The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged two police officers with insurance fraud after they allegedly took unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Los Angeles Police Department said Police Officer III Peter Mastrocinque and Police Officer II Nicole Grant were arrested on Friday after prosecutors filed the charges. LAPD said the officers surrendered themselves. They were booked, released and placed on administrative leave.
Investigators said the pair submitted allegedly fraudulent unemployment insurance applications in 2020 and 2021. LAPD said their applications were flagged following the DA’s review of potentially fraudulent unemployment benefits claims.
The DA’s Office worked with the LAPD’s Special Operations Division and determined that there was probable cause to believe that Mastrocinque and Grant submitted fraudulent applications and received…
IT & DATA SECURITY (MITIGATING THE “INSIDER THREAT”)
As seen in the TD Bank case, an employee with too much “access” can sell your customer data to syndicates.
- Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP): Employees should only have access to the specific folders and databases required for their current task.
- Access Revocation: Have a “Termination Checklist” that ensures all digital access (Email, VPN, Banking) is revoked within 60 minutes of an employee resigning or being dismissed.
- System Logs & Audit Trails: Enable “Read/Write Logging” on your server. If a customer’s data is leaked, you need to know exactly which login accessed that record and at what time.
- Encryption at Rest: Ensure that sensitive files (like your customer ID numbers or payroll spreadsheets) are encrypted so that if a staff member copies them to a USB, they cannot be read.