Peter Griffiths of Reuters reports: Britain’s privacy watchdog said on Tuesday it will investigate reports that hackers broke into a law firm’s computers and leaked the details of thousands of Sky broadband customers alleged to have shared pornographic films. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said it would check whether London-based ACS:Law breached the Data Protection…
Author: Dissent
UK: Thousands more exposed on ACS:Law file-sharing lists
Daniel Emery reports that the number of people affected by the ACS:Law breach is rising: The personal details of a further 8,000 people alleged to have shared music or films illegally have appeared online. A list of more than 8,000 Sky broadband subscribers and a second of 400 PlusNet users surfaced following a security breach…
Ca: Vets ombudsman asks for privacy probe after personal information accessed
Murray Brewster reports: Canada’s Veteran’s ombudsman says he’s asking the country’s privacy watchdog to investigate why his Veterans Affairs file was access hundreds of times. Pat Stogran says he believes private information in those records may have been inappropriately used, much like what happened to another outspoken critic of the department. Sean Bruyea, who prior…
Update: NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center breach
Anemona Hartocollis of the New York Times answers one of the questions I had about the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center breach. Citing a hospital spokesperson, she writes: The mistake was found in early July, after a relative of a patient found information from that patient on the Internet and told the hospital about it. The…
Information for Thousands of Columbia University Medical Center Patients on Internet (updated)
MyFoxNY reports: Personal information — including names and some clinical data — of thousands of patients at Columbia University Medical Center ended up freely visible on the Internet, Columbia and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital have confirmed. The information on 6,800 patients was “inadvertently” placed on a server, hospital officials reported. But whose server? Were the data posted to one of…
Designing an Insecure Internet
Julian Sanchez also responds to the morning’s biggest story: If there were any doubt that the 90s are back in style, witness the Obama administration’s attempt to reignite the Crypto Wars by seeking legislation that would force Internet services to redesign their networks and products to provide a centralized mechanism for decrypting user communications. It cannot be stressed…