Susanna Griffee reports on a breach involving backup tapes stolen from a vehicle that had been left unattended: The personal information of 1.7 million patients, hospital staff and associated employees was recently stolen, and city officials are notifiying potential victims to warn them about the loss of the files. The files were reported stolen in…
Author: Dissent
Unencrypted FirstGroup America applicant data on lost flash drive
An unencrypted flash drive with First Transit applicants’ personal information was recently lost on a bus in Cincinnati. According to a notification sent to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office on February 4, the stick was lost on January 21. It contained applicants’ names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security Numbers, information about applicants’ criminal…
Hawaii Considers Amendments To Data Breach Notification Law
Libbie Canter writes: Hawaii legislators have introduced several bills to amend the state’s data breach notice law. Two of these legislative measures would eliminate the “risk of harm” trigger for breach notification in Hawaii. Currently, notice to Hawaii consumers is required only “where illegal use of the [breached] personal information has occurred, or is reasonably…
UK: Police officers and staff broke data laws 67 times in three years
Often, the only way we find out the scope of a problem is when the media or activists file a freedom of information request. Some data revealed thanks to a Freedom of Information request made by the Scunthorpe Telegraph: Humberside Police officers and staff breached data protection laws 67 times in the past three years,…
UK: Around 10,000 CRB background checks land in the wrong inbox
Gwent Police is taking remedial action after the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found it in breach of the Data Protection Act for accidentally emailing results of Criminal Reference Bureau (CRB) checks performed by the force to a member of the public. An email containing a spreadsheet of the results of around 10,000 CRB enquiries was…
eHarmony Hacked
Brian Krebs writes: Online dating giant eHarmony has begun urging many users to change their passwords, after being alerted by KrebsOnSecurity.com to a potential security breach of customer information. The individual responsible for all the ruckus is an Argentinian hacker who recently claimed responsibility for a similar breach at competing e-dating site PlentyOfFish.com. […] Joseph…