In the digital age, identity theft has taken on new and sinister forms, extending beyond the living to the deceased. When a loved one passes away, their identity doesn’t simply vanish; it lingers in both the digital realm and...more
The FCC has significantly expanded telecommunications carriers’ data breach notification and reporting obligations. Telecommunications carriers, including Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, and telecommunications...more
A group of 40 AGs reached settlements with Experian Information Solutions, Inc. and T-Mobile USA, Inc. concerning a 2015 data breach experienced by Experian that allegedly compromised the personal information of more than 15...more
Synthetic identity fraud (SIF) is a recent phenomenon that scammers have used to circumvent the increasing awareness of traditional identity fraud. Instead of stealing a real person’s identity as with traditional identity...more
Cyberliability insurance provider Beazley Insurance Company has analyzed its internal breach response data and determined that in its experience, there has been a thirty-seven percent (37%) increase in ransomware attacks this...more
The Security Summit, consisting of the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), state tax agencies, and private-sector tax industry officials, is encouraging tax professionals during the 2019 summer season to take some time to...more
Atrium Health and its vendor AccuDoc Solutions have released a joint announcement this week that AccuDoc’s database of 2.6 million billing records of Atrium Health’s patients has been compromised by a hacking incident....more
Schneider Electric recently issued a consumer warning that it mistakenly shipped to its customers USB drives that were infected with malware. Schneider Electric stated in its alert that “Schneider Electric has determined that...more
We all know that it is important to protect our social security number. But sometimes companies still try to use the last four digits of our social security numbers as identifiers or to verify identity in some way....more
The Vermont Attorney General (AG) recently announced that it has settled with SAManage USA, a business support services company, for failing to timely notify 660 Vermont residents that their names and Social Security numbers...more
One of the many costs of doing business in this day and age is the threat of a data breach. In the past several years data breach incidents have occurred with increasing frequency. From Target to eBay and Sony to Ashley...more
Tax season brings many headaches, but none as miserable as sophisticated scammer efforts to steal employee W-2 information. Using social engineering and modest technological tools, a “spear phishing” attack seeks to trick...more
California Attorney General Kamala Harris has released a report of the data breaches that have been reported to her office from 2012 until 2015. Although the California data breach notification law took effect in 2003,...more
It is not a matter of "if" but "when" an employer will be required to notify employees of a security breach. Forty-seven states require employers to notify employees when defined categories of personal information, including...more
A California federal judge has ruled that a former Uber driver who is suing Uber in a proposed class action case was unable to show that he suffers an immediate threat of identity theft and dismissed the driver’s first...more
As we head into the end of 2015, state legislators across the country continue to strengthen, update and, in some instances, broaden the scope of their respective state data breach notification laws. Specifically, many...more
Social Security numbers are one of the highest risk data elements known to mankind. A Social Security number in combination with a name and date of birth (which are publicly accessible) in the hands of a bad person can...more
UCLA Health announced today that it was the victim of a cybersecurity attack. The press report disseminated by UCLA Health noted there is evidence that computer systems containing sensitive personal data and health data was...more
Responding to the recently disclosed Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) data breach, congressional leaders are demanding answers from the agency regarding its handling of confidential tax information. Senate Finance Committee...more
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released on Tuesday, May 26, 2015, news of a major data breach, estimated to have affected 100,000 U.S. households’ tax returns. The data was wrongfully obtained from an IRS application...more
sing it with me now…. Five Golden Rules…….(well, five new privacy laws/requirements) There are five significant new privacy laws/amendments that will be effective as of New Year’s Day — January 1, 2015 — and...more
Continuing the trend of changes in state breach notification and related laws, Cal. A.B. 1710 amends California's breach notification, security procedures, and Social Security number (SSN) laws in the wake of significant data...more