Personal data susceptible to hackers

Hackers are to blame for most thefts of credit card numbers, medical records and other information of a million Massachusetts residents, The Boston Globe said.

The newspaper, citing state documents, said all the breaches happened in the past two years.

"Many thousands" of them had been reported from June to November and included confidential information from major institutions such as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and JPMorgan Chase Bank, the Globe said

Some of the information ended up in the wrong hands because of the theft of a laptop computer or loss of computer data tape. But most breaches can be traced to hacker breaking into computer networks, the Globe said.

Businesses and other institutions must develop a "culture of security" to protect the sensitive documents they control, said Barbara Anthony, undersecretary of consumer affairs and business regulation.

All such institutions are required to inform customers and state regulators about any breaches in security that might cause identity theft. Breaches include the leak of names, and numbers for Social Security, driver's license, bank account, and credit or debit cards, the newspaper reported.

"In 60 percent of the cases, the breaches were due to criminal acts. Forty percent were negligence," said Anthony of 807 breach notifications received by the state by November. US News

.Van Morrison: Birth report 'utter fiction'

Reclusive Irish singer Van Morrison said Thursday that a computer hacker planted a false report on his Web site claiming he had fathered a fourth child at the age of 64 with a new partner.

The false report was disseminated Monday by a Los Angeles-based publicist for Morrison, Phil Lobel. The publicist was quoted by an unidentified associate on Thursday as getting the report from the Morrison site.

The false report was picked up by several news agencies, including The Associated Press, as well as celebrity sites and British newspapers. The false report on the Morrison Web site claimed that a woman identified as Gigi had just borne a son with Morrison.

The singer issued a statement Thursday through an international public-relations agency stressing that the report was completely false and the malicious product of a hacker's attack on his official Web site, /http://www.vanmorrison.com.

It appeared to be the latest in a rapidly growing string of hoaxes in the Internet age. Digital tricksters increasingly place phony footage, facts and press releases on Web sites and video-sharing sites to see how quickly the falsehoods will spread through traditional and new media alike.

John Saunders, president of the European arm of the U.S. public-relations firm Fleishman-Hillard Inc., said he contacted Morrison and his wife, Michelle, after seeing the reports and finding them hard to believe. He said the couple wasn't aware of them and initially didn't want to respond. yahoo news