at least teens don’t tend to go bankrupt (I think)
Woe unto you if you are a Veteran or a teenager.
In the news this week:
The missing Veterans Affairs laptop that contained the names and birthdates of some 26.5 million vets (19.6 million of those names come with Social Security numbers) is still missing.
Though there is no evidence that this is anything but a common burglary with a very lucky score, the owner of said laptop made a habit of taking home veterans’ personal information, and there are rumors in a couple of comment threads that this is an intentional identity theft scheme gone bad. . . I’m waiting for a solid source to link to. . . watch this space, as they say.
And, while we’re trading in link-free “news,” I just heard a report on the hourly headlines that a couple of guys were arrested in California for hacking in and stealing personal info from MySpace, and then trying to extort MySpace for “return” of the information. (Yes, it sounds a little half-baked, but the report named two guys who were arrested, I have searched and searched for a written version, but I have yet to find one. . . um, yeah, watch this pace.)
Of course, if you are a victim of this 21st Century crime, and you have to declare bankruptcy because identity theft has just destroyed your finances, you needn’t worry, because we just “updated” the bankruptcy code. . . right?
Wrong.
Though such protection was talked about during last year’s debate, an amendment to the bankruptcy bill that was specifically designed to protect identity theft victims was voted down by the Senate.
Update: OK, I know, I know. . . MySpace isn’t just for teenagers anymore. Call me old fashioned.
Update 2: OK, I promised a link and follow-up on the MySpace story. It seems the two teens tried to extort money from MySpace by threatening to tell everyone how to steal personal information off of said site unless MySpace (owned by NewsCorp) paid them a big fat $150,000. $150,000--that’s what to NewsCorp? They probably spend more than that on Vegemite. Like I’ve said before, never steal anything small.
In the news this week:
The missing Veterans Affairs laptop that contained the names and birthdates of some 26.5 million vets (19.6 million of those names come with Social Security numbers) is still missing.
Though there is no evidence that this is anything but a common burglary with a very lucky score, the owner of said laptop made a habit of taking home veterans’ personal information, and there are rumors in a couple of comment threads that this is an intentional identity theft scheme gone bad. . . I’m waiting for a solid source to link to. . . watch this space, as they say.
And, while we’re trading in link-free “news,” I just heard a report on the hourly headlines that a couple of guys were arrested in California for hacking in and stealing personal info from MySpace, and then trying to extort MySpace for “return” of the information. (Yes, it sounds a little half-baked, but the report named two guys who were arrested, I have searched and searched for a written version, but I have yet to find one. . . um, yeah, watch this pace.)
Of course, if you are a victim of this 21st Century crime, and you have to declare bankruptcy because identity theft has just destroyed your finances, you needn’t worry, because we just “updated” the bankruptcy code. . . right?
Wrong.
Though such protection was talked about during last year’s debate, an amendment to the bankruptcy bill that was specifically designed to protect identity theft victims was voted down by the Senate.
Update: OK, I know, I know. . . MySpace isn’t just for teenagers anymore. Call me old fashioned.
Update 2: OK, I promised a link and follow-up on the MySpace story. It seems the two teens tried to extort money from MySpace by threatening to tell everyone how to steal personal information off of said site unless MySpace (owned by NewsCorp) paid them a big fat $150,000. $150,000--that’s what to NewsCorp? They probably spend more than that on Vegemite. Like I’ve said before, never steal anything small.
posted by guy2k at 4:13 AM
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