James Brooks reports: A French court has effectively reaffirmed the country’s policy of gamete donor anonymity by rejecting a donor-conceived woman’s demand for information on her biological father. The woman requested that a message be passed on to the man asking whether he would accept to be identified. She was also seeking disclosure of non-identifying information – medical…
Author: Dissent
Patient Privacy or Scientific Advances: Do They Have to Be Mutually Exclusive?
Alex Philippidis writes about recent trends in addressing privacy concerns in genomic studies. He writes, in part: Dr. McGuire led a research team that published results in Genetics in Medicine last year from their study of consent given to researchers by 323 adults recruited into one of six genome studies at BCM. The adults were randomly assigned…
Belfast Trust fined £225,000 after leaving thousands of patient records in disused hospital
Another big fine from the ICO: Belfast Health and Social Care (BHSC) Trust has been served with a Civil Monetary Penalty (CMP) of £225,000 following a serious breach of the Data Protection Act (DPA), the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said today. The breach involved the sensitive personal data of thousands of patients and staff, and included medical…
Is network offense the best network defense?
Stewart Baker responds to Joseph Menn’s recent report on companies fighting back against attackers. He comments on the different offensive strategies: Here’s the problem. A generation of computer crime lawyers at the Justice Department has devoted their careers to discouraging the reaction that Menn describes. That’s because the fundamental law in this area, the law…
AU: No answers from Qld Health
John Corlett reports: More than one week after a major security breach, Queensland Health still does not know how a number of sensitive medical documents were left lying in the gutter. Rockhampton Hospital began an investigation into the security breach early last week after The Morning Bulletin carried a story revealing that sensitive medical documents…
Kayak.com investigates after customer discovers security breach
Dylan C. Robertson reports: Kevin Hunt travels whenever he finds time off and a good deal. So when his credit statement listed Kayak.com, he went to the travel booking site to see which trip the charge was for. The site allows people to find reservation details by searching their last name and the last four…