Imagine my surprise when, in the course of doing research for this story, I stumbled upon my own personal health information online.
One more tax-season dread: A week before the filing deadline, Treasury watchdogs said Monday that poor controls over IRS computers could allow a disgruntled employee, agency contractor or outside hacker to steal taxpayers' confidential information
A government laptop computer stolen last month held unencrypted medical records of 2,500 participants in a government study, Susan Shirin, deputy director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) told CNN Monday.
Nearly two years after a flap in which veterans' personal information was put at risk of identity theft, the feds are still not doing all they can to prevent further lapses
Amir Khan says he becomes frustrated and humiliated every time he enters the United States and federal agents search his computers. Khan, a Pakistani-born U.S. citizen, says it has happened five times since 2003.
The FBI is gearing up to create a massive computer database of people's physical characteristics, all part of an effort the bureau says to better identify criminals and terrorists.
For those keeping score, it's Chris Soghoian 2, Transportation Security Administration 0.
A rep for Mischa Barton's family on Wednesday blasted a tabloid report that the actress's sister was hospitalized for a drug overdose.
The Department of Homeland Security is now collecting scans of all 10 fingerprints from foreign travelers entering the United States at Dulles International Airport, and plans to extend the program to all international airports in the country by the end of next year.
Everyone asks for it. Few actually need it -- as a TIME reporter found out after an hour-and-a-half telephone ordeal
Imagine my surprise when, in the course of doing research for this story, I stumbled upon my own personal health information online.
One more tax-season dread: A week before the filing deadline, Treasury watchdogs said Monday that poor controls over IRS computers could allow a disgruntled employee, agency contractor or outside hacker to steal taxpayers' confidential information
A government laptop computer stolen last month held unencrypted medical records of 2,500 participants in a government study, Susan Shirin, deputy director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) told CNN Monday.
Nearly two years after a flap in which veterans' personal information was put at risk of identity theft, the feds are still not doing all they can to prevent further lapses
Amir Khan says he becomes frustrated and humiliated every time he enters the United States and federal agents search his computers. Khan, a Pakistani-born U.S. citizen, says it has happened five times since 2003.
The FBI is gearing up to create a massive computer database of people's physical characteristics, all part of an effort the bureau says to better identify criminals and terrorists.
For those keeping score, it's Chris Soghoian 2, Transportation Security Administration 0.
A rep for Mischa Barton's family on Wednesday blasted a tabloid report that the actress's sister was hospitalized for a drug overdose.
The Department of Homeland Security is now collecting scans of all 10 fingerprints from foreign travelers entering the United States at Dulles International Airport, and plans to extend the program to all international airports in the country by the end of next year.
Everyone asks for it. Few actually need it -- as a TIME reporter found out after an hour-and-a-half telephone ordeal
The online shopping season is expected to bring in almost $39 billion in sales this year. And online shopping is a great way to keep your spending in line. But when you let your fingers do the walking, you'll want to take some precautions.
Gap Inc. announced Friday that a laptop containing the personal information of about 800,000 job applicants was stolen from the offices of one of its vendors that manages data for the company.
TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. said Friday one of its databases was hacked and contact information for more than 6.3 million customers was stolen.
Monster.com waited five days to tell users its system had been hacked, in a security breach that resulted in the theft of confidential information for more than a million users, a company executive told Reuters Thursday.
Crime-fighting "tinkerers" are figuring out how to get all the inside dope about you from your supposedly trusted gadget
Europe's major consumer group BEUC fears Google Inc.'s takeover of online ad tracker DoubleClick Inc. would damage European Union privacy rights and limit consumers' choice of Web content
Vice President Dick Cheney's office refused to cooperate with an agency that oversees classified documents, then tried to abolish the office when it challenged the actions, House oversight committee Chairman Henry Waxman said.
In October 2003, Karl Kamb, then a 40-year-old Hewlett-Packard vice president, made a presentation that persuaded CEO Carly Fiorina to take her company into a new line of business: flat-panel telev...
Civil rights and privacy rights groups have opposed radio frequency identification, or RFID, for years. But now, researchers in the field and some lawmakers are beginning to voice concerns about the security of the technology.
The Department of Agriculture said Friday it will offer a year of free credit monitoring to individuals whose personal information was publicly available on a government Web site.
A recent government report found that the IRS may have compromised the personal information of more than 2,000 taxpayers because of security breaches.
For parents, the Internet can be like navigating a minefield.
Internet pirates have begun to turn away from traditional attack modes such as viruses and worms and are increasingly using targeted emails and other techniques to swipe critical personal information, according to an Internet security report released Monday.
You're savvy. You've read lots of network security horror stories, so you've taken all the usual precautions. You've installed firewalls, password-protected your gear, and created offsite backups. ...
