In a statement the day before the investigation was released, the group’s president, Jayde Henriques, said, “It’s not about straight or gay priests and seminarians. It is about conduct that in some way or another harms all concerned and opposes the ministry of the church.
No United States privacy laws prohibit the sale of such data.
On Wednesday, the District of Columbia Health Insurance Exchange confirmed it was working with law enforcement to investigate a database containing the personal information of nearly 170,000 individuals on a hacker forum popular with cybercriminals. A reported breach at DC HealthLink could expose sensitive personal information of lawmakers, their staff and their families, the exchange said. Thousands of exchange participants work in the U.S. House and Senate, and a sampling of the stolen data reviewed by CyberScope indicates that victims of the breach range from lobbyists to bartenders.
According to a letter written by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Minority Leader Hakim Jeffries to the head of the D.C. Health Benefits Exchange Authority, the FBI appears to have purchased some of the stolen data from the dark web. While the FBI has not yet determined the extent of the breach, according to the letter, “the size and scope of House customers affected may be extraordinary.”
A Politico report published March 7 details how Ring, Amazon’s home surveillance company, turned over 20 videos captured by an Ohio man’s Ring cameras to law enforcement against his will. In December, the Hamilton Police Department requested a warrant to obtain surveillance footage, including from the man’s home, while investigating the neighbor. According to reports, after he voluntarily provided video to police showing the street outside his home, police used the courts to obtain additional footage without his consent.
While law enforcement agencies require warrants for digital data, those warrants often relate to the subject of a specific investigation. However, as networked home surveillance cameras become increasingly popular, sometimes covering city blocks, law enforcement is increasingly turning to unrelated individuals for information. According to Politico, the lack of legal control over what police can request leaves the door open for viewers to have domestic footage taken legally by police.
Following the Politico story, Gizmodo reported that a Ring customer service agent told a concerned customer that the Politico story was a “fraud” perpetrated by a competitor. In response, an Amazon spokesperson told Gizmodo that the company did not believe the story was false and that the statement was due to a dispute with a customer support representative. “We will ensure that the agent receives the appropriate training,” the spokesperson said.
A roommate of notorious George Santos told federal authorities in 2017 that the US Congressman in Long Island, New York, orchestrated a credit card fraud operation in Seattle. Credit Card Fraud and Deported from the US – He told the FBI, “Santos taught me how to swipe card information and how to handle cards. He gave me all the materials and taught me how to put ski equipment and cameras on the ATM machines.
According to the statement, Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha met Santos in 2016 while renting a room in a Florida apartment. There, Santos reportedly taught Trelha how to use credit card cloning tools and eventually drove him to Seattle to begin stealing financial information. “My deal with Santos was 50 percent for him, 50 percent for me,” Trelha said.
