Stolen laptops or hacked student databases are one thing, but lost student loan promissory notes? That’s what Florida’s Department of Education is telling 475 student-loan borrowers. According to the Office of Financial Student Assistance, the students’ financial records may have been exposed to identity theft due to the lost notes that students signed when they were going to school, and have now fallen behind on.

“While your file was being processed for reassignment during the week of May 25, 2009, your promissory note(s) was lost,” read the memo from the financial assistance office that went to the borrowers. The office “cannot verify if the record of your promissory note(s) has been tampered with or if the confidentiality of your promissory note(s) was compromised,” the letter added. It urged borrowers to place a fraud alert on their credit files.

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As previously posted here, two researchers from Carnegie Mellon University recently published a paper describing how they can discover a person's Social Security number from information gleaned from social networking sites.

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How a small subsidiary of Hughes Aircraft became a global leader in identity management

By Zack Martin, Editor, Avisian Publications

HID Global enables workers to get in the front door of offices around the world. Many people see the three letters, either on their cards or access control readers, but odds are they don’t really know the company behind them.

HID originally stood for Hughes Identification Device, as in Howard Hughes, says Holly Sacks, senior vice president of marketing and corporate strategy at HID Global. The company was formed in 1991 as a subsidiary of Hughes Aircraft to develop radio frequency identification technologies.

The original 125-kilohertz technology, commonly referred to as proximity or prox, had been used in aircraft to track parts. The company’s founders thought there would be markets out there interested in using it for other purposes, says Selva Selvaratnam, senior vice president and chief technology officer at HID.

MXI Security announced the release of ACCESS CAC/PIV, a security solution enabling the U.S. government Personal Identity Verification card (PIV) infrastructure to securely access personal portable security devices (PPSDs).

ACCESS CAC/PIV combines CAC/PIV smart card-based certificate authentication with biometric and password authentication and provides up to three factor authentication to encrypt USB drives. The product works with MXI Security’s FIPS 140-2 Level 2 validated Stealth MXPTM Passport, Stealth MXPTM Bio, and Outbacker MXPTM Bio.

An organization’s existing FIPS 201 infrastructure and the smart cards in hands of personnel are all that is required. Device key management is tied to the PKI encryption key on the user’s smart card, password controls can be set in accordance with existing government standards.

The Stealth MXP Passport and Stealth MXP Bio product families range from 1GB to 32GB capacity USB flash devices. The Outbacker MXP Bio product family includes 80GB to 500GB capacity USB hard disk devices. These devices enable organizations to securely store sensitive information, applications, and digital identity credentials. All are available in a FIPS 140-2 Level 2 validated version.

SCM Microsystems Inc. and Bluehill ID announced a technology and distribution agreement that targets contactless smart card, RFID and NFC markets worldwide. The partnership marks another step in SCM’s strategy to expand into the growing contactless market, and also further extends Bluehill ID’s distribution channels and technology portfolio for identity management and electronic security.

Under this agreement, companies of the Bluehill ID Group will distribute SCM contact smart card reader technology on an OEM basis and SCM will have access to Bluehill ID’s unique dual antenna RFID reader technology.

The two companies have also agreed to share technology and jointly develop new hardware and software products, and to cooperate in optimizing reader production. Among the first projects planned will be SCM’s development of new NFC readers based on Bluehill ID modules.