Recover Lost Documents

Six laptops were stolen from an accounting firm in Orange County, California, which may contain the personal financial information of many people.

J. Harry Jones stated in a report for The San Diego Union-Tribune that the theft prompted Borrego Springs Bank to issue letters to all of its customers warning them that they could be at risk for identity theft.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department stated that the laptops were stolen between 4:30pm March 4 and 7am March 5 from the Laguna Hills office of the accounting firm Vavrinek, Trine, Day and Co.

Sheriff’s spokesman Jim Armormino said that no arrests have been made and the computers have not been found.

Ron White, the managing partner of the firm, stated that there has been no indication that any of the records have been used for harmful purposes.

White said that the financial information on the laptops was not encrypted, but access to it required the use of two passwords.

White said he is not authorized to disclose what other banks were involved, whether any besides Borrego Springs Bank are based in San Diego County, or even the number of banks the firm held as clients.

White went on to state that all the banks involved have been notified and each is making its own decision on whether to notify its customers and how to deal with the situation.

Borrego Springs Bank sent letters to its customers saying the laptops might have contained customer files that included bank account numbers, names and balances. It advised everyone to monitor his or her accounts for any unauthorized transactions.

It appears that it took a hacksaw and a few other tools for someone to sever eight fiber-optic cables in Silicon Valley, California recently, which knocked out cell phone, landline and Internet services.

Peter Svensson and Jason Dearen stated in their report for the Associated Press (on Yahoo! Tech News) that cables were cut in San Jose and nearby San Carlos, which wiped out telecom service to thousands of homes and businesses. Some people were able to conduct local calls, but service for 911 was out.

FBI spokesman Brian Hale said the incident had no connection to terrorism, but did not elaborate on how that determination had been made.

In San Carlos, where four fiber-optic cables were severed, Police Cmdr. Rich Cinfio stated that this action could be performed using tools one can get at any local hardware store.

AT&T Inc., which owns six of the severed cables, posted a $250,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Sprint Nextel Corp. said one of its cables, which provided Internet access for large business customers, was cut as well. Sprint was able to reroute traffic over other lines within a few hours of the cut, said Crystal Davis, a spokeswoman for the company.

Phone and Internet service from Verizon Communications Inc. was also disrupted for about 50,000 homes, since the company utilizes AT&T’s “long-haul” communication lines in the area.

AT&T is in contract negotiations with employees in its landline business, which maintains the fiber-optic cables, and is seeking significant concessions on health care costs, among other things. The union denied any involvement with the incident and said it would cooperate with investigators.

Security companies are cautioning PC users of a new variant of the Conflicker worm that is attempting to download malicious code onto victims’ systems, possibly including copies of the Waledac Trojan, a spam-oriented application that originates through phony e-mails.

Jennifer LeClaire stated in her report for Newsfactor.com that US-CERT said it’s aware of reports of a widespread infection of the Conflicker/Downadup worm. This worm can infect a Microsoft Windows system from a thumb drive, a network share, or across a corporate network if the network servers don’t have Microsoft’s MS08-067 patch.

Richard Wang, a manager at Sophos, stated that the new Conflicker variant is spreading, and the malware authors are in a position to supply whatever updates they want into the Conflicker network.

One of Conflicker’s early actions was the downloading of rogue security software onto infected computers. Scareware called Spyware Protect 2009 would display a pop-up message that informs a victim that their computer is infected and suggests software to remove the phony anti-virus program for $49.95. The victim is taken to a fake Web site to enter their credit-card information, which the cybercrook uses to their advantage.

Security researchers are warning that Conflicker could be utilized to set off further attacks that are likely to focus on financial gain.

Wang stated that detection and removal can be accomplished with any good anti-virus product. He further said that people should know that security software should be used along with good security practices. He strongly urges people to ensure that their software is patched and up to date, utilize strong passwords, and to never trust strangers on the Web.

The personal and medical information of 1,000 Santa Cruz County, California patients was contained on a laptop that was recently stolen from the Palo Alto Medical Foundation’s Santa Cruz office.

Sandra Gonzales states in her report for The Mercury News that, as a result of the laptop theft, officials at the Medical Foundation sent out notices to let patients who may have been affected know what happened, said Mark Riley, a foundation spokesman.

Riley stated that the laptop was attached to a neurological piece of equipment when thieves broke into the foundation’s office and stole it. The office was closed at the time of the theft.

The information on the laptop included EMG results, the patients’ medical record numbers, treatment plans and diagnoses.

Due to the theft, the foundation has offered its patients free credit and identity fraud monitoring and suggested to them that they contact local authorities if they notice anything out of the ordinary on their credit reports.

Officials at the foundation also stated that they were taking more effective precautions to prevent any further thefts from occurring. Santa Cruz law enforcement is still investigation the incident.