Company Accesses AT&T Customer Social Security Numbers in Security Failure

Social Security numbers and call records for many AT&T Mobility subscribers have been accessed without authorization by a third-party service provider. The data was taken by employees at the service provider between April 9 and April 21,and AT&T isn't saying just how many of its customers were affected.

This was a case where people that had access to personal information abused their position and not hackers using software vulnerabilities to break into company servers. It's a reminder that there are plenty of ways for people to access our personal information that go beyond computer security breaches.

 AT&T said in a statement, "We recently learned that three employees of one of our vendors accessed some AT&T customer accounts without proper authorization," according to ITworld.

AT&T isn't naming the company involved, but did say there were three employees responsible for accessing the information. AT&T said it has taken steps to help ensure other companies don't access customer information without proper authorization in the future, and has contacted law enforcement to report the incident.

In a letter to subscribers AT&T said,

Employees of one of our service providers violated our strict privacy and security guidelines by accessing your account without authorization. AT&T believes the employees accessed your account as part of an effort to request codes from AT&T than are used to unlock AT&T mobile phones in the secondary mobile phone market.

With Social Security numbers and call records in hand the threat of identity theft is a possibility,although AT&T hasn't said anything to indicate that there's evidence to show the three employees intended to use or sell the information for fraudulent activities.

Hidden Cash craze hits New York's Central Park

Dozens of New Yorkers are finding $50 bills hidden by a California real estate investor who announces his cash drops on Twitter.

Hundreds of people search for 36 buried plastic Angry Bird orbs filled with hidden cash in Hermosa Beach, California May 31, 2014.

The Twitter account Hidden Cash said money would be left in Central Park and Brooklyn's Prospect Park on Saturday.

The same Twitter account directed people last week to envelopes with $50 and $100 inside them in San Francisco and 36 cash-filled Angry Birds orbs in Hermosa Beach, California.

Bay Area real estate investor Jason Buzi went public as Hidden Cash in a CNN interview.

New Yorkers are finding the money and tweeting photos of themselves with their finds.

Hidden Cash retweets the smiling photos.

The New York envelopes each contain a $50 bill and a silver half-dollar.

Hidden Cash tweeted that the next giveaway is Sunday in Chicago.

Fla. woman accused of stealing 7 lobster tails

A central Florida woman faces petit theft charges after officials say she stuffed seven frozen lobster tails in her pants and walked out of a Publix supermarket without paying for them.



A loss prevention officer at the DeLand Publix told police he watched 30-year-old Nichole Ann Reed put the lobster tails into her pants on Wednesday evening. He says she walked around the store before leaving.

Police found her about an hour later. Reed told them she went to the store with the intention of stealing the lobster tails, which were valued at $83.99. According to a police report, she said she planned to trade the lobster with a friend to get either a Chinese buffet or the prescription pain medication Dilaudid.

She posted $250 bail.

Cop:Man with gun tattoo had real gun in waistband

Police in Maine say a man with a realistic-looking tattoo of a gun on his stomach had the real thing tucked into his waistband when he was arrested.

Michael Smith, left, bearing a realistic-looking tattoo of a handgun on his stomach, stands beside a Somerset County Sheriff deputy outside his home in Norridgewock, Maine. Smith was arrested Friday, June 13, 2014, after he allegedly showed up at a deputy’s home with a real gun in his waistband and drugs in his backpack.

Police tell the Morning Sentinel (http://bit.ly/1p2LHWq ) that 41-year-old Michael Smith, of Norridgewock, showed up at a sheriff's deputy's home Thursday night. Police say he was crying and had been drinking.

Authorities say Smith told police he had a fight with his ex-girlfriend and had stolen prescription narcotics from her.

He was charged with stealing drugs, and the gun was confiscated. He was released from jail on $1,000 bail. His phone has been disconnected.

Smith made headlines in March when members of a tree removal crew reported that he had a gun. But the gun turned out to be his tattoo.

