A Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association employee broke protocol by transferring the names, addresses, Social Security numbers and provider identification numbers of about 800,000 doctors to his personal laptop.
Unfortunately, his computer was stolen from his car this past August but, as of yet, there haven’t been any signs of identity theft.
The affected physicians have been informed and, thankfully, no patient information was included in the database.
A representative for the health insurance company was quoted in the Chicago Tribune as saying: “At this point, we have no evidence that the data was misused. We think this was a random criminal act. Regardless, we take these kinds of breaches extremely seriously and so we are alerting all doctors in the database.”
In an attempt to offset any negative consequences associated with the theft of the laptop, the Blue Cross association is offering crediting monitoring services to the individuals whose Social Security information was exposed.
It goes without saying that this is really a worst-case scenario, since so many could be affected by this breach and the laptop hasn’t been recovered. This is an unfortunate example of how the mistakes of a single person could after thousands of people.
In a situation like this, using a program like Computrace would be helpful since sensitive data can be deleted remotely and the Theft Recovery Team will work with local police to try to find the stolen laptop – and the thief who stole it. And once the they have the laptop back, Computrace can be used to help determine if files were accessed post-theft. While it would still be important to be vigilant for signs of identity theft, the risk would be considerably lower.
A woman in Jacksonville, Florida was the victim of a home invasion which, in itself, is a scary thing to go through. The thieves made off with jewellery and electronics, including the woman’s laptop, but they didn’t know that she had installed Computrace LoJack for Laptops on her computer. “Within 24 hours of it being reported stolen, they already had one hit on it,” said Shannon Mercer.
While her laptop was sold several times before being returned to her, she felt that she got her revenge in the end. “When someone breaks into your house, you feel violated. To get a piece of it back is pretty neat,” said Mercer.
You can get more information on LoJack for Laptops here. In the meantime, watch the video of Mercer’s fascinating story!
The University of California at Berkeley is taking the protection of their students’ personal data very seriously and have implemented data-masking techniques in an effort to thwart identity theft and security breaches.
The school understands the importance of this after hackers broke into the health-services database earlier this year and gained access to the personal records of about 160,000 individuals.
The data-masking technology is incredibly interesting since it hides data in plain sight so that a students first and last name could be right there on the computer screen but, because the lettering has been moved around, it camouflages the true information. The same technique is being used to conceal student identification numbers and other sensitive data.
Since a master copy of the real information is kept in a separate database it is still important for educational institutions to make sure that their network is properly protected with up-to-date security software.
Students can take the extra step of making sure that their personal computers are protected with products like Computrace LoJack for Laptops.
If you want to protect your Mac and save money, now is the time to check out the Mac Security Bundle. Macintosh security specialist, Intego, has paired up with top-of-the-line security software partners to create this incredible deal which is available until October 31, 2009.
The savings are amazing – at $49.99 the price of this bundle has been slashed by 90% (off the total price of the programs if purchased individually).
The Mac Security Bundle contains the following programs:
Intego VirusBarrier X5
Micromat TechTool Pro 5
Absolute Software Computrace LoJack for Laptops
Macware WebGhost
Intego ContentBarrier X5
Intego NetBarrier X5
Smith Micro Spring Cleaning
JoeSoft Klix
Intego Personal Antispam X5
Intego FileGuard X5
Intego Personal Backup X5
MOApp MyWallet
All of the programs included in the bundle are compatible with Mac OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard, as well as Mac OS X 10.4, Tiger, and Mac OS X 10.5, Leopard.
To learn more about how you can get the bundle which includes Absolute’s Computrace LoJack for Laptops, visit the MacPromo site.
Dell has designed the new Inspiron Mini Nickelodeon notebook for kids, which is a great idea since it’s the right size for little hands, it’s super light (less than 3 pounds) and includes educational software that both parents and children will love.
With so many kids using computers today, it’s no surprise that parents are looking for ways to keep young ones, and their computers, safe.
Absolute recognizes this need and has partnered with Dell to include a free 12-month subscription of Computrace LoJack for Laptops with their Inspiron Mini Nickelodeon notebooks.
Absolute’s Vice President of Consumer Business, Mark Grace, had the following to say: “As any parent can tell you, once you put a highly portable computer like the Dell Inspiron Mini Nickelodeon Edition in the hands of your kids, they don’t want to put it down, let alone lose it altogether. That’s why we have collaborated with Dell to include a subscription to Computrace LoJack for Laptops on every Nickelodeon Edition sold. With this protection conveniently built in, parents can feel secure knowing that Computrace LoJack for Laptops will help keep their kids safe by making their computers unattractive to thieves.”
This is definitely a great deal and the timing is perfect since school has just started and a lot of children are looking for a new computer.
Earlier this month, PC World posted a true story about a man who was able to recover his stolen laptops using a free remote-access service, LogMeIn.
The story was this: David Krop left 2 laptops in his SUV in a parking garage while he attended a meeting. The computers were stolen and they weren’t even password protected. However, David had a trial access of LogMeIn installed, which allowed him to remotely access his laptop. He was able to use this service to see that his stolen laptop was being used by its alleged thief. By spying on this person, and collecting all his personal information as he browsed the internet (including his face via a video chat), Krop was able to supply information to the police. The police were then able to recover the laptop.
