When Vinny Met Sally (Lexis-Nexis' Data Breach And Organized Crime)

This Information Security Resources article titled, "He’s Not After Your Heart, Just Your Data" documented a new threat which is the intersection of dating, insider identity theft, and organized crime:

"Lexis-Nexis made public notification of a data breach that federal authorities say is tied to a New York mafia crime family. The New York-based company has sent more than 13,000 letters to former customers whose personal data may be at risk. The 13,000 customers may have been targeted for extortion and identity theft. Earlier in May, the U.S. Attorney General’s office in Southern District of Florida handed down an indictment charging 11 men with racketeering conspiracy. The 11 had ties to the Bonnano organized crime family."

How the operation worked:

"The alleged suspect, Lee Klein, one of the 11 charged in the indictment, “was an employee of a former Seisint customer who misused his employer’s Accurint access... Accurint is used by law enforcement and other entities to verify identity and locate people... Klein worked for the criminal “crew” of Thomas Fiore, an associate of the Bonanno organized crime family. The indictment alleges that Klein illegally used “information obtained from computer databases in order to acquire identification information regarding potential victims of extortion” and people suspected by Fiore’s criminal organization of being involved with law enforcement."

How the dating connection figures into all of this:

"One of the “old school” tactics that the organized crime figures use, says [Avivah Litan, an analyst at the Gartner Group], is going to the local watering holes and seducing young girls and finding out where they work. The mob’s tactic of dating new employees who work at companies that have access to customer data leads to Litan’s warning, 'He’s not after your heart; he’s after your data.' ”