U.S. bolsters Baghdad embassy security,orders some staff evacuated

The United States ordered military personnel to boost security for its diplomatic staff in Baghdad on Sunday and said some staff were being evacuated from the embassy as the Iraqi government battled to hold off insurgent forces.

Volunteers, who have joined the Iraqi Army to fight against predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, ISIL, carry weapons during a parade in the streets in Al-Fdhiliya district, eastern Baghdad June 15, 2014.

"A small number of DOD (Department of Defense) personnel are augmenting State Department security assets in Baghdad to help ensure the safety of our facilities," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. It did not say how many military personnel had been deployed.

Separately, the State Department said it was evacuating some staff from the embassy and beefing up security there.

"Some additional U.S. government security personnel will be added to the staff in Baghdad; other staff will be temporarily relocated - both to our Consulate Generals in Basra and Arbil and to the Iraq Support Unit in Amman," the State Department said in a statement, without giving numbers.

The Baghdad embassy was reviewing staffing requirements but a "substantial majority" of the embassy presence in Iraq would remain in place, it said.

The Pentagon statement said that for the moment embassy staff would be evacuated using commercial, charter and State Department aircraft. But the U.S. military had airlift assets at the ready should they be needed.

The State Department also advised other U.S. citizens in Iraq to exercise caution and to limit travel to five provinces including restive Anbar in the west and Kirkuk in the north. U.S. citizens were also advised to register with a State Department program called Smart Traveler. The program enables U.S. embassies to stay in touch with citizens abroad in an emergency.

The U.S. government moves came as Iraqi government forces battled to hold off insurgents with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, the Sunni militant group that has seized control of parts of northern Iraq.

HEAVILY FORTIFIED EMBASSY

The heavily fortified U.S. embassy occupies a sprawling swathe of land along the Tigris River in Baghdad, inside the secure Green Zone, where many Iraqi government buildings are located and which is off-limits to most Iraqis.

When the embassy opened in 2009, it had 1,200 employees, including diplomats, servicemen and women, and officials from 14 U.S. government agencies.

Dubbed the 'mega-bunker of Baghdad,' its size reflected the scale of the U.S. investment in Iraq following the 2003 invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, and an expectation the United States would have some sort of major long-term presence there.

The embassy's staff was later trimmed back in line with the U.S. military transition out of Iraq, which U.S. troops departed in late 2011.

U.S. officials have declined to say how many staff work there currently. But according to a 2013 State Department inspector general report, the embassy was moving to reduce its headcount from over 11,500 in January 2013 to 5,500 in January 2014.

In 2013, the United States also had diplomatic outposts in Arbil, Basra, and the contested city of Kirkuk.

Speaking to reporters last week, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for Iraq, had "assets and resources" and existing plans should the United States need to evacuate personnel.

"But we're not there yet," he told reporters on Friday. He also said that any evacuation might not be carried out by the U.S. military.

President Barack Obama said on Friday he needed several days to determine how the United States would help Iraq deal with the stunning advance of the insurgents. But he ruled out sending U.S. troops back into combat in Iraq.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered an aircraft carrier moved into the Gulf on Saturday, readying it in case Washington decides to pursue a military option.

Former UK PM Blair says Iraq crisis not his fault,urges action

Former British prime minister Tony Blair said on Sunday it was "profoundly wrong" to think that the 2003 Anglo-U.S. invasion of Iraq helped stoke the current crisis and urged the West to take targeted military action there.

Tony Blair

In comments likely to anger his detractors at home and abroad who believe his decisions to intervene militarily in Iraq and Afghanistan made things worse, Blair told British TV that the Iraq crisis would have happened regardless of his actions.

"You can carry on debating about whether it was right or wrong what we did in 2003 but whatever had been done, you were always going to have a problem of deep instability in the region and in Iraq," Blair told Sky News.

If Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had not been toppled by U.S. and British troops, his government would have been caught up in the same "Arab Spring" uprisings that later shook the region and now be embroiled in a bloody Syrian-style war, Blair said.

