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Connecticut Probes Pfizer Data Breach
by Michael Martinez
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal this week launched an investigation into a data breach at one of the world's largest drug makers that may have exposed the personal information of thousands of employees.
Pfizer, which has research facilities in Groton and New London, Conn., alerted law enforcers in May that information on about 17,000 of its employees was exposed when a worker installed a file-sharing program onto a laptop computer.
In a letter to Pfizer, Blumenthal asked the company to notify each of its employees in Connecticut that they are eligible to freeze their credit reports. He also asked Pfizer to provide him with a detailed account of how the laptop containing the information was compromised, the steps the company has taken to retrieve any personally identifiable information that was lost, and the security mechanisms it had in place before the breach.
Blumenthal has given Pfizer until June 22 to respond to his inquiry.
"Lax information security is an identity thief's dream and a consumer's nightmare," Blumenthal said in a statement. "Loss of sensitive personal data can create long-lasting and far-ranging problems."
The University of Iowa also disclosed a data breach this week. School administrators sent letters to more than 1,000 people, notifying them that a database containing sensitive information on students, applicants and faculty members had been compromised.
The breach was discovered last month by a professor. School officials said they have not found any evidence that the data exposed has been abused.
Motor-vehicle administrators in Arizona also were busy dealing with a data breach this week. The Phoenix Motor Vehicle Division scrambled to investigate whether a computer stolen from one of its offices earlier this month puts any residents at risk.
A spokeswoman told The Arizona Republic that the data stored on the computer was protected by security software. She added that the device did not contain any Social Security numbers or other information that one could not find in a telephone book.
California Lawsuit Filed Against Verizon Wireless
A class-action lawsuit filed in a California court this week accuses Verizon Wireless of imposing illegal late charges on cellular telephone customers.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed in state superior court in Alameda County, the late fees violate state law because it is neither "impracticable" nor "extremely difficult" to ascertain the damage the company suffers as a result of late payments.
The company's "unlawful practices have injured thousands of consumers throughout California and continue to this day," the lawsuit said.
The plaintiffs argued that billing software used by Verizon automatically charged consumers $5 minimum late fees that exceeded what they actually owed the company.
In other news, AP reported this week that the failure of the Missouri legislature to resolve this year a long-running tax dispute between cities and cellular telephone companies has sent the matter back to court.
State Sen. John Griesheimer said negotiations collapsed in his chamber over a compromise on back taxes that cities have demanded from cellular carriers. The companies have insisted that the taxes do not apply to them because they do not use traditional phone lines.
A Sprint Nextel spokesman told AP that his company was never able to confirm that cities would stop pursuing back taxes through litigation if it supported the compromise legislation, which the state House passed.
Missouri Municipal League Executive Director Gary Markenson said the talks collapsed because carries objected to the amount of taxes they would have been required to pay under the compromise. He said the matter is now "in the hands of the lawyers."
Texas Tries To Lure Film, Videogame Projects
Texas Gov. Rick Perry last week signed into law a measure to offer $22 million in tax incentives to attract film and television workers to the Lone Star State.
Under the new law, videogame developers also will be eligible for grant money worth as much as 5 percent of what videogame developers and film and television producers spend on projects in Texas. Applicants for film grants will have to spend at least $1 million to be eligible. Videogame applicants will have to spend at least $100,000.
In a statement, the Republican governor said the law will attract new jobs and "serve as an incubator for the creative arts industry." He added that it will "reverse the export" of creative talent from his state.
But some videogame developers are concerned about a provision that allows the state to pick the projects that qualify for grants based on their content. The Texas Film Commission will be tasked with administering the incentive program.
Commission Director Bob Hudgins told the Austin American-Statesman this week that he intends to focus on bringing as many projects as he can to Texas and that his office is still figuring out how it will implement the initiative.
Trial For Ex-Alabama Election Chief Is Delayed
An Alabama judge this week delayed the criminal trial over whether former Secretary of State Nancy Worley violated fundraising laws during her failed re-election campaign.
Worley was indicted earlier this year on charges that she illegally solicited campaign donations from her staff. Prosecutors accused her of sending a letter to her employees asking for donations, which is illegal under state law. One of her opponents in a Democratic primary last year, who also was a State Elections Division employee, filed the complaint against her.
A pretrial hearing has been rescheduled for July 5. Worley's lawyers told the Montgomery Advertiser this week that they need more time to review e-mail evidence that prosecutors have submitted in the case.
It has been a rocky year for Worley. A federal judge last summer effectively made Gov. Bob Riley the state's top election official after the state was sued over its failure to build a statewide voter-registration database by a federal deadline. Riley replaced Worley on the project during a year he was up for re-election.
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