Now, this sounds like a good deal, right? However, it’s a pretty a-typical situation to be in, and does not guarantee laptop recovery. The scenario depended on many factors, including:
That the unauthorized user did not dismiss the tracking icon that appeared when his laptop activity was being watched
That the unauthorized user would reveal a wide variety of detailed personal information while using the laptop (phone number, email address, face)
That the unauthorized user wouldn’t wipe all the existing software off the computer
As you can see, using LogMeIn or other free laptop tracking or remote access services is not the same thing as using a dedicated laptop tracking & recovery program and service such as Computrace or LoJack for Laptops from Absolute Software. Only Absolute has a dedicated Theft Recovery Team to work with police to recover your computer. Our software does not require your to sit around waiting for the alleged thief to supply detailed information about him/herself – all investigations and tracking are done on your behalf. And you don’t have to hope to talk a police officer into taking on your case – we have existing relationships with local police around the world. Also, most PCs also now have our software at the BIOS level, protecting it from being wiped if software is deleted. So even if a crafty thief that tries to remove the software, the BIOS firmware will make sure its installed.
David Krop has learned his lesson about leaving his laptop in his car. And he now uses remote tracking software. If you aren’t yet set up to track your laptop, check out our theft recovery products here.
School Laptop Shopping Guide: Buying a new laptop can be a tough decision. This shopping guide will provide helpful suggestions for picking the right machine to meet your needs.
Stolen Laptop! What Should I Do?: Your laptop is missing and aside from panicking, do you know what you should do? There are a number of things that you can do to protect yourself. Read more about what steps to take in the unfortunate event that your laptop is stolen.
For regular updates, you can also follow them on Twitter @lojackforlaptop (corporate customers can also follow updates on Twitter @absolutecorp).
The number of users affected by identity theft through malware has jumped by 600% in comparison with the data from this time last year. The increase could be the result of the current economic crisis with so many people being affected by the crunch.
The numbers are staggering. Every day, PandaLabs gets almost 37,000 samples of various types of internet threats and a whopping 71% are Trojans designed to steal banking and credit card information as well as passwords for commercial services. An estimated three percent of users have been victimized by these silent threats since they normally don’t have any idea they’ve been affected until it’s too late.
There are some steps that users can take to protect themselves:
1. Be wary of any requests for personal data since most banks, payment services (i.e. Paypal) or social networks would never ask for that type of information in an informal way. Never respond to requests for login information, for example, if they came in the form of an email or text message.
2. Avoid looking up your bank or online store websites through a search engine. Type the address directly into your browser and double check that it is correct before hitting “enter.”
3. Verify that the page has valid security certificates which are typically easy to identify by a “locked padlock” icon somewhere in the browser. Banking websites might have the padlock image right beneath the login fields (see image below at left) whereas the little symbol appears at the end of the address bar in Internet Explorer (image at right).
Sites like Paypal might also have the padlock above the login fields but you can also look for Verisign Identity Protection icon at the bottom of web pages.
4. Arm your computer with up-to-date security solutions such as Computrace LoJack for laptops.
5. Trust your instincts. If something looks suspicious, contact the site’s customer service line. Never enter your personal information if you think something looks wrong.
6. Look into getting identity theft insurance if you regularly shop or bank online. This will provide coverage if you become the victim of identity fraud.
The NY Times had put a great article this week entitled "On the Trail of the Missing Gadget." Of course, Absolute Software’s Computrace / LoJack products fall into this category of "missing gadgetry retrieval", so to speak. The article does a great job of generalizing how these technologies and services work, and how absolutely easy it is for the end user. The software just sits there until you need it – then we do all the work to help retrieve your missing gadget if it does go missing! Simple!
With the case of more advanced technology, like we employ at Absolute, the recovery is aided by services such as GPS, keystroke captures, or by internet connections to gather evidence and help determine where the lost device is being used. At Absolute, our recovery team also continues the process until the point when the device is recovered. This is by far the safest route, as you, the customer, never come in contact with the criminals. This also enables law enforcement agencies to prosecute those responsible for thefts.
John Livingston, CEO of Absolute, explains why:
"We will purposefully never reveal a location to a consumer customer. We won’t do it. Once you declare that it’s lost or stolen, we take control over the location at that point. We purposely keep some safe distance between the end user and the thief."
Absolute employs a team of 40 investigators with experience in law enforcement. This team then works closely with local law enforcement agencies to recover stolen devices. If you have sensitive data on your device, you have the option to trigger a remote delete of that data. We’re also working on a way to permanently disable the computers, which will hopefully be another deterrent to theft.
You can learn more about the Absolute recovery process here.
Get ready for Fall with Absolute Software’s Back-to-School special on LoJack for Laptops! Save 20% on LoJack for Laptops Standard and Premium, for Mac or PC, until September 30th!
LoJack for Laptops provides our award-winning theft recovery services. It tracks, locates, and recovers stolen computers while providing you with the ability to protect your personal information from identity theft. Learn more here!
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As you can see, using LogMeIn or other free laptop tracking or remote access services is not the same thing as using a dedicated laptop tracking & recovery program and service such as 
y team also continues the process until the point when the device is recovered. This is by far the safest route, as you, the customer, never come in contact with the criminals. This also enables law enforcement agencies to prosecute those responsible for thefts. 