Blair spoke out as an offensive by insurgents that threatens to dismember Iraq seemed to slow after days of lightning advances as government forces regained some territory in counter-attacks, easing pressure on the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad.

Blair, who heads a global political consultancy business, said the West would be pulled into the Iraq crisis whether it liked it or not, urging it to target Islamist extremists in Iraq and Syria with the agreement of Arab governments in the region.

"I'm not suggesting we put ground troops in and we do a full scale invasion as we did in Iraq or Afghanistan, but I am saying we are going to have to take an active role in trying to shape events in Syria and Iraq and indeed across the region," he said.

In Iraq's case, that action had to be immediate, he added, saying the selective use of air power was one option.

POLITICAL UNDOING

As leader of Britain's Labor party, Blair won three elections and was in office from 1997 to 2007. But the way he handled the Iraq war and the unfounded claims he and the United States made about the existence of weapons of mass destruction there - their casus belli - proved to be his political undoing.

Speaking from Abu Dhabi, Blair said on Sunday that the West's failure to take military action in Syria was one of the main reasons the Iraq crisis had bubbled up.

In an article on his web site, he said the Syrian conflict had given Islamist extremists a chance to rebuild and get military experience, saying there was a risk the country could become a more dangerous source of terror-related threats than Afghanistan in the 1990s.

He blamed the Iraqi government's sectarianism for the crisis too and said it had failed to use oil money to rebuild the country. Its army was inadequate, he added, questioning whether U.S. forces had withdrawn too soon.

The main reason the West had to intervene in Iraq and Syria was to protect its own security, Blair told BBC TV on Sunday.

"These people, if they are allowed to grow, these extremist groups, in the end they will pose a threat for us within our own borders," he said.

Islamist gunmen kill at least 34 in Kenya attack

At least 34 people were killed overnight when suspected Shebab militants from Somalia attacked hotels, restaurants and government offices in a Kenyan coastal town, officials said Monday.

Al-Shebab fighters perform military exercises in the Lafofe area, south of Mogadishu, Somalia. Kenyan authorities blamed the group for Sunday night's attack.

Heavily armed gunmen stormed into the town of Mpeketoni, near the coastal island and popular tourist resort of Lamu, late on Sunday. District deputy commissioner Benson Maisori said several buildings including hotels, restaurants, banks and government offices were burned down.

"There were around 50 attackers, heavily armed in three vehicles, and they were flying the Shebab flag. They were shouting in Somali and shouting 'Allahu Akbar' ('God is Greatest')," he said.

Fierce gun battles began Sunday evening and continued into the early hours of Monday morning, but by dawn, the town of Mpeketoni was reported calm.

"More bodies have been found and what we have now is 34," a local police official said, signalling the toll could rise further because "the search for more bodies is still underway."

The Kenyan Red Cross also confirmed 34 dead.

"Our officers are still combing the area," Kenyan police chief David Kimaiyo also told AFP.

"We suspect the involvement of Al-Shebab in this attack. We are appealing for calm as we do our best the search for the attackers. It is a very unfortunate incident."

Kenyan troops crossed into southern Somalia in 2011 to fight the Shebab, later joining the now 22,000-strong African Union force battling the Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

The Shebab vowed revenge, carrying out a string of attacks on Kenyan soil, including last September's assualt on Nairobi's Westgate mall in which at least 67 people were killed.

'Bodies on the road'

The town of Mpeketoni, a trading centre on the main coastal road, lies on the mainland some 30 kilometres (20 miles) southwest of Lamu island, a popular tourist destination whose ancient architecture is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Cafes and bars were reportedly packed with people watching the World Cup on television when the gunmen attacked.

Kenyan army spokesman Major Emmanuel Chirchir described how the gunmen had stormed the town, overwhelming local police officers, and firing from vehicles "shooting people around in town."

