Breach

Was TD Ameritrade, which revealed on Friday that contact information of 6.3 million customers was stolen from one of its databases, victimized by an insider attack?

A Florida man, the ringleader of a group that used financial information stolen from TJX customers for fraudulent purchases, was sentenced this week to five years in prison and ordered to pay $600,000 in restitution.

California, a leader among states in consumer privacy and protection legislation, is a single signature away from passing a closely watched bill that would require retailers to reimburse banks and credit unions for the costs of data breaches.

Authorities have charged a former Texas AM student with hacking into university files to gain access to tens of thousands of passwords.

A Seattle man has been arrested in what authorities are calling the first case against someone using peer-to-peer (p2p) file-sharing programs for identity theft.

Database breaches are on the rise. Maybe they were always there but not reported as much, or maybe they are actually increasing, but one thing is certain: Sensitive commercial and personal data is being unnecessarily exposed, stolen, bought and sold. It is damaging to businesses, costing them real dollars in breach notification and bad publicity, scaring away their customers, and jeopardizing the privacy of millions of individuals.

The former IT systems analyst who was in possession of backup tapes and disks before they were stolen out of his parked van has sued the Providence Health System over his firing.