Following what appears to be a pretty well-established pattern by now, Maine’s Supreme Court has dealt victims of the Hannaford Bros. breach what will likely be the final blow, telling them that they cannot sue unless they have suffered unreimbursed financial losses, physical harm or identity theft. In their opinion, they state: We, therefore, are…
Author: Dissent
WI: Man Facing 27 Charges for Allegedly Spying on ATM to Steal ID’s
Here’s a case where a would-be thief took the low-tech route and used binoculars to spy on ATM transactions instead of a skimmer: A Racine County man is accused of spying on ATM customers with binoculars, and then using ID numbers to grab money from their bank accounts. 33-year-old Thomas Kasprovich of Mount Pleasant is…
Preventing Data Breaches: Lessons From Higher Education
Alex Rothacker writes: Since 2008, higher education institutions have experienced a staggering 158 data breaches resulting in over 2.3 million reported records compromised. In 2009 alone there were 57 reported data breaches, and year to date through July of 2010, there have already been 32 breaches. Considering that most breaches are not reported until well…
Disbarred Lawyer Sentenced to Federal Prison for Identity Theft
United States Attorney Bill Nettles stated that John Mark Marino, formerly known as Ronald Mark Hunter, age 71, of Del Ray Beach, Florida, was sentenced today to serve two years in federal prison. The sentence was handed down by United States District Judge Henry F. Floyd. Judge Floyd also ordered that at the conclusion of…
Pointer: Over 23,000 patients notified in three breaches reported to HHS
In addition to a LabCorp breach where we do not have a lot of information other than 507 patients were notified of theft of paper records with their PHI, I also just posted three other newly revealed breaches over on PHIprivacy.net that resulted in over 23,000 patients being notified. You can read about those…
VA employee hoarded stacks of patient-related info at home
Sandra Yin reports on recent VA disclosures of breaches. I had covered the August report here, but her coverage makes some interesting points; Paper is much more problematic than electronic data, according to Veterans Affairs CIO Roger Baker. [which is why all state and federal mandatory disclosure laws should include paper records — Dissent!] Here’s…