Alecks Devic reports: The radio station at the centre of the royal hoax call scandal could face legal repercussions, including legal action from the Duchess of Cambridge over the broadcasting of her private medical details. Legal experts say the prank call was a clear breach of several laws, including those concerning listening and surveillance devices,…
Author: Dissent
Cheng v. Romo and Applying Unauthorized Access Statutes to Use of Shared Passwords
Orin Kerr writes: The federal computer crime statutes punish unauthorized access to a computer. As regular readers know, courts are hopelessly divided on what this language means, and in particular what makes an access to a computer authorized versus unauthorized. In Cheng v. Romo, 2012 WL 6021369 (D. Mass. Nov. 28 2012), Judge Casper authored an…
AU: Medical center receives ransom demand to unlock patient files
Stephanie Bedo reports on that a medical center’s worst nightmare has occurred. From Goldcoast: A Gold Coast medical centre is being held to ransom by an international computer hacker who wants $4000 to unlock thousands of patient files. The Miami Family Medical Centre has been without the patient files for more than a week after…
Update and commentary on SCDOR breach: Where would they be without media coverage?
I’ve been pretty critical of the South Carolina Department of Revenue breach and the state’s incident response. Some will think my criticism is well-deserved, while others may feel I’ve been too harsh. But it is now six weeks since we first learned of the breach and here is what hasn’t happened so far: Notification letters…
Carolinas HealthCare System notifies Carolinas Medical Center-Randolph patients after e-mail intrusion
From a statement posted today: Carolinas HealthCare System is notifying approximately 5,600 patients of Carolinas Medical Center-Randolph (CMC-Randolph) whose private information may have been breached by an unauthorized electronic intruder and approximately 700 additional patients of the affected provider as a precautionary measure even though no evidence has been found that their information was obtained…
State Farm and Nationwide fail to convince WV Supreme Court to let them retain – and share – medical records obtained under protective orders
Here’s another recent and interesting privacy case in West Virginia discussed by Bordas & Bordas, who have just been added to my bookmarks: In September, they wrote: Insurance companies routinely gather medical records in the course of taking applications and processing claims. What do you think they do with this private healthcare information? The answer…