The Harris County Attorney’s office filed two lawsuits against nine people, accusing them of operating a fraudulent deed scheme involving numerous properties across the county.
Speaking at a press conference Wednesday, Harris County Attorney Abbie Kamin said the nine defendants — Mario Cavazos, Amelia Martinez, Maria Del Rosario Gonzalez-Garcia, Antia Martinez, Francisco Diaz Martinez, Francisca Rodriguez, Jorge Villatoro, David Garcia Garcia, Juan Guevara and David Carmona — are accused of forging paperwork to fraudulently obtain deeds. Kamin said the defendants would then turn around and sell or rent these homes to unexpected buyers.
“I have a message to anyone out there committing this kind of…
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.