On December 8, Australia suffered a sneak-attack from malevolent forces based in the former Soviet states. The weaponry was a multi-million fusillade of bogus e-mail touts targeting customers of iiNet, owner of Ozemail, one of the most popular Internet providers in the country.
It may seem melodramatic, but the truth is, hackers across the globe - or maybe across the street - are working 24/7 to find ways to steal your passwords, take control of your computer or turn your hard drive into a whirring pile of scrap metal.
ID theft, pretexting, security holes in browsers, targeted Web advertising, the kids' MySpace profiles, the company's monitoring software, phishing, spyware, Wi-Fi break-ins. CAN'T A PERSON GET A L...
You're savvy. You've read lots of network security horror stories, so you've taken all the usual precautions. You've installed firewalls, password-protected your gear, and created offsite backups.
The majority of adults who use of social networking sites like News Corp.'s MySpace and FaceBook engage in dangerous behavior that exposes them to cybercrime, according to a survey released Wednesday.
When embattled HP chairman Mark Hurd steps before a US House panel on Thursday, he will be walking into a bipartisan buzz-saw of lawmakers worried about privacy and stunned that a company they once considered a prominent advocate of federal privacy protection for consumers would snoop on reporters and its own employees.
Pretexting - or lying to get someone else's private information, may have unraveled the corporate kingdom of Hewlett Packard.
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer may file criminal charges within a week in his investigation of tactics used by Hewlett-Packard Co. in an inquiry into boardroom leaks, a spokesman told Reuters on Wednesday.
Hewlett-Packard's board of directors adjourned an emergency meeting Sunday with no statement on the fate of embattled Chairwoman Patricia Dunn.
It's sad to say, but given the furor over how the HP board handled an internal leak to the press and her apparent egregious judgment, Patricia Dunn should resign as chair.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday called on Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson to resign after another incident involving the loss of a computer containing personal data on tens of thousands of veterans.
Think your computer is secure when you log onto a Wi-Fi network at a major hotel?
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - If I borrow something of yours, then lose it or realize it's been stolen from me because I wasn't vigilant about protecting it, you'd probably expect me to do everything I could to make amends.
No one's immune from the aggravations of potential identity theft.
When Bank One notified Houston veterinarian Mike Janney that he owed $85,000 on his line of credit, he was stunned.
Privacy watchdogs are scrutinizing Google's plan to deliver free WiFi to San Francisco--and they don't like everything they're seeing.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Would you ever agree to work overtime for free, indefinitely, creating profits for someone else?
Everybody fears identity theft but not many people do anything to prevent it from happening.
The Federal Trade Commission has levied the largest fine in its history against consumer data broker ChoicePoint Inc. for the company's failure to protect consumer privacy and violations of federal laws that resulted in 800 cases of identity theft.
People's Bank said it is notifying about 90,000 customers affected by a recently lost tape that contained personal information.
More and more computer hackers are lifting passwords from home PCs and emptying online brokerage accounts, a business news magazine is reporting.
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged an Estonian financial services firm and two of its employees with stealing confidential information from Business Wire and walking away at least $7.8 million in illegal profits.
Hurricane victims struggling to rebuild their lives may be faced with an additional challenge: regaining their identity.
Google Inc. has blacklisted all CNET reporters for a year, after the popular technology news website published personal information of one of Google's founders in a story about growing privacy concerns for the Internet search engine, according to a CNET statement.
Instead of keeping countless cards and pieces of information that verify your identification, soon there may be only one thing you need: yourself.
A majority of Americans fear the threat of identity theft and are doing something about it, according to a recent poll conducted by Money magazine and ICR.
If we've learned anything from the massive consumer data breaches that have been reported this year, it's this: There isn't much protecting us from having our personal information exposed, traded or stolen.
On a sunny may morning on capitol hill, power suits were hard at work spinning members of Congress. There to testify were representatives of the financial giant Visa and of data brokers Acxiom and ...
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Over 40 million card accounts potentially exposed to fraud is a big deal. But is it unusual?
Over 40 million card accounts were exposed to potential fraud due to a security breach that occurred at a third-party processor of payment card transactions, MasterCard International said last Friday.
None of the businesses collecting your data want you to be a victim of ID theft. Crime is bad for business, after all. The industry simply has different priorities from yours.
More than 9 million of us a year are victims of identity theft, which topped the Federal Trade Commission's list of consumer complaints in 2004 for the fifth year in a row. Despite recent legislati...
The press release was written just seven months ago, yet it already sounds quaint. "U.S. announces guilty plea in largest identity-theft case in nation's history," declared the U.S. Attorney's offi...
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Businesses, government agencies, private investigators and, frankly, anybody with a few dollars and a devious mind can get their hands on some of your most sensitive personal information.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - In the past four weeks alone, there have been reports of massive security breaches of over 2 million people's sensitive personal information.
