Health insurance giant WellPoint has already annoyed its customers by trying to jack up their rates and dropping breast cancer patients’ coverage after they’d been diagnosed with the disease. But now they really have some explaining to do, after a security breach exposed medical records, credit card numbers and other information of 470,000 customers.

WellPoint says the fault, dear readers, lies not within their hands, but in the hands of an outside vendor hired last October to update an application on the company’s website.

The vendor had supposedly promised WellPoint that all security measures were back in place after the upgrade was performed.

Except not.

Soon after the upgrade, a woman in California discovered that, by playing around with the URL, she could call up confidential information of other customers.

According to WellPoint, they had the leak fixed within 12 hours of learning about it and subsequently filed suit against the unnamed outside vendor. However, that doesn’t erase the fact that customers’ accounts were exposed between October 2009 and March 2010.

The insurance company, the nation’s largest health provider by policyholders, has sent out notices to customers whose accounts were exposed. It will provide a year of free credit monitoring to those exposed customers.

This isn’t the first time WellPoint has had to issue a “our bad” following a security breach. In 2008, information for around 128,000 customers was exposed. To atone, the company also offered free credit monitoring to affected customers.

And way back in 2006, backup computer tapes containing the personal information of 200,000 of its members were stolen from a Massachusetts vendor’s office.

Security glitch exposes WellPoint customers’ financial, medical data [USA Today]

The Verizon iPhone is turning into the telecom equivalent of a Jen Aniston baby, as rumors continue to abound regarding when — or even if — Big V will be the first U.S. mobile carrier to break AT&T’s stronghold on the popular smartphone. The latest rumor to be put through the mill comes from BusinessWeek, who say that Verizon customers will have a very iPhone New Year.

Citing “two people familiar with the plans,” who no doubt met the BW reporter in a darkened alley near Cupertino, Verizon customers will be able to line up for iPhones starting in January.

One analyst predicts that Verizon, the largest carrier in the U.S., could bring as many as 3 million new iPhone customers to Apple’s doorstep each quarter:

The fact is, Apple is going to dramatically increase the number of devices it sells in the U.S. when exclusivity at AT&T ends… It’s hard to ignore the quality issues that AT&T has faced.

As reported previously, Apple is set to begin production on CDMA iPhones that could run on networks operated by Verizon or Sprint.

Verizon Wireless Said to Get Apple IPhone in January [BusinessWeek]

A couple weeks back, we discussed the growing trend of in-game ads in video games. And while it’s nothing new for sports games to feature sponsors in the background, the ad folks at Old Spice are breaking new ground, not just sponsoring a portion of the game, but completely fabricating a new statistic — swagger — to slap their name on.

Kotaku readers who’ve gotten their hands on the pre-release player statistics for the upcoming Madden NFL 11 football game noticed right away that there is a mysterious new “swagger” stat mixed in with the other numbers for each player. Not only is “swagger” displayed in a font that makes it stand out, it’s also got the Old Spice logo attached to it.

Old Spice is the “official deodorant and body wash” of the NFL, so I guess it makes some sense that they would so blatantly attached to the game. But why just a single stat? You often see things like “here’s the Coors Light starting offense, brought to you by Coors Light,” but you don’t often hear “Kyle Orton’s got a Doritos completion percentage of 57.8%.”

Is this the thin edge of the wedge? What kinds of “synergistic co-branding” do you expect to see next?

Madden’s Newest Stat, “Swagger,” is Sponsored [Kotaku]

I realize there isn’t any GOOD news about the oil spill, but among the countless bits of BAD news on it, here are a few big ones:
* Toxic Dispersant Maker Hires Top Lobbyists: Nalco, the maker of the toxic dispersant BP is using, has a plan to deal with the toxicity of its product and all of the marine life poisoned in the Gulf … lobbying! Surely, that will fix the problem. Or, at least, cover it up and get Nalco off the hook.
* EPA Covers Up Toxicity of the Oil Spill: Oh yeah, it’s totally safe for all of the cleanup workers says BP… and the EPA. Why is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency covering up for BP, the biggest environmental criminal of the entire millennium? The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is saying it’s safe, too.
* Meanwhile, BP is Burning Endangered Sea Turtles Alive. The Kemp’s Ridley’s Sea Turtles were painstakingly brought back from the brink of extinction in a beautiful story that was well-documented in the book Eco Barons by Edward Humes. More info here and take action here.

Anyone else sick of living in a country with a government that is so clearly for, by, and of the corporations?

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If you visit the Harry Potter theme park this summer and happen to see a relatively large person poking himself with his brand new wand and muttering reduccio!, don’t be confused. He was probably just told he can’t ride the Forbidden Journey dark ride at the park.

Yahoo movies says Universal Studios theme park doesn’t have specific weight limits, but for Forbidden Journey it has a tester seat you have to fit into, as well as a tester restraint you have to pull over and fasten correctly, before you’re allowed to move ahead in the queue.

One 310 pound fan was turned away, so now he’s publicly dieting so he can manage to fit into the seat. And with the Harry Potter Theme Park Diet Plan, Universal may have just found a secondary revenue stream for girthier fans.

“Harry Potter Fans Deemed Too Heavy for ‘Wizarding World’ Ride” [Yahoo! Movies] (Thanks to Harper!)

An LAWeekly reader sent in this photo of a sign at a local cafe. We’ve heard the espresso and a puppy line before, but the addition of a drum and profanity really adds something to the mental picture. Kudos.

