Monday, January 4, 2010

1 in 6 Massachusians Hacked Over Past Two Years

According to State of Massachusetts officials, the state of Massachusian citizens private data/security is not good. 



One million Massachusetts residents - or 1 in 6 people - have had their credit card numbers, medical records, or other personal information leaked or stolen over the past two years, according to records provided to the Globe by state officials.

Major identity data breaches reported to state authorities from June through November 2009:







  • Eastern Bank: 2,499 Massachusetts residents affected when checking account data were mailed to the wrong customers.


  • Moriarty & Primack, a Springfield accounting firm: 1,617 residents affected when three laptops were stolen, including more than 1,100 employees and retirees of client Smith College.

  • Nashbar Direct, an online bicycle equipment dealer in Ohio: 5,318 residents affected when a hacker broke into the company’s servers.

  • Alpha Software Inc. of Mass.: 994 residents affected when customer credit card numbers were stolen from company’s servers.

  • University of Massachusetts at Amherst: A hacker intrusion into school computers revealed Information on “thousands’’ of former students spanning 1982 to 2002. No exact number given.

  • Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts: 39,000 health care providers from Massachusetts affected because their personal data were stored on a stolen laptop.

  • Wyndham Hotels and Resorts: 1,146 residents affected when a hacker penetrated the hotel company’s data center.

  • T-Mobile USA: 490 Massachusetts residents affected after a fraud ring gained unauthorized access to their account data.

  • JPMorgan Chase Bank: 9,015 residents named on missing computer tape.

  • Network Solutions LLC: 14,677 residents affected when hackers broke into company servers.

  • DLP Lamp Source: 960 residents affected after company’s website was compromised.

  • Eagle Bank: 2,431 residents affected by unauthorized disclosure of debit card data.

  • LexisNexis: About 8,900 residents affected when unauthorized persons got access to company servers.

  • Many thousands of the leaks were first reported between June and November - including confidential data on customers of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Eastern Bank, JPMorgan Chase Bank, and other major institutions, documents released by state regulators revealed.



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