Chirchir also said the attackers were "likely to be Al-Shebab," although there was no immediate claim of responsiblity from the Islamists themselves.

Military surveillance planes were launched shortly after the attack began.

Attackers tried to storm a police post including an armoury, but Maisori said officers had defended the building and fought the gunmen off.

Residents in villages surrounding the town also reporting that the gunmen attacked settlements as they pulled out after fighting in Mpeketoni.

"There are six bodies here, a man and a child in their house, four lying on the road," said Mohammed Hassan, a local resident of Kibaoni, a small settlement some five kilometres (three miles) outside the town.

Last month one of the Shebab's most senior commanders, Fuad Mohamed Khalaf, released radio broadcasts urging fighters to strike Kenya.

Hundreds of British tourists were also evacuated last month from beach resorts near Kenya's port city of Mombasa following new warnings of terror attacks from Britain's Foreign Office.

Britain this week released warnings to citizens in several East African nations -- including Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, who all have troops in Somalia -- speaking of the threat of attacks at public screenings of the World Cup.

The Shebab claimed responsiblity last month for killing two Kenyan soldiers in the same district as Sunday's attack, although further north nearer to the lawless border zone with Somalia.

Rio officer shoots live round during Cup protests

A motorcycle policeman can be seen on an Associated Press video firing what appeared to be a live pistol round at anti-World Cup protesters Sunday near Rio de Janeiro's Maracana soccer stadium.

A man who identified himself as a police officer points his gun at anti-World Cup protesters blocking a road that leads to the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, June 15.

During the small but violent and chaotic protest that played out about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) from the stadium, another man in plainclothes who identified himself as a police officer also pulled a pistol and fired two shots into the air.

Pedro Dantas, a spokesman for the Rio de Janeiro security secretariat that oversees all security forces, said in a phone interview that if authorities verify the accuracy of the video, "we'll immediately open an investigation into the incident."

In a later emailed statement, the secretariat said riot police were hit by Molotov cocktails thrown by protesters. The statement didn't indicate if any officers were hurt.


The action took place around the beginning of the soccer game between Argentina and Bosnia-Herzegovina — the first World Cup match played in Maracana stadium since 1950.

"We're seeing tonight the same police brutality we've seen during the past year, and that's why we have to keep protesting," said Karen Rodrigues, a 23-year-old student at the demonstration that drew around 200 people.

Another protest occurred in the capital, Brasilia, but drew only a handful of participants, and a small protest also was held in Porto Alegre.

Mass protests broke out across Brazil during last year's Confederations Cup soccer tournament, the warm-up to FIFA's premier event. At that time, more than 1 million Brazilians took to the streets on a single day in the largest demonstrations this South American nation had seen in a generation.

But those mass protests died down after about two weeks. Since then, hundreds of smaller, violent protests have been seen across the country, though primarily in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

The demonstrations have turned violent largely because of the almost constant presence of masked adherents to the "Black Bloc" tactic of protest. Black Bloc is a violent form of protest and vandalism that emerged in the 1980s in West Germany and helped shut down the 1999 World Trade Summit in Seattle.

The masked, young Brazilians are following the main anti-capitalist tenets of earlier versions, routinely smashing the windows of banks and multinational businesses, as happened Sunday night near Maracana.

The protest turned violent as demonstrators left the plaza where they gathered and marched toward the stadium on a main avenue. When they reached a security perimeter about a kilometer (half mile) from the stadium, riot police unleashed tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the crowd.

The protesters sprinted into a maze of smaller streets as World Cup fans drinking in small bars looked on. As the protesters regrouped and ran down roads, they frightened families with small children pressed themselves against buildings or took refuge in restaurants or taverns.

Before the violence broke out, the protesters marched through streets and chanted "FIFA, go back to Switzerland," referring to international soccer's governing organization. The protesters are angry over the lavish public spending on stadiums for the World Cup while conditions in Brazil's schools and hospitals remain woeful.

Anti-World Cup demonstrators march near Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, June 15.