Federal data breaches jumped 19 percent last year, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday. There were roughly 13,000 incidents reported by agencies in 2010 involving unauthorized disclosures of personally identifiable information — last year, that figure shot up to 15,500, Greg Wilshusen, GAO’s director of information security issues, told the Senate subcommittee on government management…
Author: Dissent
Privacy commissioner ‘deeply disturbed’ by Election Ontario’s handling of voter data
Caroline Alphonso reports: Elections Ontario ignored security measures and went right back to using memory sticks without enabling the encryption software just days after personal information of as many as 2.4 million voters – contained on two USB keys without the necessary safeguards – vanished from one of its warehouses, the province’s privacy commissioner charged….
OHSU says data about some patients and employees stolen in a home burglary
Oregon Health & Science University Hospital officials have posted a notice on their web site. While most of the notice concerns patient information, it appears that almost 200 employees had their Social Security Numbers on the stolen USB drive. OHSU has set up a toll free number to respond to patient questions. Information stored on…
Recent Developments — Both in the Courts and in Congress — on the Scope of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
Orin Kerr writes: I’ve blogged a lot on the scope of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and specifically on whether using a computer in violation of a computer use policy or Terms of Service is a federal crime. I’ve been banging the drum urging courts to adopt a narrow interpretations of the Act for a decade,…
Michele Bachmann sued by former aide who says campaign staff were ‘thieves who stole contact list’ (update1)
A campaign aide for former Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann sued the Minnesota congresswoman and her senior campaign aides on Monday, alleging an official stole a private email list and that she was blamed for its use. The lawsuit filed by Barb Heki claimed that Bachmann’s Iowa campaign chairman, state Senator Kent Sorenson, took the…
Hartford Hospital and VNA Healthcare notify patients after laptop stolen from vendor employee's home
Christine Dempsey reports: An [sic] laptop computer stolen from a business associated with Hartford Hospital and its sister home-health care group contains personal information of nearly 10,000 patients, the hospital said Monday. Officials from the hospital and VNA HealthCare learned on June 26 that the laptop had been stolen from the home of an employee of Greenplum,…