, these companies could be exposing their customers to identity theft.

Personal data is frequently being exposed because files with personal data are not fully deleted from business computers. What about your own computer using habits? Do you make sure files with your own personal or financial information are securely deleted from your hard drive when you buy new equipment? And what happens to that old computer? Do you sell it on Ebay or pass it on to a friend or relative? Don't tempt fate. Anyone can be an identity thief with the proper information and motivation.