Breach

An East Baltimore woman who purchased a problem-ridden house for 7 1/2 times what it had been sold for six months earlier has filed a lawsuit against the seller, alleging fraud and breach of contract.The suit by homebuyer Darlene Glover says she was duped by seller Marie Hoffman into paying $60,000 in 1997 for a house at 819 N. Kenwood Ave. in Patterson Park that Hoffman bought for $8,000 six months earlier.Filed Tuesday in Baltimore Circuit Court by Civil Justice Inc., a nonprofit legal advocacy group, the suit is the latest action targeting house "flipping" -- a practice in which real estate speculators buy substandard properties and quickly sell them at excessive prices.

BOSTON -- A Massachusetts teen-ager has pleaded guilty to invading a telephone company computer last winter, knocking out communications to the tower at Worcester Regional Airport, and cutting phone service to hundreds of residents in a nearby town.The youth, whose name and age are being withheld under federal law, was the first juvenile ever charged by the federal government with a computer crime, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Boston, which announced the charges and plea agreement yesterday.

WASHINGTON -- The president, it seems, has been taking himself seriously in his frequent references to himself as ''the repairer of the breach.'' Casting about for a legacy larger than family leave, a news subject grander than grand juries, he has lighted upon the subject of race.In February, he asked Erskine Bowles to take time off from his compassionate efforts for poor ol' Webb and figure out what to do about the difficulties between white people and black people in this country. And now the president is going to take some actions.

WASHINGTON -- There may have been hearings and subpoenas and nasty partisan brawls in the past. There may be much more to come. But yesterday, for one day -- one long day of poetry and pageantry -- President Clinton seemed to declare to his opponents, "Truce."On a brisk, wind-chilled day, even the weather was in an accommodating mood, the sun breaking through clouds as if on cue, just as Clinton slipped out of his overcoat and took the oath of office from Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.

A Baltimore County judge issued an injunction yesterday against an Illinois manufacturer that tried to cut off its product shipments to Tessco Technologies Inc., a Sparks-based distributor of wireless telephone network equipment.Circuit Judge Christian M. Kahl ordered Andrew Corp., of Orland Park, Ill., to continue to sell its cable, connectors and other products to Tessco under the terms of a distribution agreement it attempted to terminate. According to Tessco Friday, Andrew gave it 30 days' notice that it intended to end the agreement.

Rogue computer experts have tampered with America Online's business and customer information files, creating a security breach that could affect the accounts of subscribers to the giant on-line service.A spokeswoman with the on-line service confirmed that the company has a security problem but would not disclose details of recent problems out of concern that any information could be used by hackers against the company's computer network.But sources associated with the company said that the hackers appeared to have obtained access to a wide variety of files, including the personal files of Steve Case, the company's president and chief executive.

A state test given to Maryland schoolchildren must be revised because Baltimore's school system has breached security by publishing test questions in a teachers' guide.State school officials called the action a "breach of test security" and a copyright infringement. They are investigating whether the use of actual test questions was deliberate or inadvertent, and plan to bill the city school system for the cost of revising the exam, currently estimated at $2,000. City school officials also are investigating.

Responding to a recent security breach at the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. courthouse, the city sheriff's office has turned up the sensitivity levels of metal detectors at both courthouse buildings.But, because the detectors now flag nearly all metal objects -- including belt buckles, earrings and coins -- deputies must scan almost every courthouse visitor by hand. And that has led to another problem: lines of people waiting to enter the courthouse ooze down the steps and threaten to spill onto Calvert Street.

A Towson lawyer has filed a class-action lawsuit against Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland, alleging that the insurer does not give subscribers the benefit of a "secret discount" it receives on bills from health care providers.But the lawyer, Philip O. Foard, said yesterday that he does not know for sure that the practice -- the subject of lawsuits in other states -- is taking place in Maryland. He said he filed the case on behalf of William J. Gilleland III, a Dundalk businessman, to find out whether the practice exists locally.

Maryland women's lacrosse coach Cindy Timchal denied yesterday that a championship rules violation was committed during the 1993 national semifinals.An unidentified coach informed the NCAA that the Terps videotaped the Final Four games at Byrd Stadium last year, which would violate championship standards but not NCAA rules."