We've reported to you about security breaches at ChoicePoint, Boston College, and LexisNexis. Now, the latest case of missing personal data turns out to be closer to home.
SHAKESPEARE GOT IT wrong when his Othello said, "Who steals my purse steals trash ... but he that filches from me my good name robs me of that which not enriches him, and makes me poor indeed." Wer...
ChoicePoint President Douglas Curling and LexisNexis CEO Kurt Sanford admitted that they did not immediately report security breaches to victims while they were being grilled during Senate hearings over personal identity theft.
LexisNexis, which compiles and sells personal and financial data on U.S. consumers, said Tuesday that personal information on 310,000 people nationwide may have been stolen.
Add blogging to the list of extracurricular activities in need of some protection.
The new versions of Windows operating system and the Internet Explorer Web browser from Microsoft will put a new emphasis on security for Web users, according to a published report.
A California man who used personal information from ChoicePoint Inc. and other companies to steal thousands of identities has been sentenced to 5-1/2 years in prison, according to the United States Attorney's office.
Every year an estimated 25 million people, or one out of every 10 Americans, are the victims of consumer fraud. Their collective losses: some $40 billion from telemarketing scams alone. Widespread ...
The chairman and the president of ChoicePoint -- under fire for allowing phony businesses to buy access last fall to their database of personal information on consumers -- have between them sold almost 500,000 shares of company stock for a profit of $17.6 million since November, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Have you seen ChoicePoint in the headlines? What is it anyway? As many as 145,000 consumers may be the victims of identity theft after a company few have ever heard of exposed their personal information to criminals.
ChoicePoint Inc., a national provider of identification and credential verification services, says it will send an additional 110,000 statements to people informing them of possible identity theft after a group of well-organized criminals was able to obtain personal information on almost 140,000 consumers through the company.
A controversy is brewing over a U.S. State Department decision to put identification chips inside all new passport covers, a program scheduled to start by late 2005.
More and more Americans are skipping the mall and shopping online.
Nearly 10 million Americans fell prey to identity thieves last year. Theft related costs to businesses totaled $48 billion in 2002 and out-of-pocket costs to individuals totaled $5 billion, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Someday soon, if it hasn't happened already, you'll open an e-mail from eBay (or Citibank or Visa or another merchant or financial institution) informing you that your account has a problem. It will ask you to visit the company's Web site to straighten it out.
A Florida man was indicted Wednesday in an alleged scheme to steal vast amounts of personal information, and the Justice Department said it might be the largest illegal invasion and theft of personal data to date.
Online bazaar eBay Inc. is the most trusted U.S. company for privacy, according to a new consumer study released late on Wednesday.
In March of this year, Utah became the first state to enact new legislation addressing certain types of "spyware" -- with its Spyware Control Act. (Spyware is software that tracks a consumer's online activities, and uses the data it collects to choose targeted pop-up advertisements and other promotional messages, which are then displayed to the user.)
Imagine getting home from work to be greeted by the family robot, which recognizes your voice and reminds you that you've forgotten your spouse's birthday before alerting you that the hospital has just called.
More and more Americans are skipping the mall and heading online to shop. In each of the next five years, sales via the web will grow at a 19 percent clip, says Forrester Research. By 2008, consumers will spend nearly $230 billion or 10 percent of all retail sales online.
Northwest Airlines faces a class-action lawsuit and potential civil penalties after the No. 4 U.S. carrier acknowledged that it provided passenger information to NASA, according to a published report Wednesday.
Jim Haney hopes to protect his company from the next big Internet virus attack, but he's not sure he can. "We've been lucky so far," says Whirlpool's chief security officer, "but our time is probab...
The personal freedoms that we take for granted in the U.S. also make more possible the acts of terrorism that have traumatized the country. As a result, an urgent conflict has emerged between the l...
Private information is there for the taking--recorded, stored, and made available to the prying eyes of marketers, corporate managers, and law enforcement officers. Your employer may already be rea...
With more and more confidential information whipping around the Web, it's not surprising that privacy is becoming an increasingly public issue. In March, after an outcry from privacy advocates, the...
Are the words "Internet privacy" an oxymoron? Some folks think so--including Scott McNealy, CEO of hardware giant Sun Microsystems. In January, the notoriously motor-mouthed McNealy told a group of...
Driving a new Pentium III computer is like slipping behind the wheel of a souped-up Porsche. It's great to see the world whiz by, but it's questionable whether you need all this horsepower just to ...
Longtime readers may remember that I wrote a glowing column about America Online in March 1997. I backed up my words by saying that I would buy 100 shares of AOL on the cover date of the issue in w...
"On each landing, opposite the lift shaft, the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. B...
Ever more fearful that a virus could invade their computer systems, U.S. companies are turning increasingly to security specialists and asking for help. Cris Castro, director of information securit...
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