LA Weekly Reader Twitpic Photo of the Day: Espresso + A Puppy [LA Weekly]

The APR on Kevin’s Wells Fargo credit card got jacked up from 9.6% to almost 23%. He owes $16,000. At 9.6, he could afford to make double the monthly payments, but now he’s paying $300+ a month in finance charges alone. He’s begged up and down the hierarchy, from the CEO to any exec or VP he could reach, to please reduce his APR so he can carry this debt. Nope. The numbers have spoken. The odds are calculated. Your risk has been assessed, and the verdict has been issued: you lose.

Kevin writes:

To whomever reads this,

My name is Kevin, and after racking up a large amount of debt on my credit card, my employer went out of business. At the time, and for even a year after, I could easily make twice the minimum payment, and was assured that my 9.6% APR would always be extended.

Fast-forward to today, after fighting for months about it, my APR is now almost 23% on a $16,000 balance. I emailed the CEO John Stumpf of Wells Fargo, and talked to every Senior Executive and Vice President I could to get it lowered. I was told that there is nothing that could be done. I have never missed a payment, been late, or paid anything less than almost double the minimum due. I was sent a letter in the mail stating that if I did not pay, then I would be taken to court. With my credit going from the low 800s to the sub-parking garage 300s because of the “refi” Bank of America is processing (for 14 months… and counting), I have no ability to apply for a new lower interest card to help get out of this mess.

I have paid over $4,500 in the last four months, draining my savings a lot to pay the card down. Roughly $2,000 of that went to finance charges. I have managed to pay off all but one other credit card, which is deferred interest for another year with $1000 balance, and cut my spending severley in the last eight months. But paying $300+ in interest a month is killing me. I have tried negotiating with Wells for a settlement amount, and they said they want $12,000 to settle (which isn’t really much less than I owe).

I am sure you hear this story a million times, but I just want some good advice on how to get rid of this balance. I am willing to sacrifice, I have been doing it for quite a while now.

Please, please let me know if I have any way out of this stress?

Thank you
Sincerely,

Kevin

That’s a tough pickle. Without knowing more about your income and expenses, it’s tough to say anything more helpful than increase income and reduce expenses. Maybe if you can get that refi expedited that will loosen up some cash or reduce your monthly mortgage payments, which can go towards the card. Do you also have a car you’re making payments on? Can you sell that? You might also want to give the free credit counselors at CredAbility.org a ping. They can give you actionable next steps to improve your situation.

Maybe it’s a good thing that more and more airlines are charging to chow down on their mediocre meals. FDA reports uncovered by USA Today reveals the unappetizing conditions at some of the kitchens that prepare the overpriced grub.

At the Denver kitchen for LSG Sky Chefs, the largest caterer for airline food, inspectors found cockroach carcasses “too numerous to count,” not to mention that the kitchen floor tested positive for everyone’s favorite bacteria, Listeria.

Via the Freedom of Information Act, USA Today requested FDA inspection reports for the kitchens operated by LSG as well as those operated by second-largest caterer Gate Gourmet and another large caterer, Flying Food Group. Together, these three operations run 91 kitchens and prepare over 100 million meals to the airline industry each year.

Of the 46 inspection reports received by USA Today thus far, 27 of them were flagged for violations by the FDA. Among the less-appetizing:

•At the LSG facility in Minneapolis, inspectors found a mouse, rodent nesting materials and rodent feces under a pallet of food and elsewhere in the kitchen.

•Gate Gourmet’s Dulles, VA, facility of Gate Gourmet, was cited for failing to keep shrimp, filet mignon, Chilean sea bass, chicken and vegetables, and pastrami and cheese sandwiches at the proper temperature. And even after the inspector pointed this out to employees, the shrimp and the pastrami and cheese sandwiches were not thrown in the garbage.

Luckily for everyone, airline cost-cutting and higher prices for food are having a positive impact on the quality of the food coming from these kitchens.

Says an FDA rep, who knows to never order the fish dish:

With less ready-to-eat fresh food offered in coach class and substitution with prepackaged, shelf-stable foods, the opportunity for poor preparation, storing foods at improper temperatures and food-handling violations is much lower.

Inspectors find safety flaws where airline food is prepared [USA Today]

In addition to pale ales, Stone Brewing Co. sells mustards and sauces made with beer. Last week, in a blog post titled “MustardGate 2010,” the company announced that it recently discovered its mustards were beerless. (Or as they describe it, those mustards are “instant beer mustards–just add beer!”) The real mystery is what happened to the beer; the brewer says the kegs sent out to the mustard company were sent back empty.

 
Although their apology video is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, the company seems sincere enough about the manufacturing screw-up. Their official recall offer is somewhat meager: bring your mustard into their physical location and they’ll swap it for a 22 oz. bottle of beer, or use a coupon code to take 10% off any other order. But on their Facebook page, they say they’ll be refunding accounts:

We will be refunding all accounts that ordered from us, and are going through our records to review all the orders placed. Please bear with us as we try to make this a speedy process. We intend to make it right with not just our fans, but stores as well. Please give us a call.

MustardGate 2010 [stonebrew.com] (Thanks to Nick!)

If you’ve worked in a store and you haven’t done something like this, you’re better people than we are. That’s all we have to say, really.

More…

The 9 Greatest Price Tag Placements [BuzzFeed via slightlywarped]