Matthew Hensley reports: Identity thieves may have stolen hundreds, perhaps thousands, of records from a former tax preparer, according to a police report. Latina Harris said someone broke into a residence at 412 Cleveland St. in Laurinburg, and stole eight filing cabinets full of information left over from when her mother, Ester Gaino, prepared taxes….
Author: Dissent
CT: Unions Say Hartford Hospital Violated Privacy Rights
Matthew Sturdevant reports: The unions for state employees say Hartford Hospital violated the privacy rights of union members when it wrote letters to them regarding bitter negotiations with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the state’s largest health insurer. The hospital wrote to patients “in an effort to use them for leverage in contentious negotiations,”…
CT: U. Conn addresses security breach
Amy McDavitt reports: A recent security breach on the Storrs campus revealed a list of former students’ names and Social Security numbers and made them available on the Internet. The university was made aware of the situation Oct. 4 after one of the individuals on the list discovered it and alerted university officials, according to…
AZ: 128 Valley patients have medical identity stolen
Jennifer Parks reports: … Department of Insurance investigators say an Armenian mob ring somehow stole 128 different patients’ records from the Minor family clinic in Phoenix and then started operating an insurance fraud scheme out of vacant office buildings. Investigators say 23-year-old Gevorg Melkonyan of Glendale, Calif. and 44-year old Elina Arutyunova of Phoenix set up…
Credit card ‘flash attack’ steals up to $500,000 a month
Dan Goodin reports: Credit card fraudsters may have pocketed as much as $500,000 over the past month by pursuing a new type of attack that exploits a major blind spot in payment processors’ defenses, an analyst said. The “flash attacks” recruit hundreds of money mules who go to ATMs throughout the US and almost simultaneously…
Feds Seek Input on PHR Privacy
From Health Data Management: The Department of Health and Human Services and Federal Trade Commission will hold a day-long roundtable discussion on Dec. 3 at FTC headquarters in Washington to solicit industry input on privacy and security requirements for personal health records and related service providers. Read more here.