In recent weeks, there have been news stories of high profile
data breaches, in which innocent people’s personal information was made
vulnerable, or deliberately accessed, by wrong-doers. Aside from the
Wikileaks issues, probably the most widespread of these data breaches occurred
at Yahoo. The online media company reported that in 2014, somewhere
between 200 million and 500 million users had their accounts hacked, and the
hackers obtained access to the users’ names, email addresses, addresses,
telephone numbers, and hashed passwords. The hackers attempted to
sell a database with these users’ information and claimed that this information
was derived from a data breach in 2012.
An article summarizing the
Yahoo data beach can be found here:
On a much more local scale,
but similarly troubling, the Village of Mastic Beach, in Suffolk County, Long
Island, reported that they had been the victim of a different kind of data
breach. A former employee of the Village is alleged to have illegally
accessed the personal data of hundreds of Mastic Beach residents, including
local political figures and their extended families, for as yet unknown
purposes. This employee (allegedly) obtained this information by
fraudulently claiming to have law enforcement credentials in order to access
proprietary databases used by law enforcement, lawyers, and private
investigators.
I am very proud to announce
that a digital forensics team from Radius Investigations, led by my partner
Matthew Seifer uncovered the Mastic Beach data breach and have provided
evidence of the former employee’s unlawful activity to the property
authorities.
The press release from the
Village of Mastic Beach disclosing the data breach, and Radius Investigations’
work in uncovering the breach can be found here:
Although vastly different in
scope, these two cases reflect the sad truth that we are all vulnerable to
identity theft as a result of criminal activity, whether through weak points in
our email systems, our use of credit cards, or the abuse of power by
individuals whom we have entrusted with our information. In fact,
identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in modern society and can
represent substantial ongoing challenges for individuals who have fallen prey
to it. One of the larger concerns that people may have is the fact that many
cases of identity theft can start with minor, easily overlooked changes to bank
accounts and credit charges. However, if these things are left unaddressed,
they can rapidly escalate and destroy lives.
In a future blog post, I will
detail a number of steps that you can take to reduce your vulnerability to
identity theft. In the meantime, if you believe that you have been
victimized by identity thieves, or would like more information about how to
protect yourself, call either local law enforcement, or feel free to contact
Radius Investigations toll-free at 1-888-698-0077, or our office number,
631-351-6473, or email us at info@RadiusInvestigations.com.
Sources:
https://prvteye.com/2016/11/07/recent-data-breaches-in-the-news-and-the-threat-of-identity-theft/
0 Comments