Washington -Congress is investigating a "serious" failure by the National Security Agency to comply with legal limits on its domestic eavesdropping activities, key lawmakers said Thursday. An internal review by the Justice Department and the NSA found that the spy agency's monitoring program had exceeded limits set by Congress last year designed to protect the privacy of U.S. citizens. The Justice Department said that steps have been taken to correct the problem, discovered as the Obama administration was preparing to seek renewal of the surveillance program.

A security breach at a major credit card payment processor has prompted more than two dozen banks nationwide - including Baltimore-based Provident Bank - to notify customers that their credit and debit card numbers might have been compromised. Provident sent new cards to customers last week with a letter stating that it has "been advised of a very large data breach impacting millions of credit and debit card numbers." Only those customers who received letters and replacement cards sent last week were affected, said Dana Jung, Provident's manager of business continuity and customer information security.

Personal information of about 56,000 Maryland consumers was compromised when several former employees of LendingTree.com, an online mortgage lending exchange, gave three mortgage brokers unauthorized access to company databases, according to state records. Charlotte, N.C.-based LendingTree's internal security discovered the breach in early February, according to an April 17 letter sent to the Maryland attorney general's office. An investigation revealed that the former employees divulged passwords for company databases containing consumer information.

Maryland : Acquisitions FTI Consulting buys Forensic Accounting Baltimore-based FTI Consulting Inc., the quickly growing business services company, said yesterday that it was adding to its accounting base by acquiring Forensic Accounting LLP in London. The acquisition is FTI's seventh this year. FTI did not disclose the amount that it paid for the 36-employee company but said it expected the deal would close next week. Forensic Accounting's partners have all agreed to become senior managing directors, FTI said.

When a Maryland dental HMO acknowledged this week that it had accidentally posted the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of 75,000 members on its Web site, the revelation made news. But the security breach at The Dental Network is just one of more than three dozen filed so far this year with the Maryland attorney general's office, The Sun has learned. And though most of the security breaches are much smaller, they underscore how hard it is to completely protect computerized information.

A CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield dental HMO accidentally exposed personal information, including Social Security numbers, of about 75,000 members on a public Web site last month and didn't notify them until about three weeks later. The Dental Network, which is owned by CareFirst, informed the members - mostly Maryland and District of Columbia residents - that their names, addresses, dates of birth and Social Security numbers had been posted on its Web site for two weeks in February because of a technical error.

LONDON -- The British government struggled yesterday to explain its loss of computer discs containing detailed personal information on 25 million Britons, including an unknown number of bank account identifiers, in what analysts described as potentially the most significant privacy breach of the digital era. It has defended its decision not to reveal the loss until Tuesday, 10 days after it had been informed, saying banks had asked for time to put heightened...

BREACH -- Universal / 29.98 A key question of post-Sept. 11 life - "Whom can you trust?" - receives quietly horrifying treatment in Breach, the real-life tale of an espionage case that unfolded early in 2001 and that would have dominated headlines for many months had it not been for Sept. 11. Robert Hanssen spent 22 of his 25 years in the FBI divulging secrets to the U.S.S.R. and then to the new Russia. He passed along the names of KGB agents on the U.S. payroll as well as emergency protocols for relocating the president.

Capsules by film critics Michael Sragow and Chris Kaltenbach unless noted. Full reviews are at baltimoresun.com/movies. 300, -- a blood-strewn retelling of that apotheosis of Spartan military glory, the Battle of Thermopylae, is the best example yet of the movie-as-comic-book. Based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller, whose testosterone-soaked storytelling has made him a genre favorite, 300 captures not only the look and feel of its source material, but its essence as well. Gerard Butler is the Spartan King Leonidas, leading a band of 300 impossibly buff warriors, clad in little more than thongs, to take on the invading Persians at Thermopylae, where sure death - and even surer glory - await.

In its own deliciously dogged manner, Breach tells the story of the capture of super-spy Robert Hanssen from what looks, at first, like the wrong end of the telescope. Writer-director Billy Ray doesn't try to dazzle you with the scope of Hanssen's treachery. He focuses on how this man could operate for decades as an enemy within, rising to the top rung of American counterintelligence experts. By the end, the movie has planted a big nightmare in your brain that won't leave you at the crack of dawn.