On Monday, CMS announced a final rule allowing qualified organizations to access its claims database to develop public ratings reports on physicians, hospitals and other health care providers, the AP/Washington Post reports Background According to the AP/Post, the database is considered the “mother lode” of health care data, with information on 47 million beneficiaries and nearly every participating physician and…
Author: Dissent
UK: ICO requires barrister to sign undertaking after theft of unencrypted laptop
The ICO has quietly announced that a London barrister, Richard Dominic Preston, signed an undertaking following the theft of a laptop computer from Mr Preston’s home. The laptop contained documents relating to cases on which Mr Preston had been instructed, together with email correspondence. According to the undertaking, much of the data in the documents on the…
UK: Burglars steal equipment with 8,000 dental patients' information
Here’s another UK breach that we didn’t hear about at the time and only learned about because the entity had to sign an undertaking with the ICO: An undertaking to comply with the seventh principle of the DPA has been signed by Alan M Casson & Associates, after two unencrypted laptops and back up media had…
Follow-up to a UK breach: Godalming College signs an undertaking
A follow-up to a breach reported back in April involving Godalming College e-mailing sensitive medical details on 300 students to an entire year group: the college has now signed an undertaking with the ICO to improve its data protection practices. The undertaking provides a bit more detail on how the breach occurred: The Information Commissioner…
Restaurant Depot/Jetro Cash & Carry Customers’ Credit Cards Hacked (update2)
Gawker.com is not one of my usual sources for news on data breaches, but they managed to uncover a breach that we would not have known about had it not appeared on a firearms discussion forum (yes, really): If you used a credit card between the dates of Sept. 21 and Nov. 18th at national…
Millions of online poker players’ data leaked on the Internet
Online gambling sites have had a few mega breaches over the past few years. Now Ultimate Bet Poker (Blanca Games) has joined the unhappy ranks. No one seems to know how or who or when, but a lot of data on 3.5 million players has reportedly been available on the web since November 20. According…