European governments and businesses should investigate alternative communication channels to e-mail in the longer term after a string of alarming attacks, the EU’s cyber security agency warned today (13 March) in a special alert. The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) issued the so-called Flash Note in the wake of “recent major cyber-attacks”, calling…
Month: March 2013
UT: Security breach bill passes the House
Antone Clark reports: State lawmakers are taking action to prevent another breach of sensitive data following the inadvertent release of almost 800,000 names in 2012. The House voted unanimously to approve legislation establishing guidelines for how information for Medicaid and CHIP recipients will be handled and also pushing the state to actively identify industry best…
PA: Two Crozer Keystone Health System employees involved in tax refund fraud case
Cindy Scharr reports: A Chester County couple has been charged in a $257,710 tax fraud scam that involved the stolen identities of patients at Crozer-Chester Medical Center and Chester Community Hospital. Rafael Henriquez Polanco, 30, and his wife, Yanira Lopez, 27, residents of Chester Springs, allegedly filed fraudulent tax returns seeking more than $1.7 million…
UK: Medical receptionist prosecuted after unlawfully accessing patient’s details
A former receptionist at a GP surgery in Southampton has been prosecuted by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for unlawfully obtaining sensitive medical information relating to her ex-husband’s new wife. Appearing at West Hampshire Magistrates today, Marcia Phillips was prosecuted under section 55 of the Data Protection Act and fined £750 and ordered to pay…
Some days I’m glad I’m not on the A-list
By now, everyone’s probably heard that a lot of famous people had their details exposed on the Exposed.su web site. By the time the site was taken offline, over 234,000 visitors had viewed personal information on Michelle Obama, Kim Kardashian, Vice-President Joe Biden, FBI Director Robert Mueller, Former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,…
DNA hack could make medical privacy impossible
Kevin Fogarty reports: It may now be possible for anyone, even if they follow rigorous privacy and anonymity practices, to be identified by DNA data from people they do not even know. A paper published in January in the journal Science describes a process by which it’s possible to identify by name the donors of…