Thousands of Hawaii workers exposed to possible identity theft. The Hawaii Attorney General’s Office alerted more than 40,000 Hawaii residents Thursday, April 13, that they are at risk for identity theft. This includes 22,000 private sector employees, and more than 21,000 members of the Hawaii Government Employees Association and the United Public Workers Union. The warning comes after the U.S. Secret Service and Postal Inspection Service notified the state attorney general of the theft of insurance company records. Those records include a list of names and Social Security numbers of people enrolled in certain health and group life insurance plans in 1999. The Honolulu Police Department found the copied records on a computer that was being used by a suspect under investigation for drug crimes. Information regarding spouses and dependent children were not included in the stolen lists. Federal officials first informed the Attorney General’s office of the theft in January. The incident has not been disclosed publicly until now because it would have impaired the federal investigation.

Ireland’s online bank, RaboDirect, has become the first bank in the country to offer its customers a security guarantee; customers are guaranteed they will not lose any money in the event of online theft. RaboDirect customers will have a token that generates a one-time use passcode to be used in their two-factor authentication scheme. These tokens are a great step for the constomer’s! While some may complain about a slight inconvenience this measure should completely thwart the efforts of phishing and scam artists! I wonder when the U.S. banks will step up to the plate and start to adopt similar measures to secure their customer’s identity?