At a joint hearing of two New York City Council committees (on Tuesday), the New York Civil Liberties Union raised serious privacy concerns related to New York State’s ongoing transition to electronic medical records. “Sharing health information among health care providers will likely benefit patients greatly, but to recognize this benefit we need to take…
Author: Dissent
AHS medical records of 2,700 children stolen with laptop: Privacy boss
Don Braid reports on a number of recently revealed breaches in Alberta, Canada: The medical records of 2,700 children were stolen with a laptop computer belonging to a researcher with access to Alberta Health Services files, Information and Privacy Commissioner Frank Work revealed today. The researcher has reported the loss to only 46 of the…
Blizzard’s Chinese GM quits after large data breach
Matthew Humphries writes about major fallout following the exposure of confidential files on the Internet: All is not well at the offices of Blizzard China. Last week a large data breach occurred which saw financial data, media packages, commercial budgets, global subscriber details, and worst of all–the road map for future game releases all taken….
House Approves Social Security Number Protection Act
On December 8, 2010, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Social Security Number Protection Act of 2010 (S. 3789), which is aimed at reducing identity theft by limiting access to Social Security numbers. The bill prohibits printing Social Security numbers, or any derivative of a Social Security number, on government-issued checks, and bars federal, state and…
Alberta’s Privacy Commissioner shocked over digital devices (updated)
A rash of theft and loss of digital devices has Alberta’s Information and Privacy Commissioner scratching his head. In the past month, there have been seven self reported breaches of personal information, each involving a stolen or lost laptop or digital device. Two of those are government computers and personal information is at risk. Frank…
FL: Former IT Technician Sentenced to Jail for Computer Intrusion
U.S. Attorney Robert E. O’Neill announced that U.S. District Judge Susan C. Bucklew sentenced Patricia Marie Fowler (age 30, of Palmetto), the former information technology (IT) technician for the Suncoast Community Health Centers (SCHC) located in Ruskin, Florida, to 18 months in federal prison for committing computer intrusions causing damage of at least $17,000. The…