Darren Pauli reports: Security breaches resulting in the loss of personal data have almost halved this year compared with 2009 figures, according to Microsoft. While theft, loss of equipment and reckless data disposal still account for the lion’s share of data breaches, total incidents have fallen by some 46 percent in the first half of 2010 compared…
Author: Dissent
Proposed S.3898 Amendment to the Electronic Fund Transfer Act Would Shift Risk of Loss to Banks
Richard L. Santalesa writes: Just a step below widows and orphans on the sympathy scale, at least when it comes to ripoffs and theft, sit school districts, boards and local municipalities. And in a era of tight budgets, when school districts are robbed of tax monies from halfway around the world via ACH/wire fraud, state…
Coming soon to your pharmacy: Police accessing your prescription records
From The Associated Press: Starting next year, dozens of states will begin knitting together databases to watch prescription drug abuse, from powerful painkillers to diet pills. With federal money and prodding, states are being asked to sign onto an agreement allowing police, pharmacies and physicians to check suspicious prescription pill patterns from Nevada to North…
HHS covets role as 'data sugar daddy' to app developers
Mary Mosquera reports: The Health & Human Services Department plans in December to release significantly more health-related data to spur commercial development of new software applications designed to help patients, providers and policymakers make better health care decisions. National, state and county health performance data sets will be made available via the Internet to HHS’s…
Credit Union employee who wanted to fund son’s death row appeal indicted for ID theft
What some mothers won’t do for their kids. A credit union employee and the mother of a death row inmate, was indicted Thursday tor stealing customer’s credit information to take out loans in their names. The Secret Service told WFTV Nazreen Mohammed was using the money to finance her son Dane Abdool’s defense. Mohammed is…
Former MedAssets employee sentenced to 15 years in University of Texas Medical Branch breach
This is a follow-up to the University of Texas Medical Branch breach previously reported here and here. United States Attorney John E. Murphy announced that in Waco, 34-year-old Katina Candrick of LaGrange, Texas, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $163,185.19 restitution for unlawful possession of fraudulent identification documents and…