A Minnesota resident, Jeffrey Ness, has filed a potential class action lawsuit against the state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Department of Public Safety after a DNR employee exceeded authorized access and accessed about 5,000 residents’ driver’s license information. The employee was terminated but the motive for the improper access was not disclosed. In the lawsuit filed…
Author: Dissent
Office intern at Jacksonville primary care center charged with ID theft
Here we go again: a cellphone being used to steal patient info. Dana Treen reports: Names and Social Security numbers of 261 people were illegally photographed at a Shands Jacksonville clinic then transmitted to another person, according to an arrest report in the case. Daremia Nikeka Crews, 24, of the 5300 block of Saginaw Avenue…
E-number spreadsheet with Eastern Illinois University student data leaked
Chacour Koop reports: The grade point averages of 430 students were released to 65 students about two and a half weeks ago, which is a violation of the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Robert Miller, Eastern’s general counsel, has refused to comment on the violations. Sue Harvey, Eastern’s registrar and FERPA officer, has…
Sony fined £250,000 after millions of UK gamers’ details compromised in 2011 Playstation hack
It was one of the biggest hacks of 2011 from a media standpoint, and at least some of those involved were subsequently arrested. But Sony’s woes from the hack are not over and it has now been hit with the biggest monetary penalty ever issued by the U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office for a data breach….
Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford notifying 57,000 patients after laptop stolen from physician's car
From their press release, issued yesterday: Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford and the Stanford University School of Medicine are notifying patients by mail that a password-protected laptop computer containing limited medical information on pediatric patients was stolen from a physician’s car away from campus on the night of January 9, 2013. This incident was…
Former patient claims confidentiality breach in Prime Healthcare lawsuit
When the CEO of Prime Healthcare and Shasta Regional Medical Center disclosed patient records in trying to defend themselves against a media report, I immediately noted that without the patient’s consent, they could not do that. Despite what was so obvious to most of us, they defended their disclosure, claiming that the patient had waived…