Allison Grande reports: The Third Circuit recently refused to allow Benecard Inc. employees and customers to proceed with negligence and breach of contract claims against the company in the wake of a data breach, creating a new obstacle for those pursuing data security class actions against employers and service providers in the absence of clear…
Month: August 2016
County-USC patients’ personal information stolen in car break-in
Abby Sewell reports: Files containing personal information on more than 700 patients treated at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center were stolen when an employee’s car was broken into, county health officials said Monday. The break-in occurred in July. The county Department of Health Services released a statement after trying to notify the affected patients by mail. The…
Tens of Thousands of Infowars Accounts Hacked (UPDATED)
Joseph Cox reports: Tens of thousands of subscriber accounts for media company Infowars are being traded in the digital underground. Infowars, created by famed radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, produces radio, documentaries and written pieces. The dumped data relates to Prison Planet TV, which gives paying subscribers access to a variety of Infowars content….
The number of Texas companies held accountable for data breaches?
Shawn Shinneman reports: The Office of the Attorney General hasn’t disciplined a single Texas company for failing to notify customers of a data breach – and records show it is only directly notified of a small portion of the incidents, the Dallas Business Journal has learned. The issue could stem from the way Texas’ cybersecurity…
Illinois, Arizona election officials report voter registration database intrusions
Rick Pearson reports: Ilinois State Board of Elections officials said Monday they believe personal information from fewer than 200,000 voters was hacked through a cyber attack of possible foreign origin that began in June and was halted a month later. Ken Menzel, general counsel for the elections board, said no files of registered voters were…
Appalachian Regional Hospitals on emergency operations plan; computers shut down after malware injection
Daniel Tyson reports: Appalachian Regional Hospitals in Beckley and Summers County computer systems were breached Saturday afternoon, but company officials were tight-lipped as to the extent or what information was seized by the hackers. The hospitals’ parent company, Appalachian Regional Healthcare, issued a two-paragraph statement that their hospitals in West Virginia and Kentucky are on…